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2012 NTUICF Conference 1
CFA Certification Programs and Sell-Side Analysts
Qiang KangFlorida International University
Xi LiHong Kong University of Science and Technology
Tie SuUniversity of Miami
“Lawyers have to pass the bar, doctors have medical school and even stockbrokers need a license before practicing their crafts. But stock analysts, who can make or break a company’s stock with their research, don’t need any credentials to hang their shingles on Wall Street.”
-- Kelleher (2001)
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The CFA program
The Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) program is an existing voluntary certification program offered by the CFA Institute. Candidates receive the CFA designation after successfully completing three levels of examinations. Its popularity has dramatically increased in the recent years. This paper investigates the degree to which the CFA program benefits the performance, behavior, and career outcomes of sell-side analysts.
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CFA Quiz
As of December 2012, there are _________ CFA charterholders around the world.
How many of them are in U.S.? How many of them are in China?
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The CFA program
As of December 2012, there are 103,033 CFA charterholders around the world. In recent years, more than 200,000 CFA candidates from over 150 countries enrolled for the exams. Many financial firms and investment funds require the CFA designation as a de facto condition of employment [Warwick-Ching (2003)]. The popularity of CFA has dramatically increased in the recent years and the CFA designation has been considered as the passport to the finance industry.
http://www.newcfa.org/#/professions
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That’s it!103,033 as
of December 2012.
The CFA program
Three levels of CFA exams, offered annually in June (L1 is offered twice a year, June and December).
Six-hour exams, multiple choice questions for L1 and L2, combination of multiple choice questions and essay questions in L3.
CFA Institute recommends a minimum of 250 hours for each exam (i.e. 10-15 hours/week over 18 weeks)
Around 1,500 “Learning Outcome Statements” (LOS) in the self-study program.
Registration and examination fees total to over US$2,500.
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Ask me about CFA salaries!
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• U.S. reported median compensation ranging from $158K to $456K
• Portfolio managers of equities, highest median compensation 5-10 years, $398K10+ years, $500K
• Investment bankers and sell-side research analysts ranked next
• Overall compensation highest in U.S. and U.K.
CFA Charterholder Compensation
The median US household income
in 2011 was $51,413.
The CFA program
Ethics & Professional Standards Quantitative Methods Economics Financial Reporting Analysis Corporate Finance Equity Analysis Fixed Income Investments Derivative Instruments Portfolio Management Alternative Investments
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25% of FRA!Learn accounting
well!
No other certification covers
ethics.Q: Are CFA
charterholders more ethical?
Buy-side vs. Sell-side Analysts
Buy-side analysts working for money managers provide research for in-house use by money managers. An analyst employed by an entity, such as a mutual fund, that invests on its own accounts.
Sell-side analysts working for brokerage firms provide research for the firms’ clients. An analyst employed by a brokerage firm or another firm that manages client accounts. Unlike that of the buy-side analysts employed by mutual funds, research produced by sell-side analysts is usually available to the public.
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Buy-side makes more $,$$$,$$$$.
Buy-side vs. Sell-side Analysts
A sell-side analyst's focus when analyzing possible investments is to see whether the investment should be recommended to the firm's clients, while a buy-side analyst would only be interested in analyzing whether the investment is suitable for the firm's investment strategy and portfolio. Thus, sell-side analysts structure their research such that it is usable for a wider audience than buy-side research. Buy-side analysts often source research from sell-side analysts, and then use this information as a base for buy-side analysts’ own research.
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Prior Research
Occupational certification:1. Rottenberg (1980)2. Angrist and Guryan (2004)3. Goldhaber and Brewer (2000)4. Kleiner and Kurdrle (2000)5. Kugler and Sauer (2005)6. Wilensky and Rossiter (1983)7. Wolverton and Epley (1999)
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Lawyers, doctors, and teachers…
Prior Research
Analyst performance, behavior, and career outcome:1. Kothari (2001)2. Lee (2001)3. Smith, Craig, and Solomon (2003)4. Chevalier and Ellison (1999)5. Piotroski and Roulstone (2004)6. Hong and Kubik (2003)7. Hong, Kubik, Solomon (2000)8. De Franco and Zhou (2009)9. Emery and Li (2009)10. Jacob, Lys, and Neale (1999)
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Hot topic!
They are most closely related to
our paper.
Our Focus
Completion of the CFA designation. Does the program benefit analyst performance and behavior? Are the resources spend on the program justified? Is ethics training in the program effective?
Analyst Behavior Performance measures: alpha and information ratio. Risk-taking: recommendations and forecasts Bias: percent sell and optimism
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What’s new in our paper?
