FRM This November

For about a week, I stopped going around my visits and started preparing seriously for FRM (Financial Risk Management) exam.  I have enrolled in the full exam format.  This is the last year in which GARP (Global Association of Risk Professionals) - the organisation which administers FRM) conducts full exam.  From next year onwards, FRM is offered in 2 levels with the portion approximately divided into 50% in each.  This November though, both formats are available. 

FRM is of higher difficulty level in terms of vastness of the content.  CFA takes comparably less content in each of its levels and goes deep into the areas in terms of variety of problems offered in each area.  The focus though is completely different in the two exams.  Both introduces the basic financial aspects and products.  But CFA, as the level progresses goes more into portfolio management and management/design of various customized financial products.  FRM on the other hand, focuses more on various risks one would expect in an organisation, with more focus on financial institutions and banks.  It has detailed reading references to BASEL Regulations, credit, market and operational risks.  

CFA has around 18% of marks allocated to ethics and CFA guidelines.  FRM also has certain ethical guidelines, but the weight for them is less than 10% (in the full exam).  Both reading references point to past financial failures like Enron, Wolrdcom, Bearings etc. and asks the learner to understand what went wrong in those cases.

Let me see how my preparation and the exam goes!