CFA Level III Exam Prep

About this course

What you'll learn

• Capital market expectations, forecasting asset class returns, asset allocation approaches and principles, and allocation under real-world constraints including taxes, rebalancing and behavioral factors.
• Equity and fixed-income portfolio management, allocating to alternatives, trading costs and electronic markets, private wealth and institutional portfolio management, and a sovereign wealth fund case.
• Performance measurement, attribution and appraisal; benchmark selection; investment manager selection and due diligence; and the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS).
• Options strategies for income, protection and volatility views; swaps, forwards and futures to manage interest rate, equity and asset allocation exposures; and currency management for global portfolios.
• Applying the Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct in portfolio management settings, and the Asset Manager Code of Professional Conduct.
• Index-based and active equity strategies and portfolio construction; liability-driven, index-based, yield curve and credit strategies in fixed income; trade strategy and execution; and an endowment case study.
• Private investment structures, GP and LP perspectives and the investment process; private equity; private debt and special situations; private real estate; and infrastructure.
• The private wealth management industry, working with wealthy clients, wealth and investment planning, preserving wealth through risk management and taxes, advising the wealthy, and transferring wealth across generations.

Course details

Level

advanced

What's included

• 24 lessons
• Progress tracking
• Certificate of completion

Curriculum

1. 01

   Lesson 1: Capital Market Expectations: Framework, Macro Considerations and Asset Class Forecasts

   A disciplined CME process, forecasting challenges, business cycle and policy analysis, and forecasting returns for fixed income, equities, real estate and currencies.

   90m
2. 02

   Lesson 2: Overview and Principles of Asset Allocation

   Asset-only, liability-relative and goals-based approaches; strategic allocation via mean–variance optimization and its criticisms; resampling, Black–Litterman, risk parity and liability-relative methods.

   90m
3. 03

   Lesson 3: Asset Allocation with Real-World Constraints

   Asset size, liquidity, time horizon and regulatory constraints; after-tax allocation and asset location; rebalancing policies; tactical allocation; and behavioral biases in allocation decisions.

   85m
4. 04

   Lesson 4: Equity and Fixed-Income Portfolio Management

   Roles of equities and bonds in portfolios, segmentation, income and costs, passive/active spectrum, liability-based versus total-return mandates, and fixed-income return decomposition.

   90m
5. 05

   Lesson 5: Allocating to Alternatives; Trading Costs and Electronic Markets

   Roles of alternatives, risk-based versus traditional classification, liquidity planning and commitment pacing, due diligence, and implementation shortfall, market impact and electronic trading.

   85m
6. 06

   Lesson 6: Private Wealth and Institutional Portfolio Management; SWF Case Study

   Private client objectives and constraints, IPS construction, and institutional investors (pensions, SWFs, endowments, insurers, banks) with a sovereign wealth fund case.

   90m
7. 07

   Lesson 7: Portfolio Performance Evaluation

   Performance measurement, return-based and holdings-based attribution (Brinson), fixed-income and risk attribution, benchmark properties, and appraisal ratios.

   90m
8. 08

   Lesson 8: Investment Manager Selection

   Manager search framework, quantitative and qualitative due diligence, Type I and Type II errors, style analysis, operational due diligence and fee structures.

   85m
9. 09

   Lesson 9: Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS)

   Purpose and scope of GIPS, definition of the firm, composites and pooled funds, time-weighted and money-weighted return requirements, presentation and reporting, and verification.

   80m
10. 10

    Lesson 10: Options Strategies

    Covered calls, protective puts, collars, spreads, straddles and calendar spreads; payoff and breakeven analysis; using Greeks; and selecting strategies for market and volatility views.

    90m
11. 11

    Lesson 11: Swaps, Forwards and Futures Strategies

    Changing duration with swaps and futures, managing equity exposure and asset allocation with derivatives, synthetic cash and equity, variance swaps and inferring market expectations from derivatives.

    90m
12. 12

    Lesson 12: Currency Management

    Currency risk and return decomposition, strategic hedging decisions, active currency strategies (carry, PPP, volatility), hedging tools and emerging-market currency considerations.

    85m
13. 13

    Lesson 13: The Code and Standards I–III in Portfolio Management

    Applying the Code, professionalism, integrity of capital markets and duties to clients to portfolio managers, wealth advisers and institutional consultants.

    85m
14. 14

    Lesson 14: Standards IV–VII in Investment Firms

    Duties to employers, investment analysis and communication, conflicts of interest and responsibilities as members and candidates, applied to portfolio management firms.

    85m
15. 15

    Lesson 15: Applying the Code and Standards at Level III; the Asset Manager Code

    Integrated case analysis for portfolio managers and the Asset Manager Code of Professional Conduct: principles, provisions and recommendations for firms.

    85m
16. 16

    Lesson 16: Index-Based and Active Equity Investing

    Index construction and replication, tracking error sources, active equity strategies (fundamental and quantitative, bottom-up and top-down), and active equity portfolio construction.

    90m
17. 17

    Lesson 17: Liability-Driven, Index-Based, Yield Curve and Credit Strategies

    Immunization and cash flow matching, liability-driven investing for pensions, bond indexing, yield curve strategies (duration, barbell/bullet, condors) and credit strategies.

    90m
18. 18

    Lesson 18: Trade Strategy and Execution; Endowment Case Study

    Trade motivations, urgency and strategy selection, algorithmic execution, trade cost evaluation and governance; and portfolio management for a university endowment.

    85m
19. 19

    Lesson 19: Private Investment Structures, GP/LP Perspectives and Private Equity

    Fund structures and terms, waterfalls, GP and LP alignment, due diligence and the investment process, and private equity strategies, value creation and valuation.

    90m
20. 20

    Lesson 20: Private Debt and Private Special Situations

    Direct lending, mezzanine, venture debt, unitranche and asset-based lending; risk and return drivers; distressed debt, rescue financing and special situations strategies.

    85m
21. 21

    Lesson 21: Private Real Estate and Infrastructure

    Private real estate strategies (core to opportunistic), valuation and leverage; infrastructure characteristics, sectors, revenue models, risks and portfolio roles.

    85m
22. 22

    Lesson 22: The Wealth Industry, Working with the Wealthy and Wealth Planning

    Industry structure and business models, client discovery and behavioral considerations, goals-based planning, balance sheets including human capital, and retirement and liquidity planning.

    90m
23. 23

    Lesson 23: Investment Planning and Preserving the Wealth

    Asset location and tax-efficient investing, concentrated positions, risk management with insurance, and protecting wealth against legal, longevity and other risks.

    90m
24. 24

    Lesson 24: Advising the Wealthy and Transferring the Wealth

    Reporting and review, advising family enterprises and governance, estate planning tools, lifetime gifts versus bequests, trusts and foundations, and intergenerational wealth transfer.

    85m