Data
Institutional Brokers Estimate System (I/B/E/S) and CRSP Analyst name, brokerage affiliation, earnings forecasts, stock
recommendations, affiliation changes. Earnings forecast database starts in 1983, and its stock
recommendation database starts in October 1993. I/B/E/S provides standardized recommendations, with integer ratings from 1 through 5 corresponding to “strong buy,” “buy,” “hold,” “underperform,” and “sell,” respectively.
Analysts with only “hold” recommendations are excluded.
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Data
CFA Institute Membership Directory Lexis-Nexis and ProQuest
Matching I/B/E/S analyst names with the CFAI membership directory to identify when the analyst acquires the designation.
Determine the gender of each analyst. Final sample: 12,270 observations of 3,474 analysts of which 1,259
analysts, or about 36%, are CFA charterholders.
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Hard work!
Time period:1994-2000
Variable Definitions CFA: Dummy variable ALPHA: The intercept of the Carhart (1997) model regression in basis points. INFORATIO: t-statistic for the intercept of the Carhart (1997) model regression. ACCURACY: Hong et al.’s (2000) measure of relative earnings forecast accuracy. RESIRISK: Residual return standard deviation of the Carhart (1997) model regression in basis
points. BOLDNESS: Hong et al.’s (2000) measure of boldness in earnings forecasts. PCTSELL: Percentage of “sells” and “underperforms” among the analyst’s recommendations. OPTIMISM: Hong and Kubik’s (2003) measure of relative earnings forecast optimism on a one-
year basis. EXPERIENCE: Number of years that an analyst has been submitting reports to I/B/E/S. COVERAGE: Logarithm of the average number of analysts that cover the same companies that
an analyst covers at the end of the prior calendar year.
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Commonly used variables in current
literature.
Summary Statistics
Table 2.A. CFA and Gender Composition
CFA Non-CFA Sum
Female 174 (5.01%) 389 (11.20%) 563 (16.21%)
Male 1,085 (31.23%) 1,826 (52.56%) 2,911 (83.79%)
Sum 1,259 (36.24%) 2,215 (63.76%) 3,474 (100.00%)
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Many charterholders
work as analysts. Many analysts are
charterholders.
Summary Statistics
Table 2.B. Analyst Characteristics
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Variable Full Sample Non-CFA CFA
ALPHA (bps) 2.20 2.33 1.93
INFORATIO 0.17 0.17 0.16
ACCURACY 50.13 50.18 50.01
RESIRISK (bps) 12.26 13.00 10.70
BOLDNESS 50.19 50.20 50.19
PCTSELL (%) 4.18 3.91 4.75
OPTIMISM 48.01 47.95 48.16
IISTAR (%) 12.77 12.83 12.64
Don’t be fooled by this statistic!
Statistically significant.
Summary Statistics
Table 2.B. Analyst Characteristics
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Variable Full Sample Non-CFA CFA
WSJSTAR (%) 8.28 7.34 10.27
EXPERIENCE 1.62 1.52 1.83
COVERAGE 2.05 2.06 2.03
#REPORT 2.31 2.28 2.38
#COMPANY 2.46 2.40 2.58
BROKERSIZE 3.30 3.36 3.19
CO-SIZE ($B) 0.74 0.73 0.76
N 12,270 8,315 3,955
Performance Improvement
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0 1 .t t tDependentVariable a a Year EffectsCFA
Dependent variables:ALPHAINFORATIO
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What’s wrong with this simple/naïve
model?
Information Uncertainty
25
0 1 .t t tDependentVariable a a Year EffectsCFA
Dependent variables:ALPHAINFORATIO
Information Uncertainty:COMPANY SIZECOVERAGE
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This model is well specified.
0 1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9
10
*t t t t
t t t t t
t
tDependentVariable a a a a IISTAR a WSJSTAR
a EXPERIENCE a COVERAGE a NREPORT a NCOMPANY a BROKERSIZE
a COMPANY
CFA CFA
SI
InformationU
ZE Year Effects Analyst Effects Brokerag
ncertai
e F E
ty
ir
n
m
.tffects
Performance Improvement
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Table 3. Analyst Performance
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ALPHA INFORATIO
CFA 2.86 0.15(z-stat) (3.70) (3.23)
WSJSTAR -1.10 -0.16
(z-stat) (-2.48) (-3.84)
R-square 0.40 0.32
N 12,270 12,270
Key result
Don’t be a star.
Be a CFA charter-holder!
