The CFA Institute conducts yearly exams which are taken by thousands of participants around the world. The passing rates for these exams is very low. Upon successfully completing the exam, candidates are given the title of a CFA Charterholder. The CFA charter is great and covers many topics, but the exams are conducted using pencil and a calculator. It is our opinion, that a modern analyst must be comfortable to solve the problems using a computer programs (Excel, Python or R).

In the following few posts we will try to address this issue. We will try to solve the practice problems using Python or R (mostly R). We assume that the student has access to the course materials. If you have a CFA membership you can access the course materials on CFA’s website and then simply search for the topics we discuss.

We will be solving the practice problems from the excellent book Quantitative Investment Analysis

The chapters from this book are as follows

• Chapter 1: The Time Value of Money

• Chapter 2: Discounted Cash Flow Applications

• Chapter 3: Statistical Concepts and Market Returns

• Chapter 4: Probability Concepts

• Chapter 5: Common Probability Distributions

• Chapter 6: Sampling and Estimation

• Chapter 7: Hypothesis Testing

• Chapter 8: Correlation and Regression

• Chapter 9: Multiple Regression and Issues in Regression Analysis

• Chapter 10: Time-Series Analysis

• Chapter 11: Portfolio Concepts