Currently Reading Kaplan LSAT 180, 2005-2006 (Kaplan Lsat 180) By Eric Goodman, Inc. Kaplan see related

Wow, i havent been here in like forever!

Ok, a quick update.

I am taking the GMATs on May 19th. I am ready to ACE it and get a 700+. If not, i will be retaking it sometime in June, but lets hope i dont have to, cause they cost $250 (thats enough motivation to make it the first time).

I have also decided to go for a JD/MBA instead of just a MBA. This was my original plan in college, but i swayed away from it for some reason in my senior year. But i am back to it. I want to major in Intellectual Property (Patent Law) for the JD and Finance for the MBA. They probably dont correlate, but it will give me a lot more options, and with a JD, MBA, MFE and CFA, there's no telling how much i can do. Really, the sky is the limit.

With this said, i am taking the LSATs September 26th. I've already started studying for them, and they arent as bad as i originally feared.

I am still taking the CFA Level 1 December 2nd.

It seems like a lot of studying right? I know...but dont worry about me. I've come up with a fantastic action plan, and i'll make it work. It'll be stressful, but it'll work.

Pray for me though. Even though i am confident in my plan and ability, i really am terrified at the same time.

I really want to get into Northwestern University or University of Texas Austin, cause they are the only top 10 schools who have 3 yr JD/MBA programs. If i dont get into either, i'd be devastated. :-/

Anyway, hope everyone else is doing great!

To my readers in grad and profesional schools. I know how tough it can be, cause i am right there with you. But remember, the sky is our limit. And lets not ever give up trying our best. Our hard work will eventually lead to rewards, be it spiritual, emotional or financial. We'll get there .

Love ya!

Bye.

Currently Watching Wall Street By Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen see related

I am really excited and looking forward to some of my classes for next semester. Yes, this semetsre isnt even half way over yet, but my classes for this term are such a *yawn* fest.

Next term i have:

FE 621 Financial Market Regulation

Description:
Considers the role and forms of regulation in the U.S. financial markets. The role of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Controller of the Currency (OCC), and self-regulating organizations (SROs) such as the National Association of Securities Dealers and the National Futures Association are examined. Also studied are the roles of the state insurance commissions and the Department of Labor.

FE 627 Valuation of Equity Securities and Financial Statement Analysis

Description:
Provides a detailed examination of the tools and techniques for analyzing financial statements for the purposes of evaluating credit, forecasting, identifying merger candidates, enhancing the efficiency of decision making, and diagnosing problem areas within the firm before crisis situations develop. Students are taught to use financial ratios to conduct duPont (i.e., decomposition) analysis, a methodology to track down sources of poor performance through interrelationships among a firm’s financial ratios.

FE 655 Accounting for Financial Products

Description:
Addresses accounting issues as they pertain to innovative financial products, risk management strategies, tax driven strategies and other manifestations of financial engineering, particularly those in which derivative financial instruments play an important role. Accounting and tax rules are reviewed and applied.

FE 640 Valuation of Fixed Income Securities and Basic Interest Rate Derivatives

Description:
Examines the body of analytical tools and measures that constitute modern fixed income markets. The valuation of interest- rate sensitive cash flows is the unifying theme. Major topics covered include theories of term structure, institutional aspects of fixed income markets and analytical techniques for managing interest rate risk. Bond refunding, defeasance, corporate bonds, forwards, futures, options and interest rate swaps are discussed. The course also provides an overview of the major classes of fixed income securities and the markets in which they trade. Among the major classes of fixed income instruments discussed are Treasury and agency securities, assetbacked securities, municipal securities, floating and inverse floating rate securities.

FE 650 Basic Derivatives Valuation and Applications

Description:
A full-semester course that covers exchange traded and over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives including futures contracts, forward contracts, option contracts, swap contracts, and structured securities having embedded derivatives. The principal focus of the course is on financial engineering applications. Basic valuation concepts are discussed, but detailed valuation methodology is not covered in this course. The use of derivatives for speculative purposes, hedging purposes and arbitrage is discussed. The specifics of the contracts and the markets in which they trade are also discussed. The main focus is on financial derivatives such as currency and equity contracts, but some brief discussion of commodity contracts and specialty contracts such as insurance derivatives and macroeconomic derivatives may also be discussed, at the instructor’s discretion.