Information Uncertainty: Size
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Table 4.1. Analyst Performance
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ALPHA INFORATIO
CFA 3.55 0.17(z-stat) (3.96) (3.45)
CFA*co_size -0.95 -0.02
(z-stat) (-2.68) (-1.20)
R-square 0.40 0.32
N 12,270 12,270
CFA charterholders do even better when firms
are small!
Information Uncertainty: Coverage
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Table 4.2. Analyst Performance
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ALPHA INFORATIO
CFA 8.50 0.41(z-stat) (3.15) (3.09)
CFA*coverage -2.75 -0.12
(z-stat) (-2.40) (-2.04)
R-square 0.40 0.32
N 12,270 12,270
No one covers this stock? Ask a
charterholder!
Performance Improvement
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Table 3. Analyst Performance
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Key result
Don’t be a star. Be a CFA charterholder!
Size Coverage
Before and After CFA
30
Dependent variables:ALPHAINFORATIO
0 1 2 3
4 5 6 .t t t t
t t t t
DependentVariable a a a EXPERIENCE a NREPORT
a NCOMPANY a BROKE
YTOCF
RSIZE a COMPANYSI
A
ZE
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You would think that an analyst’s performance would improve after getting his/her charter, right?
Before and After CFA
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Table 4. Analyst Performance
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ALPHA INFORATIO
Before CFA 2.17 0.23(z-stat) (2.03) (2.12)
After CFA 1.11 0.07
(z-stat) (1.06) (0.88)
R-square 0.01 0.01
N 415 415
Unsolved Mystery
Significant improvement!
Before and After CFA
32
Table 4. Analyst Performance
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Significant improvement!
Unsolved Mystery
Risk-Taking and Bias
33
Dependent variables:RESIRISKPCTSELL
0 1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8
9 .
t t t t t
t t t t
t t
DependentVariable a a a IISTAR a WSJSTAR a EXPERIENCE
a COVERAGE a NREPORT a NCOMPANY a BROKERSIZE
a COMPANYSIZE Year Effects Analyst Effects Brokerage Fi
CFA
rmEffects
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Risk-Taking and Bias
34
Table 5
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More sell recommendations
More reliable!
Mobility
35
Ordered Probit model:0: if 95+% to 95-%1: if 95-% to 95-% or 95+% to 95+%2: if no job change3: 95-% to 95+%
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Statistical technology!
0 1 1 2 1 3 1
4 1 5 1 6 1
7 1 8 1
9 1
Pr
t t t
t t tt
t t
t
a a CFA a IISTAR a WSJSTAR
a ACCURACY a INFORATIO a EXPERIENCEJobMobility
a NREPORT a NCOMPANY
a COMPANYSIZE Year Effects
Mobility
36
Table 8. Mobility among Brokerage FirmsCFA IIStar WSJStar Alpha Accuracy
0.07 -0.06 -0.01 0.02 0.01
Experience Coverage #REPORT #company Co-Size
-0.07 -0.01 -0.15 0.12 0.01
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More likely to move
up!More $,$$
$,$$$
Mobility
37
Table 6
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More likely to move
up!More $,$$
$,$$$
Controlling for Selection Bias
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0 1 2 1 3 1 4 1
5 6 1 7 1 8 1
9 1 10 1 11 1 .
t t t t
t t t
t t t t
Selection a a FEMALE a IISTAR a WSJSTAR a EXPERIENCE
a COVERAGE a NREPORT a NCOMPANY a BROKERSIZE
a COMPANYSIZE a INFORATIO a ACCURACY
The hazard ratio LAMBDA is estimated from the following first-step regression in the Heckman’s (1979) two-step approach to deal with the endogenous selection bias:
Robustness check
Controlling for Selection Bias
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Table 7Parameter estimates are robust: ALPHA=2.86;
INFORATIO=0.15
Conclusion
Using a comprehensive sample of earnings forecasts and investment recommendations over the 1994 to 2000 period, we find that the CFA program has a significantly positive impact on analyst recommendation performance. The positive impact is also economically meaningful: it is equivalent to an annualized excess return of 7.47%, i.e., 7.47% above the risk-adjusted rate of return on comparable investments. We find that the CFA program reduces risk-taking and bias in recommendations.
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This is huge!! Consider 10% vs. 17%
Comments and Suggestions?
You may download this paper at http://moya.bus.miami.edu/~tsu/.
You may request the paper via email: Tie Su: [email protected]
We welcome your comments and suggestions!
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We really mean it!The paper is currently
at the JFQA.
Download the full paper.
Thank You!
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