CFA SEMINAR

Professors :

• Nathalie COLUMELLI, CFA Nathalie graduated from ESSEC and was a fixed income trader for 16 years at ABN Amro, Société Générale and Deutsche Bank in London, Paris and Frankfurt. In 2005, she founded Finance Training, a leading company specialized in CFA program training for investment professionals. With her team, she mentors financial professionals working for French banks, insurance companies and mutual funds. She is an Associate Professor at Université Panthéon Assas and also teaches finance and ethics at INSEAD, Sciences Po, HEC, ESSEC, EDHEC, Skema and Université Paris Dauphine.
• Gary CANTOR, MBA, FCA Gary is a financial Accountant specialized in Anglo-Saxon accounting and finance. He has been coaching CFA candidates since 1997 and is a Lecturer at Université Paris Dauphine, EDHEC, Sciences Po et Université Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas.
• Zakaria DAROUICH, CFA Zakaria graduated as an engineer from ENSIMAG (Grenoble, France) and also holds the Certificate in Quantitative Finance (CQF). Zakaria has been an equity portfolio manager at Amundi for 10 years and is a now a fixed income portfolio manager at CPR AM since 2018. He is a Lecturer at Sciences Po and Université Paris 2 Panthéon Assas.

Presentation : The Chartered Financial Analyst^® (CFA) credential has become the most respected and recognized investment designation in the world. The CFA Program curriculum covers concepts and skills that are used at all stages of financial careers, bridging academic theory, current industry practice, and ethical and professional standards to provide a strong foundation of advanced investment analysis and real-world portfolio management skills.

This elective course accompanies the MBF2 and MBF3 students hat are registered to the CFA level 1 exam and help them master the CFA level 1 curriculum.

Learning objectives :

• Ethics This course covers CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of practice handbook. Students identify the best ethical professional practices and make decisions that promote integrity and professionalism in the investment profession.
• Quantitative methods These courses cover Time Value of Money, Probability, Probability Distributions & Descriptive Statistics concepts, Sampling & Estimation, Hypothesis Testing, Correlation Analysis & Regression and Time-Series Analysis.
• Economics These courses cover micro and macroeconomics in depth, from the basic supply & demand to monetary policy and business cycle.
• Financial reporting and analysis These courses cover Income Statements, Balance Sheets and Cash Flows. Students learn to perform financial statement analysis and Analyze Taxes, Debt, Ratio and Financial Reporting Quality.
• Corporate finance This section covers fundamentals of corporate finance, corporate governance, how to make decisions regarding the capital structure of a company, mergers & acquisitions and corporate restructuring.
• Asset Management and Portfolio management Equity: Students learn the different types of equity securities and their characteristics, equity markets organization and equity portfolio management strategies. In the fixed income 2 courses, fixed income market organization and benchmarks are studied. interest rate risk is analyzed as well as credit risk. The derivatives course focuses on future and forward markets, swaps and options. Students learn basics about uses of derivatives in portfolio management. During the alternative section of the second Fixed income course, students briefly learn about hedge fund strategies, commodities, private equity and real assets including real estate. This course covers the modern portfolio theory concepts, how to build an investment policy statement and how to construct a portfolio. Risk management, Simulation Analysis, Technical Analysis and Fintech concepts are also introduced.
• Revision sessions: The last 2 courses are dedicated to a final revision.

Method and couse material :

• Before each training session: Students study the topics in advance of each course as indicated in their planning.
• Before each training session: Students answer all end-of-chapter questions in their CFA curriculum books.
• During training sessions: The seminar focuses on exam training and highly weights answering student questions and Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs). Between courses, the students and professors collaborate on a dedicated platform (Slack) where they may ask questions on the curriculum.
• The official calculator is the Texas Instrument TIBA2+ or the HP12C. Please bring your official calculator for each session. You will need it on the exam.

Grading: The exam is organized by the CFA Institute The enrolled students must register on the CFA Institute website for the June or December exam. Attendance to each session is required for this elective. There is no final exam, but students are strongly encouraged to take the Mock exam organized in May or November by CFA Society France. Please note that early bird registration is offered with a reduced fee and has a deadline at the beginning of October (for the June Exam) and at the Beginning of April (for the December exam).

Bibliography : CFA Level 1 curriculum (CFA Institute)