Financial Risk Manager [FRM] by GARP

Jobs & Careers
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Hi all !!

I came to know from the Laxmi Zerox guys that the new updated 2007 material will be available only at the end of May07, leaving just 5 months to study for the exam.
Hence, finally after a lot of introspection and comparison about the updated syllabus, I came to a conclusion that despite some differences in the syllabus of 06 and 07 exams, it all boils down to a few extra readings in the newer one and that neither the topic weightage has been changed nor any topic has been removed vis--vis the 2006 syllabus.
Hence I ordered the 2006 material from Laxmi and got it yday itself. The cost is INR1400. The set consists of 6 books consisting of past exam and practice papers.

I will now begin reading for the exam tomorrow onwards. At the onset, I feel that the material covers many topics already known to me but the section on market risk measurement and management looks a toughie. Credit/Operational risk and Investment Management look manageable too. Let me get my hands fully dirty and then I will let you know soon what the game is like !

Keep posting and giving your updates junta !
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Hi all !!
I came to know from the Laxmi Zerox guys that the new updated 2007 material will be available only at the end of May07, leaving just 5 months to study for the exam.
Hence, finally after a lot of introspection and comparison about the updated syllabus, I came to a conclusion that despite some differences in the syllabus of 06 and 07 exams, it all boils down to a few extra readings in the newer one and that neither the topic weightage has been changed nor any topic has been removed vis--vis the 2006 syllabus.
Hence I ordered the 2006 material from Laxmi and got it yday itself. The cost is INR1400. The set consists of 6 books consisting of past exam and practice papers.
Keep posting and giving your updates junta !


good idea...i think its waste of time to wait till end of may for the notes...hardly 5% of the syllabus must have changed. So how do you plan to study for the new topics in the 2007 syllabus? Will you again purchase fresh 2007 material at the end of may? Is Schweser sufficient to clear the FRM or do you need additional reference books?
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Crash_test_dummy Says
good idea...i think its waste of time to wait till end of may for the notes...hardly 5% of the syllabus must have changed. So how do you plan to study for the new topics in the 2007 syllabus? Will you again purchase fresh 2007 material at the end of may? Is Schweser sufficient to clear the FRM or do you need additional reference books?

Hi CTD.

The only way I can think of starting it is by

1. Glancing fully through the material and deciding what I know and what I dont know out of the full syllabus.

2. Time Management: Estimating how much time I will take to complete what I know (also providing a buffer since I am a working professional).

3. Estimating what I dont know and how much time I will take to complete what I dont know (buffer funda prevails here too).

4. Arriving at the total time in which I can complete the entire curriculum and also revise it once (deadline is Sept07-end).

5. Actually starting the study according to the time plan and completing the entire syllabus by September07-end.

6. Taking time off to practice the mock tests and past papers and also revising the topics that I feel the need to till the exam date.

Prima facie, I find Schweser materials really good. This opinion is based on my reading of the topics that I know from the Schweser material yday. What I plan to do is buy the CDs of additional papers and practice tests from the Laxmi Zerox ppl once the 2007 material comes through. I wont buy the whole of 2007 material.

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Hi Tumtum I have also registered for the FRM exam in Nov .
So let me know when the 2007 material comes through.I have the Level 2 Exam in June so will start my preparations only after then.

A couple of my friends who passed the exam last year were telling me that unlike the CFA exam in FRM Schewezer in not enough as they had to clear a lot of concepts from Hull and search for others on the internet.

Also the Operational and Legal risk portion is a toughie in the sense that not only it is quite boring but also has to be mugged up and has a significant weightage (25%).

Rajat

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Hi,

Anyone who has done/doing both CFA and FRM please let me know what percentage of course is similar in FRM and CFA level 1. Actually I was planning to do both CFA and FRM this year. CFA in December'07 and FRM in november'07. Please let me know whether it will be possible for me to clear both the exams at the same time considering the fact that I can dedicate 100-125 hours to studies every month.
Please let me know ASAP as I have to register for FRM at the earliest before the early registration deadline (30th April)for the exam gets over.

