Question about Bionic Turtle's 2009 FRM Program

[David Harper CFA FRM]

I just received this email:

Hi - I am a very busy road warrior of sorts who has an interest in sitting for the 2009 FRM program. Your program looks like its approach might best fit my needs. Couple of questions.

1. does your program cover the entire scope of the FRM in its entirety? What I mean is that if I go through the on-line videos and readings, will this cover enough to pass the exam (provided I do some studying!)

2. When is the 2009 exam and when will you being to offer programs that begin to prep for this?

Again, I know that the videos and on-line learning is the best for me and I am hoping that this program will do the job.

Please share your thoughts.

P.D. [name and company omitted]

My response:

Hi P.D.,

1. "Does your program cover the entire scope of the FRM in its entirety?" Yes, absolutely. I would guess that I among the (very) few training providers with a granular focus and coverage of every single learning outcome (AIM) in the FRM. To be candid, my coverage is so exhaustive and detail-oriented that I am trusted to provide cirriculum input (e.g., based in part on forum feedback here, I provided GARP with five pages of recommendations for the 2009 FRM).

Complete coverage has been the BT status for three years, but each year I am making improvements to (i) encourage better retention with selected redundancies, and (ii) to collect and draw linkages (i.e., across the disciplines) to better impact. Also, last year's improvement emphasis was the development of EditGrid/XLS spreadsheets for all important/difficult exam (quant-related) exam concepts; review of these will not be required, but they can selectively be beneficial (e.g., swap pricing, option pricing, copulas, LDA). This upcoming year's (2009) "improvement emphasis" will be "more, better" practice questions (we are working on this now).

2. I just asked my GARP contact; he tells me the FRM 2009 exam will be given on Saturday November 21st. (As you may know from the current GARP site, registration opens March 2nd).

Regarding BT timing:
For some approximate perspective, here was our 2008 calendar. Offered only for approximate perspective until our 2009 calendar publishes.

In regard to Bionic Turtle's FRM 2009.

* FEB 1st: We hope to have the new, relaunched site up Feb. 1st (the relaunch incorporates feedback, much in this forum; e.g., better organization of the premium member assets which are currently dense). As of Feb 1st (approximately!), we will take payments. Like last year, a discount for early bird signups, then regular pricing (pricing will be either same as last year, or maybe +$50 ... my advisors are pressuring me to raise the price by $50 ... not sure who will win this argument )

* Jan 31st (probably) will start free, informal, EARLY BIRD WEBINARS: see here. These are not for everybody. These are only for folks who either (i) need a refresher on quant finance, or (ii) need a (first-time) introduction to quant finance. If you have some proficiency here, you will be "overqualified" for these; e.g., we'll review, with a very narrow FRM-oriented perspective, ideas like compound frequencies, logarithms, day count conventions, first derivatives (selected basic calculus), calculator-related math. I am still figuring the timing. I will send an email about this soon. But, I think I will start these on Saturday January 31st and then every other Saturday thereafter.

* Mid to late March starts the regular, paid member program. However, as of Feb 1st, when the new site launches, we will be posting lots of early bird help material. Plus, as of Feb 1st, I will resume my brief blog-feed screencasts. So, there will be almost-daily (3x - 5x/week) week help that is FRM 2009 focused.

But, please register here at the site, and you will receive my newsletters, which will give information.

Thanks,
David

 

[Ziya]

Hi David

Thanks for the post. It has answered the first few questions I was going to ask.

I intend to sit for the FRM exam this year and plan to start really early to increase my chances of passing and minimize exam stress (not forgetting the risk of losing any money I might spend on the program). The information I have gathered about the FRM exam vis-a-vis weighting and reading material suggests that the FRM only publish this around the summer. This leaves me with the considerable headache of deciding what to do before the weightings and list of core readings are published. I recently purchased the 3rd edition of Gujarati's Essentials of Econometrics to get me started with the quant element of the exam. I intend to purchase a copy of Hull's Options, Futures and other Derivatives as it was the only core reading that wasn't available with GARP's FRM pack. What else would you advise me to cover before the weightings and list of readings are released?

I was planning to purchase the schweser solutions but I was won over by the response on this forum and your honesty in emphasizing the importance of the core readings. I therefore look forward to purchasing your program instead.

Regarding the early availability of your program, what is the deadline for the early bird sign-ups (and commencement of regular pricing)?

According to your post, last year's paid member program began mid/late March. Should I assume that this is the time that your notes and other materials are likely to be available?

Thanks

Ziya

 

[David Harper CFA FRM]

Thanks for your feedback, it is great to understand your thought process!

We (all the course providers) had a conf call just Friday. I told them I am getting questions about how to start early, and that I would like to be able to advise: "the 2009 FRM candidate can go ahead and start on 1. Gujarati, 2. John Hull, and 3. Bruce Tuckman readings from 2008." GARP leadership said, yes, we agree; i.e., they suggested these are reliable repeats in the cirriculum. Based on this, I think we can plan for those to repeat and theforefore constitute a good early start (I am only hedge this way b/c I gave input on a slightly different direction vis a vis fixed income...)

Regarding John Hull, I realize you already purchased, but just FYI (since I've been teaching from 5th thru 7th editions): the 7th edition of Hull is almost exactly the same in as the 6th edition for our purposes. Further, the 5th edition largely overlaps. IMO, the 5th or 6th will suffice those wish to avoid a >+$100 purchase.

To give you a more detailed answer, please take a look at this post from last week which references a link to a Google Document. This google document is a summary of my feedback to GARP; I posted it because, only in my opinion, the readings that I highlighted in green are somewhat durable; e.g., the Ashcraft securitization reading and the Deutche bank case study are both (i) free (ii) time consuming reads, and (iii) contain relevant material to almost any 2009 scenario.

"I was planning to purchase the schweser solutions but I was won over by the response on this forum and your honesty in emphasizing the importance of the core readings. I therefore look forward to purchasing your program instead."
Thank you for saying this. I would just like to be upfront about a few things:
* I think Schweser's notes are terrific; i had several customers last year who used my media assets in combination with Schweser's notes. My advisors would kill me for saying this, but if somebody is looking to buy only notes, I point them to Schweser (my business model is community learning with media assets; the notes are a total loss for me b/c they are pirated within a few days of publish).
* The timing of our programs are different: mine is a steady rollout over the whole year. They release the notes discretely and the their online (I assume) backloaded. I don't release everything at once.

"Regarding the early availability of your program, what is the deadline for the early bird sign-ups (and commencement of regular pricing)?"
* The Early Bird webinars will be free (as last year), join as you like, no formal signups, etc. I will send the email this week.
* The paid program should be available to purchase early/Mid February. Similar to last year, a discount for signups before May 1st (may change); something like $299 before May 1st and $399 after (possibly +$50 on both, my advisors want me to raise the price and I am concerned the economy works against that)

"According to your post, last year’s paid member program began mid/late March. Should I assume that this is the time that your notes and other materials are likely to be available? "
Yes, that roughly corresponds to the *start* of the formal program.
I will publish a detailed calendar soon.

Thanks for your interest!
David