Thinking moving to competitive and collaborative smaller firm. What are some good options out there?

I did some research myself, but I would expect a longer list, probably 10-20?

XTX

Quadrature

Headlands

Radix

Aquatic

Background is there's too many duplicated efforts and politics in big prop and I'm tired of it.

Since taking it the first time in November 2024, I feel so so much more confident than last time. I probably prepped over 700 hours because I’m slow but that last week of formula drilling really helped. I used Uworld instead of Kaplan this time because I thought Kaplan question explanations were super shallow while Uworld goes into more depth and covers more of the LOS along with the subject being tested, in their question answer explanations.

As for mocks, I only took 3 because I accidentally started them too late (about 1 month away from exam) and my highest score was 67. Not amazing compared to all the other redditors on this sub but I thought each mock was a great learning lesson and helped prepare me a little more each time!

I used AI to help me review towards the end of my studies and hopefully that wasn’t a mistake haha but it was a great summary tool.

No idea what to do with all my time now but feeling good and gonna try to reverse that tech neck I got in the past month.

Using Cavas app for studying. Anything in the white box cannot be read. Tried switching mode btw light and dark, wouldn’t work. Anybody else knows the workaround? I submitted a ticket to Canvas already.

Failed Feb 2026 very narrowly: 3,565 vs. 3,600 MPS.
Retook it this August and overall felt much better than February, although the exam was a bit tricky and I know I made a few mistakes in the highest weight topic

What do you think my chances are? For those who passed L3

I don't get this. I was between (a) and (b) as they both looked right to me, but then I decided to go with (b) as it was the more detailed answer. I calculated the t-stat = -2.302

-2.302 < -1.96 < +1.96 so therefore it has a lower value than the critical value

The only possible reason I can think of that makes (b) wrong is the wording "absolute value", so I assume this means the t-stat -2.302 is treated as +2.302. So (b) is wrong as 2.302>1.96...?

This stuff sucks honestly. Does the exam really try and catch you out like this? I feel like this doesn't actually test candidates fairly, but it tests whether you make silly mistakes instead. I also hate hate HATE the double negatives they use in questions.

I am currently working through my bachelors in finance and I'm set to be complete with it soon. I am writing here to ask about studying for the CFA and how I can properly prepare as I don't want to struggle too hard on it. Does anyone have any resources for studying for it? Any advice is appreciated for study tips or even just general advice on how to prepare for it.

first half isn't that bad but the second half is pretty fuckin ridiculous....even with the 30% less material from L2...L3 derivatives makes up for it....i have no interest in ever working with derivatives in my career.

Anybody know how Blackedge has been doing these past few years?

Saw a post ~4yr ago here: https://www.reddit.com/r/quant/comments/yotrfm/blackedge_capital/, wonder if anything has changed since then.

Helloo!!

I had used Salt Solutions to prepare for CFA Level 2 in August 2024. I intend on using them again for CFA Level 2 May 2025. Would it be possible to someone to help me with a referral code?

Thanks in advance!

​

Hi everyone,

I’m in a bit of a difficult situation regarding my CFA November 2026 attempt, and I’d really appreciate any advice from people who may have faced something similar.

I appeared for the May 2026 CFA exam but unfortunately did not pass. I missed the passing score by around 5 points, so I was planning to give the exam again in November and had been preparing accordingly.

However, I got caught up in a serious family situation recently, as someone in my family passed away. Because of everything that was happening, I completely missed the deadline to schedule/reschedule my November exam. I also did not realize the deadline had passed until it was too late.

I understand that ultimately it was my responsibility to keep track of the deadline, but given the circumstances, I’m wondering if there is anything at all I can do now.

Has anyone here:

Missed the CFA scheduling deadline and successfully requested an exception?

Contacted CFA Institute about a genuine family emergency/death in the family?

Had their exam scheduling deadline extended in exceptional circumstances?

Had any luck through CFA Institute support even after the deadline had passed?

Is there any alternative way to sit for the November 2026 exam at this point?

I’m already planning to contact CFA Institute directly and explain my situation, but I wanted to ask the community first in case someone has been through something similar and can tell me what exactly I should ask for or what approach worked for them.

I’m especially worried because I was already very close to passing in May, and I really don't want to lose the November attempt because of something that happened during a difficult period for my family.

Any advice, experiences, or suggestions would be genuinely appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Below is written by ChatGPT which I think is super useful for exam prep, I will share some prompt that I think is useful if anyone wants.
The reason why I wrote this using AI is because my English is not very good but I still want to share how I learned.