Thanks

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Hi,

Anyone who has done/doing both CFA and FRM please let me know what percentage of course is similar in FRM and CFA level 1. Actually I was planning to do both CFA and FRM this year. CFA in December'07 and FRM in november'07. Please let me know whether it will be possible for me to clear both the exams at the same time considering the fact that I can dedicate 100-125 hours to studies every month.
Please let me know ASAP as I have to register for FRM at the earliest before the early registration deadline (30th April)for the exam gets over.

Thanks


I would suggest not taking that route.I know of people who tried a similar thing last year and ended up flunking one of the exams.Passing these exams one at a time itself is difficult let alone two.Also giving 100-125 hours a week wont help much as you need time to assimilate and absorb the material .
There is hardly any overlap between the CFA and FRM course except may up to a little bit for the Quantitative techniques portion.Even after that I would say 90% of the topics are dissimilar.
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Hi puys,

Is ne1 aware of zerox shops in calcutta where Schweser notes(FRM) b available...

~tia
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A couple of my friends who passed the exam last year were telling me that unlike the CFA exam in FRM Schewezer in not enough as they had to clear a lot of concepts from Hull and search for others on the internet. Rajat

May I know the education and work background of your friends? did they have IB/Research/Risk Mgt background or were they graduates straight out of school or wiothout relevant work-ex? This could answer a lot of questions you see.
rajatb Says
Also the Operational and Legal risk portion is a toughie in the sense that not only it is quite boring but also has to be mugged up and has a significant weightage (25%). Rajat

I intend to thrive on it. Since I dont have a quant background (not an engg but a commerce grad), I want to make the most of muggable stuff !
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May I know the education and work background of your friends? did they have IB/Research/Risk Mgt background or were they graduates straight out of school or wiothout relevant work-ex? This could answer a lot of questions you see.



IIT Grads work ex in Quant Finance(For someone without this kind of a background I would expect it to be even tougher.Anyways these are my personal opinions it may not hold true for others.
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IIT Grads work ex in Quant Finance(For someone without this kind of a background I would expect it to be even tougher.Anyways these are my personal opinions it may not hold true for others.

Yaar Rajat,
Frankly speaking this Delta Neutral hedging and Gamma and Rho and other Greeks in derivatives are a big time irritant to many (me included). I don't think it should be a major cause of worry because if there is a letdown in 1-2 topics then Hull or Keith Redhead will supplement it. However other topics I think are discussed in a good amount of detail.
What say?
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Yaar Rajat,
Frankly speaking this Delta Neutral hedging and Gamma and Rho and other Greeks in derivatives are a big time irritant to many (me included). I dont think it should be a major cause of worry because if there is a letdown in 1-2 topics then Hull or Keith Redhead will supplement it. However other topics I think are discussed in a good amount of detail.
What say?



That's exactly what I was trying to say that unlike the CFA where you do not need to look outside Schweser in the FRM exam you will have to constantly refer to outside books ,this is not to say that Schweser is not necessary in fact it should be your primary mode of preparation just that you shouldn't expect to clear all your doubts through Schweser.
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rajatb Says
That's exactly what I was trying to say that unlike the CFA where you do not need to look outside Schweser in the FRM exam you will have to constantly refer to outside books ,this is not to say that Schweser is not necessary in fact it should be your primary mode of preparation just that you shouldn't expect to clear all your doubts through Schweser.



So in addition to schweser, will we have to buy a lot of other books? Can we work out a short list of books needed other than S and work on acquiring them asap? I have an ebook version of Hull...can share that if needed. I've noticed a lot of ebook versions of expensive books floatinf around for free on the net these days...could look it up in case we have a list of books.

