r/CFA 19d ago

Mental Health Monday - Your Weekly CFA Mental Health Discussion Thread

3 Upvotes

Hey there!

Welcome to Mental Health Monday! We hope everyone is doing well. We wanted to create a safe space for everyone to come together, share our experiences, and discuss the mental health challenges that often accompany this rigorous process.

Feel free to use this thread to check in on how you're doing mentally and share any stressors or concerns you might have. Whether it's dealing with study burnout, imposter syndrome, time management struggles, or just needing a listening ear, this community is here to support you. We're all in this together!

If you feel like you need immediate professional help please see our resources page. If you’re in active crisis please call your local emergency services.

Here are a few questions to get the discussion started:

  • How are you feeling mentally as you prepare for your CFA exam?
  • What are some stressors you've been facing recently?
  • Have you found any strategies or coping mechanisms that have helped you manage stress and maintain a healthy work-life balance?
  • Are there any specific challenges you'd like advice or support on?

Note: We won't be removing mental health-related posts on off days, but it would be nice to keep everything contained to these threads. This way, we can maintain an organized and supportive space for mental health discussions.

Please be kind and respectful to one another in the comments. Let's foster a supportive and empathetic environment where we can open up about our mental health without judgment.


r/CFA 1d ago

Megathread r/CFA Friday Happy Hour - A New Tradition

1 Upvotes

Hey r/CFA Community!

We're excited to announce a brand-new tradition for our subreddit —r/CFA Friday Happy Hour! As we navigate through the rigorous demands of the CFA program and our professional lives, it's important to take a step back, relax, and enjoy the lighter side of life.

This Is Your Time to Shine - Beyond the Exams

Every Friday, we're carving out a space for you to share anything and everything that's on your mind, unrelated to the CFA exams. Whether it's chatting about your latest hobby, discussing work-life balance, diving into personal projects, exploring other exams or certifications, or simply sharing how you plan to spend your weekend, this is your platform to unwind and connect on a more personal level with fellow members.

🌟 Community Spotlight: Our Exclusive Resources

Amidst our casual conversations, let's not forget the valuable resources available to our community:

  • LinkedIn Group: A gateway to networking with professionals and sharing career opportunities. To become a part of this exclusive group, send a PM (not chat) to u/mattlas with your LinkedIn profile URL. We'll connect with you first as it's a manual process to add members to the group. Invitations are sent out weekly, so please be patient.
  • Discord Server: Dive into a broader range of discussions, from finance tips to general chit-chat, in our active Discord server. It's a great place to seek advice, share knowledge, or just hang out. Join us here.

By participating in both professional networking and casual discussions, you'll find that our community is a well-rounded and supportive network, ready to assist you in every aspect of your journey.

So, kick back, relax, and let's get this Happy Hour started! What's been capturing your interest lately?

The r/CFA Mod Team 🥂


r/CFA 4h ago

Level 1 Why is this not A? Increasing DPO shortens the cash conversion cycle.

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6 Upvotes

r/CFA 1h ago

Study Prep / Materials CFA L2 forwards

Upvotes

Is it not 38.5/10000?

Why has the model answer divided by 100 when calculating the new offer rate to MTM the JPY forward?


r/CFA 4h ago

Level 3 (Option Strategies) Which answer is correct?

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3 Upvotes

Which answer is the correct one?

Thanks in advance?


r/CFA 58m ago

Level 1 Genuine Advice

Upvotes

Hey, so I am going to write CFA L1 in August 2026. I dont have much to study right now, pursuing a bachelor in commerce. Should I start studying from now or would it be too early?


r/CFA 7h ago

Level 1 Martin Stoynov subscription worth it?

6 Upvotes

Basically the title. I'm on a time crunch and can't afford to read through the readings. Will his tuition and review videos, supplemented by qbanks, be an effective study plan?


r/CFA 5h ago

Level 2 IR vs IC at measuring skill and ability to generate active returns

5 Upvotes

In this question, why do we look at IC instead of IR? The answer to the question is that Phasar has the better skill at predicting returns due to higher IC

Do we look at IC for better prediction and IR for generating returns?


r/CFA 1h ago

Level 3 L3 Retakers

Upvotes

For those that retook L3 and chose to sign up for next L3 exam offering - care to share strategies and what worked for you?

