STUDY SESSION 2 Quantitative Methods Basic Concepts
This introductory study session presents the fundamentals of some quantitative techniques essential in financial analysis. These techniques are used throughout the CFA Program curriculum. This session introduces several tools of quantitative analysis: time value of money, descriptive statistics, and probability.
Time value of money techniques are used throughout financial analysis. Time value of money calculations are the basic tools used to support corporate finance decisions and to estimate the fair value of fixed income, equity, and other types of securities or investments.
Descriptive statistics provide essential tools for describing and evaluating return and risk. Probability theory concepts are needed to understand investment decisionmaking under conditions of uncertainty.
READING ASSIGNMENTS
Reading 6 The Time Value of Money
Reading 7 Discounted Cash Flow Applications
Reading 8 Statistical Concepts and Market Returns
Reading 9 Probability Concepts
STUDY SESSION 3 Quantitative Methods Application
This study session introduces some of the discrete and continuous probability distributions most commonly used to describe the behavior of random variables.
Probability theory and calculations are widely used in finance, for example, in the field of investment and project valuation and in financial risk management.
Furthermore, this session explains how to estimate different parameters (e.g., mean and standard deviation) of a population if only a sample, rather than the whole population, can be observed. Hypothesis testing is a closely related topic. This session presents techniques that are used to accept or reject an assumed hypothesis (null hypothesis) about various parameters of a population.
The final reading introduces the fundamentals of technical analysis and illustrates how it is used to analyze securities and securities markets.
READING ASSIGNMENTS
Reading 10 Common Probability Distributions
Reading 11 Sampling and Estimation
Reading 12 Hypothesis Testing
Reading 13 Technical Analysis
Exam Weight: 12%