Yes, i am taking 5 courses, but its only 12 credits cause 2 are 1.5 credit courses.

All of a sudden, i am really excited about my program. LOL. It only took me a year. I am starting to think i am really not as much as mathematical as i originally thought. Don't get me wrong. I'd still kill a complex integral in my sleep, and i can take the partial derivative of water by now , but i find that, at least with my program, i enjoy my classes that are not just pure mathematical theory. 2 of my classes so far, have been just theory. I felt like a zombie cause i just have all these endless lines of equations and math in front of me, not really knowing what i am solving it for. I was just integrating, iterating and solving my life away.
I like the classes that incorporate, math yes, cause i am a mathematical finance student, but also talk about the actual applications and uses of all what we are doing. So i dont feel like someone's test subject. lol. I like when we discuss current events and read through the Wall Street Journal in class (like FE 603 was). I like when we developed case studies about Mergers and Acquisitions gone wrong, and analyzed the situation. That was real swell, cause i felt like i was in the heart of Wall Street.

I love the fact that my program is Financial Engineering. I am an engineer. Thats what i have become accustomed to being. I am very technical and quantitative. I love the challenge Mathematics provides me. I loved thinking and i truly did get mental Orgasms out of solving a really hard problem, or proving a really hard theorem.
Thats why i didnt go for just plain Finance.

I really was in heaven when i discovered Mathematical Finance, which goes also by Financial Engineering, Quantitative Finance, Risk Management Engineering, Financial Mathematics, Computational Finance, Industrial Mathematics, Applied Mathematics for Finance, Statistical Finance, Mathematical Risk Management, Financial Technology Mathematics etc. All the same thing.

I truly can say, i love the decision i made. I love my field now.
We are such a small group, and so close knit. Only a handful of schools have such programs, and with stringent admission requirements and even more stringent graduation requirements, we remain a small and in high demand group. We are called quants, mathematians, financial gurus etc. I love it.

I cant wait to graduate and start practicing.

Here comes Lo, the Financial Engineer!

Holla!

PS. So many people still ask me, What the heck is Financial Engineering?
(One of my uncle is still convinced i made it up, LMAO). So i compiled these links and definitions from around the web for those who want to know.

• Financial engineering is the process of employing mathematical finance and computer modeling skills to make pricing, hedging, trading and portfolio management decisions. Utilizing various derivative securities and other methods, financial engineering aims to precisely control the financial risk that an entity takes on. Methods can be employed to take on unlimited risks under certain events, or completely eliminate other risks by utilizing combinations of derivative and other securities.  Source: Wikipedia.
• Financial engineering involves the development and creative application of financial theory and financial instruments to structure solutions to complex financial problems and to exploit financial opportunities. Financial engineering is not a tool. It is a profession that uses tools, of which derivatives are one. Importantly, financial engineering differs from financial analysis. The term “analysis” means to “decompose in order to understand.” The term “engineering” means to “build.” Source: Financial Engineering News.
• Financial engineering is a process by which quantitative methods are used to design financial transactions and the financial structure of an organization in order to maximize that organization's effectiveness.

Currently Reading Handbook of Plastics Testing Technology (Society of Plastics Engineers Monographs) By Vishu Shah see related

Buenos días!

I started spanish class yesterday! Class was really fun! It was a small group and we all quickly became friends. It was also really diverse, which i loved. We had me, a Japanese girl, a Dutch girl, a French Girl, an Egyptian girl etc. The teacher was this young lady who i wasnt sure was Spanish or not. It wouldnt suprise me if she weren't especially since my German teacher in undergrad was Indian born and bred. She made the class fun by making us pair up and doing activities, i.e circling correct letters after prounounciations on the board for a prize.