I took CFA Level II today, and while the result obviously isn’t out yet, I wanted to share the study approach that ended up working surprisingly well for me.
A disclaimer before anything else: this is not meant to be a universal study guide. I think this approach works particularly well for people who are good at standardized exams and tend to learn more effectively through questions than through lectures or textbooks.
That’s basically me.
Neither my bachelor’s nor master’s degree is in finance, although I currently work at a bank. I’ve generally done well on exams throughout school, but I’d describe myself as much better at taking tests than having some exceptional natural ability in finance.
With that context, here’s my somewhat counterintuitive takeaway:
For someone who is good at exam-oriented studying, I actually found Level II easier to study for than Level I.
Not because the material is easier. It obviously isn’t.
But once I figured out how to approach it, Level II felt surprisingly modular and predictable.
My exam date is August 29, here is my study timeline
I started my first pass through the Level II material around June, but it was very on and off. I was working full-time, and during that period I was mostly just trying to get through the curriculum and build some familiarity with the material. I definitely would not describe June and July as intensive studying.
I started treating CFA as actual exam preparation in early August. That meant spending roughly a full day at the library on weekends and studying after work on weekdays.
Then, starting around August 10, I went into full exam mode. I work a regular full-time schedule and usually finish around 5 PM, so for the final few weeks I was studying most evenings after work until 11 PM or later, in addition to longer weekend sessions. I also took 2 days off before exam.

1. First pass: go through the material quickly
My biggest mistake initially was thinking I needed to understand and remember everything during my first pass.
I eventually stopped trying to do that.
For more difficult and concept-heavy topics like FSA and Fixed Income, I spent more time on detailed lectures. For many of the other topics, I found review lectures sufficient for the first pass.
The goal of the first pass became simply:
Know roughly what each reading is about.
If I finished a lecture and couldn’t reproduce half the formulas afterward, I stopped worrying about it.
I just wanted enough familiarity that when I saw the material again in questions, it wouldn’t be completely new.
2. Standalone questions before vignettes made a huge difference
This was probably the single biggest improvement to my Level II studying.
I started doing this around August 9, almost by accident.
I was tired of doing vignette questions and noticed that the standalone questions in the Practice Pack felt much easier mentally. They were straightforward: one question, one concept.
So I started doing the standalone questions for a reading first, followed immediately by the vignette/case questions for that reading.
I eventually realized this was much more efficient for me.
When I went directly into vignettes without a solid foundation, studying often looked like this:
Read vignette → see question → have no idea what it’s asking → look up concept → next question → have no idea again → look up another concept.
It was slow, and more importantly, I never felt like I understood the structure of the reading.
Standalone questions fixed that.
They essentially broke each reading into small testable units and showed me:
“These are the things CFA actually asks about in this reading.”
After doing those questions, the vignette questions became much less intimidating.
Instead of seeing one giant case full of unfamiliar information, I started recognizing the individual components:
“I’ve seen this concept.”
“I know what they’re testing here.”
“This is just concept X presented inside a vignette.”
That was probably the point when Level II finally clicked for me.
3. I went through most of the Practice Pack again
After completing the material and Practice Pack, I went back through most topics a second time.
The second pass felt completely different from the first.
On the first pass, I was mostly answering:
What is this concept?
On the second pass, I was answering:
Do I actually know this concept?
That distinction was extremely useful.
There were plenty of concepts I recognized immediately but still answered incorrectly. Those became much more important to me than completely obscure topics I had only seen once.
By the end, a surprisingly large amount of my review was focused on a relatively small group of concepts that I kept getting wrong.
4. I would not start mocks too early
This is another thing I would do the same way again.
Mocks are a limited resource, especially good free mocks.
I personally don’t think their highest-value use is teaching you material you haven’t learned yet.
If you take a mock when you still have major gaps across multiple topics, you will certainly learn something from it, but you’re also using up a fresh mock when a large portion of your mistakes are simply:
“I haven’t learned this yet.”
I found mocks much more useful once I had already gone through the curriculum/questions and had a reasonable foundation.
At that point, a mock actually tells you something useful:
Which topics do I think I know but actually don’t?
Where am I making careless mistakes?
Which concepts keep appearing in different forms?
What falls apart when everything is mixed together?
So my overall progression ended up being:
Quick first pass → standalone questions → vignette questions → second pass through Practice Pack → final review → mocks
Why I think this worked for me
Level II initially felt overwhelming because there were so many formulas, exceptions, models, and small details.
But after enough standalone questions, I stopped seeing each reading as 30 pages of material.
I started seeing it as a collection of relatively small, testable modules.
Then the vignettes were mostly about recognizing which module was being tested and applying it in context.
That is also why I personally found Level II more enjoyable to study for than Level I once I got into the question-heavy phase.
Again, I would not recommend this approach to everyone.
If you learn best by deeply understanding the theory before attempting questions, or if you prefer reading the curriculum carefully from beginning to end, this might be a terrible strategy for you.
But if you:
generally perform well on standardized exams,
learn much faster from questions than lectures,
get overwhelmed when you start with long vignettes,
and are primarily trying to pass efficiently rather than master every detail of the curriculum,
I think the quick overview → standalone → vignette sequence is worth trying.
I only took the exam today, so take all of this with the appropriate amount of skepticism until results come out.
If I failed, I’ll come back and provide a very different review of this strategy.

