2007 Schweser CFA Level 3, SCHWESER公司讨论的问题汇总.

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收藏 2007-05-23

考前冲刺用2007 Schweser CFA Level 3 ,SCHWESER公司讨论的问题汇总.
提供里面的一小部分如下;如果感兴趣就买吧.我也要用钱买东西的.
By Dr. Bruce Kuhlman, CFA, CAIA - Level 3 Manager

Success at Level 3 depends to a great extent upon your ability to capitalize on the portfolio management portion of the exam, which will dominate the morning session. To help you develop your plan of attack, I have compiled a list (not necessarily in any particular order) of recommendations for answering a portfolio management case for an individual.
Your answer to the IPS question must be internally consistent. The recommended portfolio should meet the IPS objectives of return and risk, as well as constraints relating to liquidity, taxation, disallowed securities, etc. You may need to determine a hard number for the total return based upon consumption needs, which should be inflation-adjusted to maintain future purchasing power. I recommend calculating the difference between after-tax salary/salaries and spending needs to determine whether there is a deficit that must be met by the portfolio. Using before-tax figures will yield the same results, as long as they are handled properly, but during the exam you don't need any extra headaches! Once you have arrived at the after-tax required return, increase it for inflation and gross up for taxes. To determine the inflation-adjusted required return, you can either add inflation or use (1 + r)(1 + inflation) - 1. After you have included inflation, gross up for taxes by dividing by (1- t). Unless specifically stated otherwise, always assume you are required to protect the portfolio principal (earn sufficient return to meet spending needs and cover inflation). You should always assume a total return approach. It is OK to liquidate some of the portfolio to meet spending needs, as long as you only spend from returns (i.e., increase in value or cash flows). You may have to resolve differences between the client's willingness and ability to tolerate risk. Remember that willingness should be accommodated, unless doing so will jeopardize meeting the client's goals (e.g., take more risk than the portfolio can tolerate and place all the client's goals in jeopardy). This means that you always honor the lesser of the two. If willingness to tolerate risk is less than ability to tolerate risk, honor willingness. If ability is less than willingness, honor ability and state that counseling is required to educate the client on risk and return to reconcile the differences. Willingness to tolerate risk is influenced by psychological factors such as the client's perception of her level of wealth, past investing experiences, and emotional baggage due to losses and gains (behavioral finance material). Look out for statements on past investing that could trump the client's statements or stated risk tolerance. For example, a client who states he has above-average tolerance for risk but won't accept a negative return actually has a below-average risk tolerance. Always answer risk tolerance in three separate statements: (1) willingness to tolerate risk (based upon psychological factors); (2) ability to tolerate risk (based upon the size of the portfolio relative to cash flow needs and time horizon; and (3) overall risk tolerance (your conclusion). Also, always use the words below average, average, or above average in describing risk tolerance. Do not use phrases like "well above average." If there is a planned (large) outlay within the coming year, you should set aside a sufficient amount in T-bills that mature at the date of the expenditure. You then allocate the rest of the portfolio according to the IPS. Remember, the IPS is a long-term document, so you should not include the T-bills in that allocation. You will mention the outlay under the liquidity and unique circumstances portions of the IPS and the fact that the T-bills were purchased to meet the outlay. Critical needs (e.g., living expenses, college education) should be satisfied first, and desires (e.g., second home, large bequests) should be met only if feasible. There was a question on the 2002 exam in which the client wanted to leave $1 million to each of her two children but had insufficient assets to do so without jeopardizing her retirement needs. Candidates were expected to ignore the bequests in the allocation but state that they were infeasible in the return portion of the IPS. Identify multiple time horizons if present. For an individual, there will probably be at least two: pre-retirement and retirement. Remember, unless specifically stated in the case, once the client passes away and the assets are transferred, the assets (portfolio) become the property of the beneficiary and are subject to the beneficiary's desires. Always look for proper diversification in your final allocation selection. Also, I would expect you to have to use Roy's Safety First measure to determine whether a portfolio allocation meets risk parameters stated by the client. Portfolio choices should be narrowed down on the basis of return, risk, diversification, disallowed securities, and liquidity. For example, if the client will have to liquidate parts of the portfolio to meet regular spending needs, he or she will probably not want holdings of illiquid real estate, such as raw land. There is no perfect answer, but there is a "perfect process," and you may have to go back and tweak the IPS to make the portfolio choice consistent with the objectives and constraints (sort of an iterative process). If you are careful as you proceed, however, this iterative process can be avoided. The individual IPS questions often leave a lot of room for interpretation, but you should stick to the facts of the case as much as possible. Don't make assumptions! For example, if the client has stated a specific goal, assume it must be met unless the client's wealth and income are insufficient. CFA Institute frequently asks questions on more than one study session in the same case or item set. For example, you may see economic concepts as part of a morning case as well as part of an afternoon item set (i.e., without it comprising the entire case or item set). Banks could also be incorporated into a morning case for another type of institutional investor, by asking you to compare part of the investor's IPS to that of a bank. The key to mastering the process for answering morning cases for individual and institutional investors is practice. You have to practice to get a good feel for the CFA Institute way of structuring and answering these questions. Old exam questions are very good start for this, but as they are by definition old, try our sample (Book 6) and practice ("Book 7") exams, too. In our sample essay questions we do our best to forecast how you will see questions on topics that are new for 2007.