
Act as an adviser to manage a client’s portfolio through a structured process. Write an investment policy statement, then fund, implement, and continuously review the investment strategy while monitoring performance.
Define the investment policy statement by outlining objectives and constraints, quantifying absolute or relative returns with alpha, and aligning risk with investor ability and willingness.
Explain asset allocation and distinguish strategic asset allocation—long-term, e.g., 60% equity, 30% debt, 10% alternatives such as commodities and real estate—from tactical short-term shifts; emphasize risk budgeting.
Discover how pooled investment products like mutual funds and ETFs invest small investors’ money across equities, bonds, money market funds, and other assets.
Analyze covariance and correlation of portfolio returns, compute standard deviation, and understand how diversification reduces risk when assets move together or in opposite directions, or are uncorrelated.
Explore how portfolio risk varies with correlation, demonstrating diversification lowers risk and moves portfolios toward the efficient frontier. Learn how risk levels shape selection of the most efficient portfolios.
Explore how investors use indifference curves to judge risk vs. return. Relate risk aversion and risk seeking to the efficient frontier and the capital allocation line.
Explore combining risky and risk-free assets to shape portfolio return and risk using the standard deviation. Differentiate systematic from unsystematic risk; diversification reduces unsystematic risk, and beta measures market sensitivity.
Explore the securities market line and its CAPM-based expected return, highlighting beta as systematic risk and the shift from total risk, as seen in the capital market line.
Identify mispriced securities by comparing forecasted returns to required returns, then buy undervalued stocks and short overvalued ones, while assessing risk with Sharpe ratio and Jensen's alpha.
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Who takes the CFA exams?
The CFA charter is an elite designation. It is considered the gold standard within the investment profession, and its typical candidates include fund managers, analysts, investment bankers, portfolio managers and traders. The designation is career-enhancing, well respected, credible, globally recognised and globally relevant.
What does the Level I Portfolio Management curriculum cover?
How does the Level I exam work?
The Level I exam is held twice a year, in June and December, at a number of test centres around the globe. At Level I, the exam consists of two 3-hour multiple choice papers, each containing 120 questions, which are both taken on the same day. The exams are administered by CFA Institute, the leading global association of investment professionals, who recommend candidates spend a minimum of 300 hours preparing for each Level.