Gary

[Gary]

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@Marc
If you like the film try getting hold of the book, it has so much more in it than the film i can’t believe how much he went through its a truly inspiring story

[Gary]

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@Sophie yeah i couldn’t decide what was the next step for me so became a contractor and have worked for Financial services firms, charities and construction firms its nice and varied but also means a lot to take in at the start of each contract.

Private Equity is a strange beast which involves lots of dealing with fund managers, solicitors and company secretaries each have their own “Quirks” Flicking through the private equity reading has brought a lot of it screaming back. It does have its perks and its interesting to see how the money raised is used to grow the company. Unfortunately it is a very risky area and you see a lot of companies fail. But on the other side when companies succeed they make a very nice profit.

[Gary]

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@TonyPetrunin in Private equity is a varied beast across the globe but generally you’ll find the companies are really small, unless your in a global mega fund. The analysis is totally different as well you look into everything in the company so processes, structures and potential to make significant returns. While it can be interesting it can also be very daunting you need to essentially become an expert in a sector or be able to build relationships with sector experts and get them to explain every detail to you (Not always the easiest thing).
The Firm i worked at was very small and had the senior advisers who were the ones who were responsible for a lot of the picking of investments along with our corporate advisers. Then the more junior advisers would have to identify the suitability of the investments for their clients. This is slightly different from some of the other private equity firms out there. Most of the senior guys came from a corporate finance or accounting background as a lot of the work is accounts based.

Probably the biggest myth is that its a licence to make money it is a tough investment type and takes a long time to build to make the serious deals. I work as an adviser during the worst part of the financial downturn in the UK so confidence in any investment was low and as i previously mentioned there were a lot of unsavory firms who were claiming to be selling PE and IPO shares but they were essentially boiler rooms and junk shares. I think i put in 60 hour weeks trying to build relationships and find suitable clients this lead my managers to offer me a back office role as they could see the potential but knew that I was a few weeks away from burning out.

My reasons for CFA is really to be able to offer full investment advice for my clients rather than one small part of their portfolio

[Gary]

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I would go with Pursuit of Happyness, It helps remind me that while studying may kill my social life it is nothing compared to what Chris Gardner had to go through to get where he is now

[Gary]

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@sophie is right, the portfolio would still remain the same balance of 40/60 but the larger value of investment would mean the 7.6% return on the 150% of the initial value would be closer to 10% of the original value of the investment.

[Gary]

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is it wrong that i’m looking at them and thinking whether they violate the codes of ethics?

[Gary]

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@Channing_cox has said it already but on those calculation I think of it as a transaction. The PV is what you pay so on a balance sheet its a negative. The FV is your return so on a balance sheet it would be positive.

From the other side if PV was positive then it would be money you are receiving ie a loan and the FV would be negative because you would have to pay it back with interest.

[Gary]

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Hi @Tonypetrunin I too am taking CFA Level 1 in December.

I started my study last night as i am waiting on my Books from CFA, I am using the CFA online Portal. yesterday i watched some video recordings of their introduction course which covered each of the sections briefly and gave a good introduction to the calculator.

My Plan is like yours I’m aiming for about an hour each night and a couple of hours one day of the weekend.

The 7City portal resets in June (as an early sign up they are giving me access to current portal) so will up my study then to about 2 hours a night. In my head an hour to an hour and a half reading and watching videos then 45 minutes of practice questions.

I’m allowing plenty of time to get practice questions done.Haven’t decided which topic to start with so may just follow the CFA reading order

[Gary]

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Im a bit of a mixed role. Initially i worked in Private equity as an advisor working my way up to senior management. Unfortunately private equity in the UK had some unsavory firms miss-selling so the whole sector got tarred with the same brush. Since then i have been working as a business change analyst for any company that needs my services

[Gary]

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Hi Everyone, Just signed up for Level 1 Exam Dec 2013, I have a background in Investments so hopefully can share some thoughts and tips with everyone here at 300hours

[Gary]

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@Reena
Definately the book gives you a better feel for his life, I watched the film first too but when i read the book i couldn’t put it down. I think i read it in two days and nearly missed my stop on the train because of it

[Gary]

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@Ryshi
That is brilliant, i now have an image of three cows burnt into my CFA memory for some reason the second cow is wearing a very small cap.
@Diya
Maybe we should start a discussion on the most interesting ways we use to Memorise components of CFA

[Gary]

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Brilliant Blog @Marc i too remember buying music in physical form. I also vaguely remember that behind the monster pile of CFA books i have actual books that i used to read, you know for Fun (I’m slightly concerned as I do find all the CFA books fun too, but apparently i’m not allowed to take them on holiday with me as that would be sad)

Ps Beethoven is still dead (The composer, not the dog although that was a long time ago to so i guess the original statment stands,which in itself is quite a sad thought) and hasn’t done a tupac and released more music. It is however very likely that the #1 spot is held by some preteen with a limited vocabulary and baggy pants.

[Gary]

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@Sophie Not a clue yet have some options on the table. Possibly Fund management or wealth management hoping that studying CFA will highlight a topic I can’t get enough of then will look to follow that path.

[Gary]

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@marc “Time theft” now you’ve made it sound wrong I strangely feel compelled to do it as often as possible.

[Gary]

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I like to think of it as an “enhancement break”

[Gary]

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@dannimac Welcome to the forum i too am sitting the exam in december.
I got my materials pretty quick once i registered so you can begin the fun very soon. If you go to the 7city website you can trial their portal it has a virtual classroom session on quantitative method if you want to get started sooner

[Gary]

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Thanks @Sophie I am sitting the Level 1 in December thought i’d start early. Some of it is familiar but i don’t want to get too complacent .

Ps Love that Animated Gif i may have to borrow for work

[Gary]

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I learnt the hard way of the perils of learning while listening to music, During my GCSE (UK high school exams) i decided studying in silence was to boring so turned on the radio. It gave me a small boost in focus or so i thought.

During one of my final Spanish exams while trying to recall some of the vocabulary i learnt on that faithful study session my brain came back with the tune to LL Cool J’s Phenomenon (This was not a current song at the time, but an earworm non the less) nonstop for the final hour of the exam.

Since then i have learnt my lesson and will only listen to classical music or some smooth Jazz. I dread to think what rubbish might come on the radio now days which might decide to burrow into my brain. (If i fail I blame Beiber)

[Gary]

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@Mcricky i too am a naughty worker and sneak study into my day. Its amazing how fascinating the Ethics chapters become when i’m at work.
so glad i have the ebooks makes it so much easier to hide on my desktop

[Author]

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