Tag Archives: CFA Minnesota

Societies 2.0: CFA Institute Delivers More Than Just Exam Results

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By: Tom Crandall, CFA, CAIA and Kate Lyons, CFA – CFA Society Minnesota Board Members

Intrigued? You should be!

Recently, the CFA Institute hosted delegates from societies around the globe to share details on the progress around their latest initiative, Societies 2.0.  Representing the CFA MN Society, Board Members Tom Crandall and Kate Lyons joined Executive Director Mark Salter in Vancouver to learn more about this initiative and how it will add value to our members.

As the name implies, Societies 2.0 is the Institute focusing on societies in a different way than the it has before.  Recognizing societies are experts in their own market and understand their members best, the Institute is looking to support the societies in all their different and unique initiatives by promoting the highest standards in ethics, education, and professional excellence.  In turn, this partnership will transform the society/institute relationship into a professional body rather than a group of test-passers.

We’ve outlined the three objectives that the Institute will focus on –

  • To develop future professionals through relevant and accessible credentialing programs, high

standards of entry and professionalism

  • To deliver member value that accelerates the professional success of our members and that

continues to develop educated, ethical members at the top of their profession

  • To build market integrity that benefits investors and our members that serve them

So what does this mean for you?

The CFA Institute has committed both financial and human capital resources in order to support the initiative.  A key element to the success of this initiative is to reduce the volunteer burden and increase operational consistencies at the society level. Beginning this year, the societies will begin to receive increased funding that can be used to reinvest in the society infrastructure.  Externally, the Institute is proactively advocating by engaging policy makers and regulators through leadership projects aimed at influencing perspectives. Actively engaging on industry shaping discussion such as Uniform Fiduciary Duty and capital markets issues such as fintech regulation, the Institute is finding a seat at the table and better able to represent societies and Charterholders as a whole.

The CFA Society of Minnesota is a society that is well known for our programs, innovation, and engaged members.  Sure, we already knew that but our strong midwestern sensibilities keep us from really acknowledging this fact, out loud (being transplants, we feel no uneasiness in highlighting!).  We believe that the society is in an excellent position to benefit from this new initiative and provide new value and better experiences for our members.

We are excited to explore what these new relationships mean to our local society and how we can leverage these additional resources from the Institute.  Should the Compensation Survey be a national effort?  How can we better engage with our Federal Reserve Bank?  What type of professional education/career development do our members want? Is there a way we can give back to our community? These are just some of the questions that can be considered and we are looking for your voice in the discussion.  Keep an eye out in coming weeks for additional information and a special request for your thoughts and interests!

Event Recap: Technical Analysis Workshop

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By Joseph G. Ogega, a student in Financial Mathematics at the University of Minnesota and CFA level I candidate.

On Tuesday December 5th, the CFA society hosted a technical analysis workshop with Ralph Acampora, a renowned enthusiast of market analytics. Ralph comes with a broad range of experience from Wall Street, not to mention, he’s previously served as the Director of Technical Analysis Studies at New York Institute of Finance, a currently holds the Director of Technical Research at Altaira Capital Partners.

Ralph started by giving a brief intro on how he, in the company of his friend, initiated the idea behind CMT (Chartered Market Technician), in the early days of his career. Up until then, there was no well-known technical analysis library, which he later helped set-up. He defined technical analysis as the study of data generated from demand and supply of price activity. Ralph further believes that a holistic diagnosis of market dynamics should encompass fusion of technical and fundamental analysis. He also put emphasis on trading with movements in price and volume simultaneously. Typically, stocks go through cycles of four phases of price activity: accumulation, momentum, diffusion and consolidation. This perhaps was the highlight of the workshop.

While there could be many ingenious ways of drawing trend lines, Ralph prefers the simplistic approach of connecting ascending lows and declining highs. The decision on how often one would like to trade, whether daily, weekly or monthly, will highly influence the type of time-bounded charts they will find useful. “Always keep your eyes to right of the price chart and draw them slowly to the left, looking out for ‘support’ and ‘resistance’ price-levels,” says Acampora.

In summary, Ralph shared this approach regarding investing in equities:

  1. Choose index
  2. Look at the internal breadth of the market. taking into account the proportion of stock that goes up vs. down
  3. Sentiments: includes market info, company perception and inside activity
  4. Sector analysis
  5. Intermarket analysis

As a parting thought, Ralph spoke about the four-year presidential cycle exhibited in the stock market. Historically, presidential elections year tend not to have any significant effect on the price of stocks. However, in the succeeding year, stock prices have consistently gone down, before the market recovers up until the next election period, which marks the beginning of the next cycle.

A Letter From Our Society President

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Joshua M. Howard, CFA

Last month the Board of Directors of CFA Society Minnesota met to discuss the status of our current three to five-year strategic plan, which has been in place for two years now.  We took some time to reflect on what we have accomplished, debated whether any goals needed revising, and brainstormed ideas on what we hope to accomplish in the upcoming year. I was once again impressed by the commitment of your Board of Directors, as 18 board members spent three and a half hours at the end of a work day engaged in strategic planning, which isn’t every analyst’s idea of a good time.

