CFA Classes in mumbai

CFA Course stands for Chartered Financial Analyst. The course focuses on Financial Analysis of the Companies to determine whether the company under evaluation is good or bad.

If it is good – we will advise our clients to Buy its shares.

If it is bad – we will advise our clients to Sell its shares.

Although financial analysis lies at heart of CFA Course, that’s not all it has. It also covers various other aspects of Finance like:

1. Valuation of shares (at price of 180 Rs, shall I buy Yes Bank or shall I avoid it)

2. Valuation of Fixed Income (Shall I buy TJSB Bank FD offering 8% or SBI FD offering 7%)

3. Corporate Finance (NPV / IRR / Payback period analysis / WACC)

4. Portfolio Management (Why should I not put all my money in one share / Benefits of diversification)

Please understand that – Field of Commerce consists of 3 basic things:

1. 1. Making the Financial Reports
2. 2. Detection of any errors (intentional / unintentional)
3. 3. Analyzing the Financial Reports

CA Course focuses on how to make the Financial Reports of a company which is called as Accounting. CA course also focuses on how to verify the accuracy of Financial Reports of a company which is called Auditing & CFA course focuses on analyzing the Financial Reports of the company to come to a conclusion – whether the company is good or bad.

CA course covers following aspects:

1. 1. Accounts
2. 2. Tax
3. 3. Audit
4. 4. Law
5. 5. IT
6. 6. Finance

To pass CA course, being “Good in Finance” is just not good. You have to be good in Audit / Tax / Law / IT. You need to clear every subject to pass CA Course (even though you may not have an interest in it)

To pass CA course, being “Good in Finance” is just not good. You have to be good in Audit / Tax / Law / IT. You need to clear every subject to pass CA Course (even though you may not have an interest in it)

CFA focuses exclusively on Finance and its all aspects like:

1. 1. Financial Report Analysis
2. 2. Equity Investment Analysis
3. 3. Bond Analysis
4. 4. Futures & Options
5. 5. Commodities Analysis
6. 6. Corporate Finance
7. 7. Portfolio Management

So, liking and hard core interest in finance is the key to succeed the CFA Examinations. To see if you have liking in Finance field – you can take our -   Level 0 Test of Finance

Second difference between CA Course & CFA Course:

CA Course is huge in volume. So is CFA Course. However the major difference between these 2 exams is about paper pattern.

CA course has subjective questions which tests your byhearting power of brain whereas CFA course having objective questions tests your understanding skills. Let’s see an example.

CA exam will ask you question like – “Explain Expansionary Fiscal Policy” (10 Marks) CFA exam will ask you question on the same concept in objective format like -- In case India is undergoing recession, Government would follow which Fiscal policy:

1. 1. Expansionary Fiscal policy
2. 2. Restrictive Fiscal Policy
3. 3. Neutral Fiscal policy

It means that you have to understand the concept of fiscal policy in CFA exam. Just byhearting few points related to it won’t be good enough.

Third difference between CA Course & CFA Course:

Unlike CA exam, CFA doesn’t have subject wise cut-off. It’s the overall score that matters for the result and not the score in each individual subject. So even if you don’t like subject like say (Quants), you still would be able to clear all levels of CFA by getting good score in other 9 subjects.

Main Subject:

1. Financial Reporting & Analysis

Investment related subjects:

1. 1. Equity Investment Analysis
2. 2. Bond Analysis
3. 3. Futures & Options
4. 4. Alternative Investment Analysis (Commodities / Real Estate)

Application based subjects:

1. 1. Corporate Finance
2. 2. Portfolio Management

Basic subjects:

1. 1. Economics
2. 2. Ethics
3. 3. Quantitative Techniques

Lets first look at general differences between CFA and MBA (Finance):

1. 1. MBA focuses on Operations, Marketing, HR & Finance whereas CFA focuses exclusively on Finance (but to a greater depth).
2. 2. The depth of financial knowledge covered in CFA is much more intense as compared to what is covered in MBA colleges.
3. 3. MBA teaches you soft skills and financial concepts both whereas CFA exclusively focuses on Finance (but all dimensions of it).

So, if you are looking to make career in a role which requires intense use of financial analysis skills -- CFA would be a better option.

If you are looking to make career in a role which requires more use of soft skills (making ppts, marketing of financial products) – we advise you to go for MBA.

Role of CFA to get admission into MBA colleges:

Scoring decent score in entrance exams (like CAT / CET) is just one of the requirements of getting into the dream MBA College. Apart from the decent score in entrance exam, you need to have strong resume showcasing the academic achievements / professional achievements.

It has been seen that CFA plays major role here. Many IIMs are shortlisting candidates based on the professional courses taken. Once again the CFA stands highest value amongst all the professional exams in Finance.

This is very important especially for freshers during interview round as they don’t have a work experience to speak about on resume. So having CFA on resume would help the candidate to streamline the interview towards finance questions covering up for not having work experience.

