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 2004 CFA Text Books

(Updated on 8 Sept, 2004)
Where can I get the CFA text books?

We can find a long list of assigned readings from the official study guide. We all got limited study time and probably can't read all these books. We thus have to decide which of these books we actually need for our study. I choose to buy the assigned text bks based on 3 criteria:

Buy the text books on sections that are new to you. Say, if you're accounting people, you probably don't need the accounting text book and thus focus on other books on the list.

Buy the text books on hard sections. Traditionally, candidates usually find fixed income, accounting, and derivatives sections difficult.

Buy AIMR's own publications - In recent years, AIMR has published quite a no. of text bks that are assigned as the official readings of the cfa program. These bks are well written subject to the requirements of the cfa exam, supplemented with chapter-end questions and ans. U should note that the ch-end q are very good practice questions for your exam preparation. I would rather do all these questions than wasting time on practice exam from some study notes providers.

Here are some comments on those text books on the official list.

Level 1 (2004)

 2004 CFA Level I Candidate Readings (AIMR, 2003)

AIMR

 

 Standards of Practice Handbook, 8th edition (AIMR, 1999)

AIMR

 Quantitative Methods for Investment Analysis

 Richard A. DeFusco, Dennis W. McLeavey, Jerald E. Pinto, and David E. 

 Runkle  (AIMR, 2001)

AIMR

 Economics: Private and Public Choice, 10th edition

 James D. Gwartney, Richard L. Stroup, Russell S. Sobel, and David A. 

 Macpherson (South-Western, 2003)

 

 Fundamentals of Financial Management, 8th edition

 Eugene F. Brigham and Joel F. Houston (Dryden, 1998)

 

 International Investments, 5th edition

 Bruno Solnik and Dennis McLeavey (Addison Wesley, 2003)

 

 The Analysis and Use of Financial Statements, 3rd edition

 Gerald I. White, Ashwinpaul C. Sondhi, and Dov Fried (Wiley, 2003)

 

 Investment Analysis and Portfolio Management, 7th edition

 Frank K. Reilly and Keith C. Brown (South-Western, 2003)

 

 Fixed Income Analysis for the Chartered Financial Analyst® Program

 Frank J. Fabozzi (Frank J. Fabozzi Associates, 2000)

AIMR

 Analysis of Derivatives for the CFA® Program, Don Chance (AIMR, 2003)

AIMR

(The stars are just used to show u the relative importance of the text bk to an average candidate. 5 stars indicates the most valuable txt bk)

 

Standards of Practice Handbook: Every candidate should have one copy on this handbook. For all of the 3 levels, AIMR explicitly emphasize that when a candidate scores a marginal grade, the ethics score is the critical factor that let them pass the exam.  BUY

 

The Analysis and Use of Financial Statements: If you are not an accounting guy, uy the book. It is a good text when compared with those reading highlights in Schweser's Notes. Besides, accounting is a hard section for both Level 1 and 2.   BUY

 

Quantitative Methods for Investment Analysis: The time-series section give me a hard hit on L3. Some study notes only gives some naive guiding on the section. Finally, most of us lost a whole question on time-series calculation in 2002 L3 exam. 

Note: You can borrow it from City U of Hong Kong.

Fixed Income Analysis for the CFA program: Many people find fixed income sec section difficult. Although level 1 materials on fixed income secs is quite simple, the text is for the first 2 levels. If you don't buy it now, you may need to buy it next year anyway. 

Note: You can borrow it from Poly U of Hong Kong.

Investment Analysis and Portfolio Management: If you already have other text book on investment or portfolio mgt, save your money. However, it is worth to have one copy if U got no text bk on the area. 

Note: Open U of Hong Kong have several copies (1997 edition) on the shelf of its library and they also got the solution manual too!! Look for it now!! Besides, the Public Libraries also got the "Student Study Problem Manual".

CFA Candidate Readings for L1 examination: U can find a copy at Poly U of Hong Kong. 

Level 2 (2004)

 2004 CFA Level II Candidate Readings (AIMR, 2003)

AIMR

 

 Standards of Practice Handbook, 8th edition (AIMR, 1999)

AIMR

 Standards of Practice Casebook (AIMR, 1996)

AIMR

 Quantitative Methods for Investment Analysis

 Richard A. DeFusco, Dennis W. McLeavey, Jerald E. Pinto, and David E.

 Runkle (AIMR, 2001)

AIMR

 International Investments, 5th edition

 Bruno Solnik and Dennis McLeavey (Addison Wesley, 2003)

 

 The Analysis and Use of Financial Statements, 2nd edition

 Gerald I. White, Ashwinpaul C. Sondhi, and Dov Fried (Wiley, 1998)

 

 Financial Shenanigans, 2nd edition, Howard Schilit (McGraw-Hill, 2002)

   

 Investment Analysis and Portfolio Management, 6th edition

 Frank K. Reilly and Keith C. Brown (Dryden 2000)

   

 Fundamentals of Financial Management, 8th edition

 Eugene F. Brigham and Joel F. Houston (Dryden, 1998)

   

 Analysis of Equity Investments: Valuation

 John D. Stowe, Thomas R. Robinson, Jerald E. Pinto, and Dennis W.

 McLeavey (AIMR, 2002)

AIMR

 Company Performance and Measures of Value Added

 Pamela P. Peterson and David R. Peterson (Research Foundation of the

 ICFA, 1997)

   

 Fixed Income Analysis for the Chartered Financial Analyst® Program

 Frank J. Fabozzi (Frank J. Fabozzi Associates, 2000)

AIMR

 Analysis of Derivatives for the CFA® Program

 Don Chance (AIMR, 2003)

AIMR

 

Standards of Practice Casebook: Open U's Library have one copy. 

Fixed Income Analysis for the CFA program: see above in L1 comments.  BUY

 

Analysis of Equity Investments: Valuation - New text book for 2003 on Equity Section!! Every time AIMR published a new text bk, it pose a new challenge (uncertainty) to the candidates because of possible new style/content of exam questions. BUY

 

CFA Candidate Readings for L2 examination: U can find a copy at Poly U of Hong Kong.

Level 3 (2004)

 2004 CFA Level III Candidate Readings (AIMR, 2003)

AIMR

 

 Standards of Practice Handbook, 8th edition (AIMR, 1999)

AIMR

 Standards of Practice Casebook (AIMR, 1996)

AIMR

 Quantitative Methods for Investment Analysis

 Richard A. DeFusco, Dennis W. McLeavey, Jerald E. Pinto, and David E.

 Runkle (AIMR, 2001)

AIMR

 Irrational Exuberance, Robert J. Shiller (Broadway Books, 2000)

 International Investments, 5th edition

 Bruno Solnik and Dennis McLeavey (Addison Wesley, 2003)

 Fixed Income Readings for the Chartered Financial Analyst® Program

 Frank J. Fabozzi (Frank J. Fabozzi Associates, 2000)

AIMR

 The Psychology of Investing

 John R. Nofsinger (Prentice Hall, 2002)

   

Analysis of Derivatives for the CFA® Program

Don Chance (AIMR, 2003)

AIMR

 

Fixed Income Readings for the CFA program: It is also a difficult section for L3. It is good to have one copy.  BUY

Note: You can borrow it from Poly U of Hong Kong.

 

CFA Candidate Readings for L3 examination: The Portfolio Management - IPS topics are covered in the candidate readings. Given the qualitative nature of IPS topics, you better buy the book and read it at least twice. U can find a copy at Poly U of Hong Kong. BUY