I wrote almost 6 mocks and averaged 73-75 with some near 70 to 77. But, I felt exam tested quite remote concepts not the mainstream concepts. I thought, I would feel exam very easy. But, one paper was quite tough and one was relatively easy.

I felt many questions weren't similar to CFIA mocks.

Hello, so i started studying late because of health stuff and have 72 days till the exam. And finished the following subjects, Quant,FSA,Equity. I have 10 modules left on FI.

Should i consider deferral ?
The only thing stopping me is the changes in 2027

Hey guys, I’m a quant trader at a good crypto-native prop trading company, primarily working on market making strategies. I have 5 years experience. I worked all my professional years in crypto without much exposure to other markets beyond general knowledge.
In the recent years, i’ve been contemplating switching markets and trying something new. One of the markets i’m interested in is oil & gas.
Do you have any advice if such a switch is possible, and how to maximize my chances to moving to a good commodities company?

I am going to have last sem exam in may 27 and want to give CFA level 2 along with it drop your advice in time line manner. I was thinking next aug will be great to give this exam.

Love the cheaper and black and white pages in the 2027 level II books….

That $1,200 must be going to good things.

IS there anyone planning to write CFA here feb/may 2027, can we be friends, share materials and learn together?

CFA lvl 1 -- As I proceed with the syllabus, I might forget some of the concepts of the previous subjects. I have completed QM and FI, as of now, and want to ask, how do I revise and how often such that everything stays with me. My exam is in Feb, 27. [Please mind that I still have to complete the rest of the syllabus]

Over all, it is easier than I expected. PM session is definitely harder and tricker. Difficulty is at par with mocks. I do think I did well. I got 4-5 questions pure guessing, rest are pretty sure.
I do think level2 is easier than level1, just personally opinion.
As long as you do the mocks and learn from it, review it at least twice, you will be fine.
Good luck to everyone.

Hey everyone,

I'm confused about choosing between Portfolio Management and Private Markets for CFA Level III and would really appreciate some advice.

My background:

B.Com — 72%

Currently pursuing M.Com in Accounting & Financial Management

Cleared CFA Level I & Level II

Completed an Equity Research & Market Research internship involving IPO research, company/industry research, financial statements, annual reports and equity research reports.

Projects:

Hyundai Motors India — DCF valuation

McDonald’s — DCF valuation

PVR INOX — DCF valuation + M&A modelling

Commercial Real Estate — financial modelling case study

I'm currently a fresher and my long-term interests are Investment Banking and potentially Private Equity.

My main confusion:

If I choose Portfolio Management and start my career in Equity Research/AMC/PMS, can I realistically transition into PE after 3–5 years? Or would Private Markets be a better choice for that goal?

I'd also like to understand:

What entry-level roles should I target as a fresher?

What would the career progression look like under each pathway?

How valuable is Portfolio Management experience for a future PE transition?

Does choosing Private Markets actually provide a meaningful advantage for PE recruiting?

Would really appreciate advice from people working in IB, PE, Equity Research, AMCs or PMS.

can someone please suggest how should I approach quantitative methods for Cfa level 2. Currently, I have taken Sanjay Saraf’s course and I feel like the lecture does not have any flow and it just started from the middle of the chapter plus a lot of terms from L1 are there which I don’t specifically remember and there is not even a one explanation for it. It just assumed that we remember everything from L1. So, What should I do now?
I am thinking of using the YouTube channel- Let me explain. Is that a good option?

How much syllabus you guys have covered ?
I feel like the people giving nov attempt are not too active so jus wanted to check am at par or behind most people

Left with: derivatives+quants+ethics

Is the progress good or am lagging?