Role of CFA to get placement when a student is already into an MBA college:

In MBA colleges, for placement screening, companies shortlist the students based on their 1st year MBA Marks, graduation marks and overall educational qualifications. Once again it has been seen here that recently many core finance companies (majorly equity research companies and Investment Banks) are using CFA as one of the shortlisting criteria and hence increasing number of MBA students are taking the CFA Course.

Well our Lead Faculty (Mr. Rajaram Kamat) is also an Electronics Engineer. Although he has done MBA (Finance) and CFA post engineering, he is from core engineering background.

Please understand that – Field of Commerce consists of 3 basic things:

1. Making the Financial Reports

2. Verifying the Financial Reports

3. Analyzing the Financial Reports

Task 1 (Making the Financial Reports) is job of Accountant.

Task 2 (Verifying the Financial Reports) is job of Auditor.

Task 3 (Analyzing the Financial Reports) is a job of CFA Charterholder

As an Engineer, you have an edge over other candidates when it comes to Analysis of Financial Statements. Yes currently you don’t know PL/ BS / CF (or even their full forms may be), but once you get hands on them, you would have a significant edge over other candidates.

To impart the basic things about Financial Reports, we conduct “Introduction to Accounts for Non Commerce Students” sessions often.   Here is the video recording of the same.Keep following our website to know when the next session would be conducted.

Although Maths has only 12% weightage in CFA Level 1 exam, we have seen a general phobia in the minds of Commerce students regarding Maths. We tried to understand the reasoning behind such phobia about Maths. We came to following general conclusions:

Following are genuinely tough topics of Maths:

1. Integration & Derivatives

2. Limits

3. Matrices

4. Determinants

5. Geometry (to an extent)

6. Probability Concepts

Now, when we compare these difficult topics of Maths with what is “Maths in CFA”, you would be surprised (positively) to know that out of above mentioned difficult topics only Probability is included in CFA course. Moreover, the probability consists of a single chapter and is considered at very basic level.

Maths in CFA Level 1 considers topics like:

1. Simple Interest rate v/s Compounded interest rate

2. Concept of Time Value of Money

3. Concept of Discounted Cash Flow

4. Mean ( Arithmetic, Geometric, harmonic), Mode, Median

Yes, we understand that -- as a commerce student, you have not been required to study Maths in depth and hence that could be a reason for overall phobia towards Maths. However, as stated above, be rest assured that Maths is not being covered in depth. Maths can be very well handled by Commerce students.

To impart the basic things about Maths, we conduct“Introduction to Maths for Commerce Students”sessions often. Keep following our website to know when the next session would be conducted.

And interestingly, Maths has only 10% weightage in CFA Level 1 Exam.

Here we want to focus on 2 important things:

1. Even CFA Level 1 adds value to resume

Unlike other courses (like say CA), where until you clear the Final Level, the course doesn’t really add value on resume – CFA Course is an exception. The course starts adding value to resume immediately after clearing Level 1. However, the value added is quite high after clearing Level 2.

2. The background matters!!

CFA being a post-graduate course, the value of CFA on your resume is also dependent on from which field you have completed your graduation degree. Following table is an indicator of average packages that students get after completing each level of CFA:

Course	CFA Level 1	CFA Level 2	CFA Level 3
BCOM/BAF/BBI	3.50 Lakhs	5.00 Lakhs	7.00 Lakhs
BMS(Fin)/BFM	3.75 Lakhs	5.50 Lakhs	7.50 Lakhs
BE/B.Tech	4.00 Lakhs	6.00 Lakhs	8.00 Lakhs

PS – These are average packages that we have gathered from industry. Depending on your college and overall academic profile, the package that you could get be higher/lower than these.

CFA course helps you get a job in following domains::

Investment Banks	Credit Rating	Research related Firms	Broking Firms	Other places
J. P Morgan	CRISIL	Dun & Bradstreet Research	Motilal Oswal	Mutual Funds
Deutsche Bank	CARE	Morningstar	Sharekhan	Commercial banks
Bank of America		IBEF	HDFC Securities
Morgan Stanley		Equitymaster	ICICI Direct
Bank of America		IBEF	HDFC Securities
Ernst & Young		CBRE Research
Tres Vista		JLL (Jones Lang LaSalle)
E Value Serve

Although CFA is a globally recognized course, we have seen that students find it very difficult (or even close to impossible) to “directly” get a job abroad.

