NYSSA Events experience, building, provided, taken, those

chetan86

Can anyone provide feedback on the NYSSA/CFAI classes on "Basic Financial Modeling and DCF Analysis" and "Integrated Financial Modeling Core Model?" The classes are provided by Wall St. Training. I'm a charterholder and have some experience building models so I don't want to take the classes if they would not be beneficial. For those of you who have taken the classes, how in-depth were they and do you feel they were worthwhile?

Windjam

They're ok if you haven't done that stuff before. However, you can get pretty much the same courses recorded and streamed by video direct from their website. This is better because you can go through the stuff at a slower pace and review the stuff that you didn't quite catch the first time.

Also, I find the guy kind of annoying. When I was first coming to the industry, I did the core valuation course and felt blown away by how much he seemed to know and I felt intimidated. Later I listened to him do a course on reading a 10-K (as a macro guy, I don't do this very often, and figured it would be helpful to have someone walk me through it), and thought "wow, this guy says a lot of BS solely for the sake of looking informed." Really, he actually says that he likes to make stuff up off the top of his head and quote percentages down to the basis point just to make others think he really knows more than he does. I guess that's what Banker training is all about.

The videos get rid of the BS factor (though keep the silly jokes) and are better.

I took his Excel video course, and it was really helpful. The modeling stuff was also somewhat helpful (I did it a long time ago) so that you know what parts of the analysis come from CFA-type material and what parts are just assumptions like "let's assume that margins and revenues keep trending the way they do".

mamuka12

bchadwick - feedback much appreciated. Anyone else attended classes by Wall St. Training? Opinions?