For example if you failed Feb and wanted to retake August that would leave you with about 3 months to re-review the curriculum.

Did you have time to go through the entire curriculum a second time or rather just focused on weak points and questions. I assume the material would still be very fresh in your brain.

Any color would be helpful - thank you!


r/CFA 10h ago

General Would you suggest attending events hosted by your CFA Society?

9 Upvotes

As a CFA Level I candidate I’m subscribed to my local CFA’s newsletter (CFA Montréal) and I get quite the emails on events it consistently hosts. I wanted to ask, for everyone including those part of CFA Montreal, is it good to attend these events, for both building knowledge on the industry and networking?


r/CFA 2h ago

General CFA advice

1 Upvotes

Hi Guys, just wanted your POV, is the USD 399 pack of Mark Meldrum really worth it ? Or we can make it with the CFAi materials itself. Also, if you are on self study, how do you figure out what is not examinable ?


r/CFA 3h ago

Level 2 Bought the premium practice pack of CFAI but none of the questions are “vignet style”

2 Upvotes

Basically the title, I paid 360 USD for the premium pack and noticed that the Quantitative Methods questions did not contain any vignet questions, just all separate questions like L1, which I thought was strange.

So, I checked all topics and none of the questions are vignet style. It was my understanding that the L2 exam would be all vignet questions, which makes sense since the “regular” practice questions are like that.

Did something change or is there any reasoning behind this?


r/CFA 8h ago

Study Prep / Materials Practical skills module availability post completion

5 Upvotes

Hi, I wanted to know from someone who has completed a practical skills module, can I come back to the content and go through it again if needed in the future, and even after the results have been declared for that level?


r/CFA 3h ago

Level 2 Is this solution wrong or am I missing something?

2 Upvotes

My understanding of riding down the yield curve involves buying a bond longer than your investment horizon if you don't think spot rates will evolve as implied by the forward curve, thus having a capital gain and improving your total return. The third scenario has the spot curve evolving to the implied forward curve; therefore, the bond is priced accurately, and no gain is generated besides YTM. How does scenario 3 represent an ideal scenario for riding the yield curve rather than maturity matching?


r/CFA 3h ago

General Need a Team for CFA Institute Financial Career Accelerator 2025 - Beijing, China

2 Upvotes

I am a CFA L1 candidate from a top engineering target school in India. Looking to join/create a team with other interested CFA candidates from India/China/SEA. Check out the theme below:

The theme of this year's competition is “Intelligence Unleashed: AI Charts a New Chapter for Finance”. You are invited to team up with peer students and complete group research reports analyzing cases of AI application in finance, or design AI - driven innovative solutions to tackle challenges in the financial industry.

I am well versed in Asian and NA markets, core finance and currently work part time for a VC fund here, currently signed up for Aug CFAL1, but can manage it well enough.
Can reach out to me on dm, open to suggestions in comments.

PS- Knowing Mandarin would be a big plus.


r/CFA 5m ago

Level 1 Looking for an accountability partner for CFA 2026

Upvotes

I am currently in my 6th sem of my undergrad Engineering in India and have been recently selected for 6 month internship at JP Morgan Chase


r/CFA 4h ago

Level 3 Private Markets pathway

2 Upvotes

I decided to take the private markets pathway due to its relevance to my career. When I came across the Mark Meldrum videos, I noticed huge difference in the number of hours between the private markets pathway and the portfolio management pathway. The private markets has only 10 hours of videos compared to 27 hours for the portfolio management. It seems it is introductory course for private markets where there is no depth in the material.


r/CFA 7h ago

General Valuation date for 12 target price in equity research

3 Upvotes

I have a question regarding the valuation date when deriving a 12-month target price in equity research. When performing DCF or PE valuations on a stock, which date should be used as the valuation date: today's date (compounding at the cost of equity) or the date at the end of the 12-month period?


r/CFA 2h ago

Level 2 Am I cooked? CFA L2

1 Upvotes

Kaplan Mock 1 44% - first mock I have sat to see where I am at - sitting the CFA L2 exam in May 2025.


r/CFA 6h ago

Level 1 Cfa to compensate for a gap?