TumTum, i'll be speaking to you soon man...need some serious advice coz 30th april is almost here and i dont wanna lose 150$ more!
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So in addition to schweser, will we have to buy a lot of other books? Can we work out a short list of books needed other than S and work on acquiring them asap? I have an ebook version of Hull...can share that if needed. I've noticed a lot of ebook versions of expensive books floatinf around for free on the net these days...could look it up in case we have a list of books.

TumTum, i'll be speaking to you soon man...need some serious advice coz 30th april is almost here and i dont wanna lose 150$ more!


I would suggest purchasing a hard copy of Hull.The student version available in India is not very expensive,for people in this field it is like a BIBLE.
Apart from that do not start collecting so many different books,for specific doubts it is best to use GOOGLE as you find a lot of articles on a given subject and can choose the one which you find easiest to understand.
Schweser and Hull should take care of 95% of your problems for the remaining 5% for very specific topics where you may find the explanations given in these two to be inadequate it is best to scour the web for information.
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hi guys,
i m in mumbai. i m writing frm this year. i was hoping someone can help me with study materials. i am willing to buy it in grp as mentioned by some guys here.

thanks
apurv

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A quick update guys.

After going through the Quants part of the study material, I feel that a reference to the suggested reading by Allen, Boudoukh and Saunders is imperative for understanding the EWMA and GARCH approaches. Secondly, for the probability part, referring to the book by Levin + Rubin is very important.

However, the material on Operational & Legal Risk Management (Basel II) is decent enough and makes for a good read.

More as I progress ahead in the course.
76

Since the Schweser 2007 set hasnt arrived yet, i got one of the six booklets of Schweser 2006 xeroxed from Laxmi. I'll start my prep with this one book on Market & Credit risk. It should keep me busy for 4 weeks at least. By then the 2007 set will arrive and i'll buy the whole set. I just wanted to know if starting with this book is a good idea, or should i have bought some other booklet to start with (too late for that!)? Xeroxing this one book cost me Rs.320, coz its the fattest among the six books Also took the advice on this thread and bought a hard copy of Hull...that cost another Rs.325 (not bad, compared to $165 on Amazon!!). The 2007 material is not expected to come in until 25th may...i guess ppl should just choose any topic, xerox that topic's booklet from the 2006 set, and start preparing right away instead of waiting for 25 days.

If you guys are researching any topic on the net and find a good site to read up the topic, please post the link here also. Thanks.

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Since the Schweser 2007 set hasnt arrived yet, i got one of the six booklets of Schweser 2006 xeroxed from Laxmi. I'll start my prep with this one book on Market & Credit risk. It should keep me busy for 4 weeks at least. By then the 2007 set will arrive and i'll buy the whole set. I just wanted to know if starting with this book is a good idea, or should i have bought some other booklet to start with (too late for that!)? Xeroxing this one book cost me Rs.320, coz its the fattest among the six books Also took the advice on this thread and bought a hard copy of Hull...that cost another Rs.325 (not bad, compared to $165 on Amazon!!). The 2007 material is not expected to come in until 25th may...i guess ppl should just choose any topic, xerox that topic's booklet from the 2006 set, and start preparing right away instead of waiting for 25 days.

If you guys are researching any topic on the net and find a good site to read up the topic, please post the link here also. Thanks.

Dood !

You should have procured the "Prof's Version" of Hull as there is an answer guide that comes alongwith it. If you buy the normal version, you dont get the answers to the questions given as the exercise at the end of every topic. Try now to get an answer guide, it will make your life much easier.
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Friends,

like to introduce my self. this is ashish.

du u guys know any place in mumbai to get schweser's notes for 2006?

Hi Ashish,

i am Asish. I have registered for the FRM 2007 exam. I am looking for Schweser notes. Can you let me where in Mumbai it can be available?
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Hi folks,why don't you search esnips.com with the keywords such as HULL or Schweser?:)

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Thanx tumtum for your insights ..............