Good morning readers, and happy Columbus Day!  While equities are trading, most bankers like myself are enjoying the day off.  And what better way to "enjoy" the day off than study for the CFA!

My first post was rather short, so I'd like to take the time to give a bit of background on my situation.  I took and passed Level I in December 2010.  Upon learning of my success, I promptly began studying for Level II in late February.  It gave me a little over three months to cram.  For some people, this is the norm, but after failing Level II in June 2011, I came to the realization that I am not one of those people.  With the short deadline to digest the material, tensions were high.  My girlfriend at the time began to despise the mention of CFA.  It was my best effort, but not good enough.

CFA Level II Take Two

Over the weekend, the Chicago Marathon took runners past my condo.  It reminded me that this CFA thing... it's a marathon, not a sprint.  I'm putting my money on a new strategy: starting earlier and using Allen Resources materials for my preparation.

In all marathons, runners must stretch before they swagger up to the starting line.  My stretching was reviewing the Quantitative Methods video from Allen.  This section on the exam absolutely slaughtered me last time.  I've never been good at stats, so I figure this is the best place to start.  The video was helpful, and provided a great refresher on the basics of statistics.

Today, I pulled out Volume 1 and tackled Correlation Analysis.  While it's not the most intense topic, it was good to get the juices flowing.  It's CFA time!  The marathon has begun.