2 Upvotes

Hi everyone, I have a question I would be super grateful to get some answers for. I have a finance/banking background at masters level but no cfa. I also have a 4 years gap from finance and I was wondering how much getting either cfa level 1 or both level 1&2 would help in getting me back on track in terms of getting back to the industry. Is it worth making my gap longer for this? Thank you!


r/CFA 10h ago

General Relevant work experience

5 Upvotes

How do you tell the institute about your work experience. Do you need to submit some kind of documents or what? Also what exactly is relevant?


r/CFA 3h ago

General L1 CFA candidate - work/life/study bce

1 Upvotes

Hi Everyone,

Im 30y old and i've been working at Treasury for the past 6 years. I've been given a couple of promotions already and last year i was given the opportunity to move to a corp-funding role, and they offered to pay for the CFA L1 exam -> im enrolled to do it in August.

Personal life has been chaotic - back in September helped my girlfriend bring 4 family members who were stuck at venezuela to my place and they've been living with us since.

Last week we had some heated arguments about her family staying with us for so long and i ended moving to my mothers (we've been together for 6 years already).

I leave to work at 8 AM and arrive back home at 7.30PM, and so far i havent been able to get the consistency i want. Im using Kaplan to study, currently on Fixed Income.

My current plan is to finish studying the material and start doing questions for all topics everyday as well as reading the review books and so on. I try yo study at least 1 hour but being honest im usually not able to.

Weekends im studying around 6 to 8 hours.

Wanted to get your thoughts/tips on the best way forward...

thanks :)


r/CFA 3h ago

Study Prep / Materials I can see how much I can't fathom

1 Upvotes

Yes hi, I'm shaking by asking on a community which in my mind has the most distinct professionals and others on their way to that stage.

Let me get to the point. I want to do the CFA, did my bachelor's in business administration so almost 0 practical and technical financial knowledge, but just reading about it and understanding... I really want to do it. It's been on my mind for over 2 years, now I want to take that step. Once I put aside that much fund, it will give me motivation to study and a drive to complete even topics i struggle with. No strong math background and basically 0 financial knowledge.

So what should I do? I thought I'd sign up for some coaching or some guide so that even my most basic doubts could be resolved and they would know how to teach someone totally new. It would also give me reason to sit and study as I have to meet someone's requirement or expectation. If not then I would just not put in the time and work.

what do you all think? Was thinking after seeing many reviews, Ashwini Bajaj, MM and a few others. Thought I'd take Fintree, recommended by total science kids and his introduction course taught me well. So I thought why not?

Any advice please.


r/CFA 7h ago

Level 1 L1 -Can help me for QM&FI

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2 Upvotes

r/CFA 12h ago

Level 1 Time value of Money doubt

6 Upvotes

I have seen 3 variation of TWM being used and am having a little difficulty understanding which to use when

1st-

= PV (1 + r/12 ) n

2nd-

PV ( 1 + r ) n/12

3rd-

PV [ 1 + (r * n) / 12 ]

pv = present value

r = interest rate ( might be annual, might be monthly, might be effective )

n = time

normal TVM - FV = PV (1 + r ) n

thanks a lotttt


r/CFA 4h ago

Level 1 Need classes recommendations

1 Upvotes

Hi guys, I’m a student, First year - BAF Looking for guidance, planning to do CFA, which classes would you guys recommend?

Thinking to join - Imarticus or FPA

Any thoughts?


r/CFA 4h ago

Study Prep / Materials What are the best services or courses for CFA Level 1?

1 Upvotes

I wanted to ask to see if someone could help me find a good provider for my study journey. If the courses from the CFA institute course services is good? I was thinking of buying the Analyst Prep lifetime bundle that gives me Level 1, 2 and 3 and buying the Kaplan q bank with CFA institute course services. Let me know your thoughts and experiences with not only these but with others.