There are 2 ways in which you can plan to get the job abroad:

1. 1. For those who want to get a long term job abroad

If you belong to this category -- Do MS (Finance) or MBA (Finance) from a well recognized university from a country where you wish to settle down. Obviously, cost would be higher here but the returns are worth considering that cost. We strongly advise students who wish to settle abroad to first focus on getting good score on GRE / GMAT. After getting the good score in these entrance exams – you can consider doing CFA as a career booster (and yes -- it’s the best possible career booster to have on resume)

2. 2.For those who want to go abroad for short term and return back to India

If you belong to this category – we strongly advise that you work in a well recognized MNC. To get the onsite role – you need to have 2 things checked:

1. 1.Top performance at work
2. 2.Professional qualifications (once again here too -- CFA stands the highest value)

If you belong to one of the following categories ( A, B or C) – then you are qualified for CFA Exam:

You should have completed Graduation in any field / or should be in Final year of Graduation of any field (at the time of registration and not at the time of exam).

Please call Prof Rajaram Kamat (7738159445) or Ms. Pooja (8452027774) in case you are in 2nd year / 1st year

B. 4 years of Work experience:

If you don’t satisfy Criteria A, then -- You should have at least 4 years of professional work experience

C. Undergraduate education + Work experience = 4 years:

If you don’t satisfy Criteria A or B, then -- You should have a combination of professional work experience and education that totals at least 4 years. And..you need to have valid international passport for the registration.

Yes – It is compulsory to have a valid passport before you register for CFA exam.

Passport details are required to be submitted during the registration process. You have to carry the passport in original (as an ID Proof) along with the hall ticket on the day of the exam. Check the validity date of your passport too.

Please call Prof Rajaram Kamat (7738159445) or Ms. Pooja (8452027774) in case you don’t have passport but still looking for CFA.

There are 3 levels in CFA Program. Exam pattern of each Level is as under:

Course	CFA Level 1	CFA Level 2	CFA Level 3
Exam Pattern	Objective Questions	Objective Questions	Objective + Subjective Questions
No. of Objective Questions	240	120	60
Options for each question	3 ( A B C)	3 ( A B C)	3 ( A B C)
Negative Marks?	No Negative Marks	No Negative Marks	No Negative Marks
No. of Subjective Questions	None	None	60 (Answers to be written in bullet points)
Minimum Passing Score based on our experience*	Around 60%	Around 67%	Around 60%

*Official Minimum Passing Score is not disclosed by CFA Institute. There is no subject wise Minimum Passing Score.

Level 1: Conducted twice in a year (June and December of every year)

Level 2 and Level 3: Conducted only once in a year (June of every year)

Registration generally opens up 10 months before the exam date:

Course		CFA Level 1	CFA Level 2	CFA Level 3
Registration Fees		USD 450	Nil	Nil
Exam Fees	If registration is done before 9 months of exam date	USD 700	USD 700	USD 700
	If registration is done before 4 months of exam date	USD 1000	USD 1000	USD 1000
	If registration is done before 3 months of exam date	USD 1350	USD 1350	USD 1350
Minimum Total Fees		USD 1150	USD 700	USD 700

Next deadlines for the June 2020 exam:
Feb 12, 2020 -- USD 450 + USD 1000

CFA institute hasn’t yet started Dec 2020 exam registration. The same is expected to start in 1st week of February.

Registration process for CFA Exams is completely online. You have to create your account on the website of CFA Institute. Regarding the payment of fees -- there are 2 options for payment:

1. International Credit or Debit Card
2. Wired Transfer

The detailed demo of the registration process (including the mode of payment) for L1 June 20 Exam can be found Here

(We have covered the pros and cons of both methods of payments in the above link)

Number of hours required really varies from student to student. However, if we look at an average student, he/she will generally require following efforts to clear the exam:

1. Level 1: 500 Hrs
2. Level 2: 700 Hrs
3. Level 3: 600 hrs

Rajaram Kamat CFA Classes prepares you for approximately 200 hrs for each level via lectures/ tests etc.

Strictly No!!!

There are 2 reasons for it:

1. 1. Majority of candidates don’t do it full time

A survey done by a reputed agency has revealed that around 8 out of 10 guys who pass the CFA L1 Exam clear the CFA Exam along with their graduation or along with corporate life. If you choose to CFA exams on full time basis – even after clearing the exam you would be amongst those 2 out of 10 minority segment and the other 8 guys would be chosen over you as they have demonstrated their ability to simultaneously pursue both the things (College & CFA or job & CFA)

2. 2. CFA Classes on weekends

CFA Classroom coaching is mostly conducted during weekends only. During weekdays, you would be provided with daily 20 questions which you need to solve along with the topic reading. The detailed answers of those questions would be shared daily as recorded video.

So to summarize: you need to consistently study 2 – 3 hours a day for 6 months. The remaining time of the day can be effectively utilized for:

1. 1. College Studies (in case you are in College)
2. 2. Job (in case you are working)
3. 3. Studying for MBA Entrance exams (CAT / CET / GRE / GMAT)
4. 4. Internship related to Finance field (specific to industry / Company related research)

Rajaram Kamat CFA Classes offers help to place some promising students in their field of interest.