It was a bit confusing for me at first cause i kept mixing my German with Spanish. The phonetics themselves are nothing alike, however, the "culture" behind them are very similar, i.e both languages assign a gender to all nouns - feminine, masculine or neutral (which is called an indeterminate noun in Spanish). They also both emphasize respect, as in you can address your age-mates and colleagues with Du (German) and Tu (Spanish), however, anyone older or in a position of authority, you MUST use Sie (German) and Usted (Spanish). Its exactly like Yoruba (my native Nigerian language), where you can address your mates as "Iwo", but your elders as "Eyin".

After class, I, the Dutch girl and the Japanese girl walked together to Penn. I found out Dutch is quite similar to German, and so me and Dutch girl immiediately bonded on that. It was so fun teaching the Japanese girl German words (even though we just left a Spanish class, LMAO), and she was sooo fascinated by the fact that i speak German.

By the way, i have noticed with my German that i speak WAAAAYYYY better when i get around non-speakers, or people who speak it just a little. However, around native speakers, i get sooooo intimidated and shy that i am always so scared of messing up and being made fun of, or saying something wrong and them taking it as i am insulting their language, that i always DO end up messing up. Also same way for older people versus younger. I can chat it up, no problem, with a younger (my age) native German speaker, because i know if i mess up, they will laugh and correct me, as opposed to a stern older native Speaker.

Anywhoo, enough language talk.

This week is Engineer's Week.
Whoo hooo! Give an engineer a hug today, would you? .

On the work front, i have been assigned to this really huge project. Its kind of intimidating, cause its A LOT of work! It's one of those things that all the senior engineers managed to dodge, so me being the newbie, fresh out of college Junior Engineer, it gets passed down to me. Oh great! All of a sudden, my work load has tripled!

However, i am not trying to look at it that way. I see it as me being given a test. Do well, you get an A. Get an A, you get a good GPA. Get a good GPA, you...well, you know the rest.

I am just always sooo scared of messing up. I gotta take some Ginkoba, Ginseng, calm my nerves. Whooosaa!

Have a good day folks.

Currently Reading Hardball for Women : Rev. Ed. By Pat Heim, Susan K. Golant see related

Thanks guys! (for your words of encouragement).

I am such a dummy. Went to class last night only to discover NYU is on Spring Break! Duh!!! I totally forgot! I am getting old *yikes*.

So i was chatting with someone who got a crazy nice job off of the fact that his cousin's boyfriend works at this company, so he passed his resume up front. Dude does not have stellar credentials and went to a mediocre school...he just knew someone who knows someone!

It's becoming clear to me what i have heard time and time again. Its not what you know, its who you know.

What you know is definitely important, but without knowing the right people along with what you know, its going to be mighty hard to get ahead.

So i have deviced a plan .
I am going to date a Financial Analyst, with hopes that he will eventually slip my resume to one of his buddies at other companies, and then dump him after i get my offer letter. Yes!

Ha ha. J/k.

By the way. I am so glad Boston Scientific stock picked up! They scared me for a second there. I have the most stakes in them, and i was thinking of dumping the shares when it hit like $21.50 sometime last week. It's back up to about $24.37 as of today! Yahhh!  

Peace!

][ edit ][

It just occured to me that i have NO contacts at all in the finance field. No friends, family, family friends, colleagues, ex-boyfriends etc.

• If i wanted to go into Medicine, i have pretty strong contacts. (My uncle is a well respected Doctor in a prominent NY hospital, as well as plenty other family friends)
• If i wanted to go into Law, i have 2 strong contacts - My cousin who is making a strong name for herself and a close family firm who is a partner in a well known firm.
• If i wanted to go into IT or Computers, i have too many leads to count.
• If i wanted to go into Stripping, i have some leads too . Ha ha, j./k

However, i know absolutely no MBAs, CFAs, Investment Bankers, Analysts etc.

Boooooo!

][/ end edit ][

Currently Reading My Life as a Quant : Reflections on Physics and Finance By Emanuel Derman see related

Volume 2, page 452: Principal Financial Statements.

Down to the nitty gritty.

I so wish i could skip the next few years and be CFO already .

In the meanwhile, between studying, my boyfriend Mercer keeps me sane.

Mercer...

Isn't he cute?

Ciao!