This post provides links to a number of interesting articles I have read over the past few days that you may also enjoy.

• Richard Ennis (CFA Institute): The uncorrelated return myth, November/December 2009.

• Peter Clarke (Financial Times): How to avoid a repeat of the Great Crash, October 28, 2009. The chain of events leading from a collapse in stock prices on Wall Street to a Great Depression has leapt from history with an entirely fresh verisimilitude. John Authers (Financial Times): GDP grows, but pain remains, October 29, 2009. US GDP numbers were a good enough reason to halt the return of risk aversion, but the key to whether risk appetite can return depends on US employment data.

• Economist.com: As joyless recovery, October 29, 2009. New figures suggest that America has at last moved out of recession.

...

Top Stories     

Sources: Treasury considers more mortgage-modification incentives Providing cash payments to holders of second-mortgage liens is among the options being considered by the U.S. Treasury to encourage lenders to modify mortgages as an alternative to foreclosure, sources said. Incentives for “short sales,” in which the lender gets some money but less than the full amount due under the loan, are also being discussed, the sources said. Reuters (21 Apr.)

European, U.S. banks face steep funding needs, IMF says To return to capital levels similar to those immediately before the financial crisis, banks in Europe and the U.S. must raise $875 billion in equity, the International Monetary Fund said. The IMF’s Global Financial Stability Report delves ...

CFA Exam BooksCFA Exam Books | CFA ProgramQuick Links: Chartered Hedge Fund Associate (CHA)Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA)When preparing to take the CFA exam, a candidate may be interested in many different kinds of CFA books. Although the CFA institute provides the candidate with some basic study material(which is actually quite a large amount of material),, there are other CFA books which may help prepare future test takers for the examinations. The CFA institute itself offers many CFA books for the candidates. They have developed a series of books, called the CFA investment series, which address individual topics that appear on the exam. Some of the topics the individual books cover are “managing ...

CFA Designation1 Page Guide to the CFA DesignationQuick Links: Chartered Hedge Fund Associate (CHA) Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA)The CFA designation sets the standard in the investment world for knowledge, standards, and ethics. It is offered my the CFA institute to candidates who complete a series of three examinations, have a bachelors degree and/or four years of professional experience. To earn the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charter, you must successfully pass through the CFA Program, a graduate-level self-study program that combines a broad curriculum with professional conduct requirements, culminating in a series of three sequential Chartered Financial Analyst exams. Level I exams are held in ...

CFA SalaryAverage CFA Salary | Starting RangesQuick Links: Chartered Hedge Fund Associate (CHA)Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA)A chartered financial analyst’s salary will obviously vary based upon job type, years of experience, employer type, and various other factors. The best way to get a feel for a chartered financial analyst’s salary is to use averages within those broad fields not taking into account company size, experience, skills, degree, or location.Using information gathered from payscale .com, the range of median salaries based upon job type is from $61,209 for a corporate financial analyst to $145,820 for a chief financial officer. The other positions were financial securities/investment analyst ($73,085), financial analyst ($62,457), senior financial analyst ($79,242), and vice president of finance ($131,700).Now when examining a chartered financial analyst ...

CFA SalaryAverage CFA Salary | Starting RangesQuick Links: Chartered Hedge Fund Associate (CHA)Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA)A chartered financial analyst’s salary will obviously vary based upon job type, years of experience, employer type, and various other factors. The best way to get a feel for a chartered financial analyst’s salary is to use averages within those broad fields not taking into account company size, experience, skills, degree, or location.Using information gathered from payscale .com, the range of median salaries based upon job type is from $61,209 for a corporate financial analyst to $145,820 for a chief financial officer. The other positions were financial securities/investment analyst ($73,085), financial analyst ($62,457), senior financial analyst ($79,242), and vice president of finance ($131,700).Now when examining a chartered financial analyst ...

We have once again eavesdropped on what our Zacks Equity Research senior analysts have been discussing with one another lately.  The most recent topic?  The proposed suspension of "mark-to-market" accounting (that is, the assigning of value based on an item's current market price):

Dirk van Dijk, CFA, Director of Zacks Equity Research: I'm not sure how many accounting principals are more fundamental than "lower of cost or market."  There are some transactions being done between willing buyers and sellers.  That is the best way of finding out what the "true" value of something is.  Suspending mark-to-market is just an attempt to hide the real condition of the banks -- it allows them to pretend that the garbage on their books is really gold. 

Isn't misrepresenting the values on your books the very core of the idea of securities fraud?  That is all that doing away with mark to market would be, legalizing and legitimatizing

...

These seem to be the latest angles of attack for the government, which is wrestling with how to amend or replace the bailout bill. From a New York Times item:"As they worked to make the government bailout plan more palatable, Senators John McCain and Barack Obama on Tuesday both proposed raising the federal insurance limit to $250,000 in an effort to help small businesses and restore public confidence in the American financial system."The presidential candidates discussed the idea in separate telephone calls with President Bush on Tuesday, aides said, as they began working to build support for the $700 billion economic package that failed on Monday in the House. Their tones – so far, at least, more measured from one day earlier – underscored the complicated politics at work for both men. “Given the progress we have made, I believe we are unlikely

...