I have a choice, recently I have been thinking of the possible routes to upgrade myself. Many of my friends have been uping up courses or certification such as CFA, CPA, CAIA.
So in a moment of fire, I borrow the used books from my friends to see which are the ones that interest me caused I was also planning to take up certification. So I narrowed down to 2. CFA or CAIA. Which one should I take, both cost quite a bit of sum and most importantly they takes up a bulk of my time.
After begin in school for so long…
Primary school – 6 years
Secondary School – 5 years
Poly – 3 years
and finally University – 3.5 years
Do I really want to hit back to the books again? since I just graduated in Dec 2009. So I been thinking and pondering should I take CFA or should I take CAIA.
Which is better? if you do a search online with “which is better CFA or CAIA” you will have tons of answers.. which is good or which is better, or which one you should take first. So I decided to do up a comparison chart to help me in my decision process.
| CFA level 1 | CAIA level 1 |
| Currently from my financial perspective it is slightly cheaper as compared to CAIA | More expensive |
| Passing Rates – CFA is well known for its low passing rate thus allowing it to be the Gold Standard of Finance | Compared to CFA, CAIA is much younger thus only as “powerful” as CFA despite it growing presence |
| Amount of time spend – CFA have much more quantitative details that I believe for me required much more time to understand. Moreover I am very much into sports …the key question here is to ask if I am willing to give up my time for CFA in turn for a better career perhaps? | I am not saying that CAIA required less time but I find CAIA content much easier to absorbed , maybe it is due to the way the study guide are constructed or because there are more strategy related topics. Eg, convertible arbitrage hedge fund (how it work and all) it is much more interesting and since there are more hedge funds moving into Singapore now. |
| 3 papers for CFA | 2 papers for CAIA |
| Should I take it this Dec or Next Jun – if it is this DEC I have only 3 months to study. Do I have enough time with my current work commitment plus I have to forgo training/ running | If I am taking CAIA, my plan is to complete it on 2011. Thus maybe it will help give me an better opportunity |
| Learning materials, CFA is widely available online | While for CAIA I have to spend more and the texts changes every term thus it may not be helpful if used the old materials from my friends |
But the last and most important to ask myself is am I taking this because I have a interest in this or am I doing it because all of my friends are doing it?
hmmm I will soon have an answers.