CFA Society Minnesota’s Mission and Vision, which you can find on our website under the About Us tab, guided us in the creation of our current strategic plan and continues to guide our thinking about how we run the Society.  Our Mission is “To promote and advance the professional excellence, ethical behavior and fellowship of our members through quality programs, educational offerings, and volunteer opportunities.” Our vision states that “We envision a CFA Society of Minnesota that is highly valued, well respected, and widely recognized by investors, academia, and the business community in our region.” Both our mission and vision were updated in 2013. They align with and compliment the CFA Institute’s mission and vision, recognizing that each entity (Society and Institute) has different capabilities and goals.

Our current strategic plan has three main objectives. They are:

  1. Member Engagement: Expand participation and involvement among Society members
  2. Industry Awareness and Involvement: Increase awareness of and involvement in the Society among professionals and firms in our local investment industry
  3. Operational Excellence: Improve the effectiveness and sustainability of the Society’s business processes

Each of these objectives is supported by 2-3 specific, measurable goals. These include finding ways to assist our members as they grow in their careers (leadership training, writing and speaking groups, etc.), building a brand campaign and adopting policies and procedures that will aid in long-term financial and organizational stability. If you would like to see a detailed strategic plan, please contact the Society office at executivedirector@cfamn.org and they would be happy to provide the latest version.  If one of these objectives or goals is an area you would like to support please let our staff know that as well. We are always looking for thoughtful, energetic volunteers to help us accomplish our strategic plan.

Joshua M. Howard, CFA
President, CFA Society Minnesota

Facing an Ethical Dilemma?

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The CFA Society has long been an advocate for strong ethics in the Investment Profession. The Code of Ethics and Standard of Professional Conduct are an integral part of the testing process, and underscores the importance to the Society of practicing the craft while adhering to those principles. As stated in the CFA Society’s Mission & Vision Statement:

High ethical principles and professional standards are essential to positive outcomes; rules and regulations, while necessary, are not sufficient by themselves.

We think that the CFA Society’s commitment to strong ethics is part of what sets charterholders apart from other professionals in the Investment Profession. We think this is particularly important in light of highly publicized ethical failures and an increasingly skeptical attitude toward the Investment Profession from the public. We would like to reinforce this message by starting a dialogue on FreezingAssets to help promote ethical decision making. The CFA designation comes with an obligation to do more than determine what is legal. We must go beyond the bare minimum of what is required. We want to understand what is right. And to understand what is right, we need to engage in dialogue. We would like to solicit questions and concerns from members, and then tap into our member base and professional experts to explore the ethical issues involved.

So, here are the ground rules.

1) Questions should be submitted anonymously. We don’t want anyone to worry about experiencing negative career impact from engaging in dialogue. So, no real names, no company names. Just situations.

2) Real situations are better. No trying to trick the panel with things like “If God is all powerful, can he make a planet so big that he himself can’t lift?”

3) Freezing Assets is not providing legal advice. So don’t ask for it.

There is a form on Freezingassets.org for submitting questions, situations, or concerns – access the form here. As with much of what we do, this is an experiment. Maybe everybody already knows everything. But we kind of hope there are a few folks out there who are able to challenge us all to think more deeply about what we do. We think that’s really what the Code and Standards are all about.

When submitting an inquiry, you agree to the following. Neither the Blog nor the Society is giving legal advice. If you think you need to consult a lawyer or compliance professional you should do so. The Society disclaims any liability for any advice or commentary on this website. The Blog respects the privacy of its participants.

Looking Ahead – CFA Society Minnesota Employment Committee

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Marco Naylon, CFA

As the new chair of the employment committee, I want to share my road map for the next couple of years of our strategic initiatives. As always, I am open to any suggestions or comments on resources that our membership would find useful.

First, I would be remiss if I did not thank our immediate past chair, Kristine Mogollon, CFA, for all of her tireless efforts over the past number of years. She has done many things that have put us in a great position as I begin my term. Thank you, Kristine, for all your work!

My priority as chair is to provide as much value to our membership regarding resources, programming and opportunities to enhance and grow their careers. While I feel we have done a great job in the past, I still think there is room for improvement.

The ways that we will improve is through more active engagement with both our members and the employers in the investment community. Furthermore, I look to strengthen further our working relationship with the CFA Institute to be better able to leverage their resources and provide a more streamlined outlet for our membership to access those resources.

Secondly, I would like to offer more specialized programming and learning opportunities for our more experienced members to further enhance their careers and skill sets. While we will still provide content and programming that applies to all members, my vision is for our committee to be more of a resource to charterholders that are looking to make the next step in their careers.

A couple of initiatives for this year that I hope to bring to fruition:

  • Investment Writing Group that meets on a regular basis with the goal to improve each others’ craft of writing. Please let us know if you would have an interest in joining.
  • Public Speaking Group that will also meet on a regular basis with an emphasis on improving investment-related presentations. Speaking and presentation skills are highly sought after by employers. I would like to provide an outlet for our members to hone this skill in an encouraging environment. Again, please let us know if you have interest.
  • More Structured Programming. To provide more consistency of our employment-related programming, I would like to have our programming to have regular themes during the year.  For instance, members can expect certain programs related to job-search strategies, resume writing and interviewing workshops at regular intervals so our members can have clear expectations on our offerings and align their needs accordingly.

I look forward to my term as Chair and working with our wonderful volunteers on the committee. Please do not hesitate to reach out if we can be a resource for you. All the best in 2016!