2009 June Media Highlights

 

A sampling of news coverage with links as available

 
29 June 2009
theedgemalaysia.com
Corporate: When Research Notes Border on Speculation
Excerpt: Lee Kha Loon, who heads the CFA Institute’s Centre for Financial Market Integrity (Asia-Pacific), says it is imperative for analysts to first confirm the accuracy of rumors on material information that has not been reported in any local or regional newspapers yet. “The analyst should call the company and confirm if the rumors are true. The analyst then has to ask the company to make the information public as this is material non-public information." Only when the information is made public can the analyst include the information in his or her research report. "Protecting the integrity of the financial markets is of utmost importance when material non-public information is involved,” says Lee, who is also the founding president of the Malaysian Society of Financial Analysts.

29 June 2009
P&I
Cutting a DB Plan Doesn’t Help
Excerpt: In an article in the July/August issue of the Financial Analysts Journal, Brendan McFarland, economist, Gaobo Pang, senior economist, and Mark Warshawsky, director of retirement research, present their analysis of the market-value impact of 82 publicly traded companies that froze or closed defined benefit plans between 2003 and 2007.

26 June 2009
thewhig.com
President, W.A. Robinson & Associates Ltd.
Excerpt: It began with a BA (Sc) from Queen's University in 1971. Following a time spent as a plumber, a position as executive director at the Northern Frontenac Community Services Corporation, forays into construction and a stint as a propane distributor, Robinson accumulated several financial designations culminating with his status as a CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst).

25 June 2009
BusinessDay (New Zealand)
Weimar Style Inflation Threatens
Excerpt: Simon Botherway is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and the former executive chairman of Brook Asset.

25 June 2009
Financial Times
Oath Will Do Little to Change Practices
Excerpt: Since attaining my MBA and CFA Charter, I have worked through several financial and corporate crises; we have seen all this before.

24 June 2009
xinhuanet.com (China)
Crisis Prompts Finance Professionals to Upgrade
Excerpt: The global industry recognition of the gold standard CFA charter is proving the point, with a record-breaking 130,000 registrations recorded for the June 2009 exams, representing a 14 percent year-on-year increase. The program covers finance theories, quantitative methods, and also ethics, which is extremely important at time of crisis. The three-level exams are not easy to pass, with only 35 percent passing the Dec 2008 exam. The crisis has prompted many experienced fund managers to realize that they themselves would need to beef up their financial knowledge, causing an explosive chase after the CFA credential and others.

24 June 2009
FundFire
CFA Is Important for Career Success
Excerpt: The CFA designation gives an important lift to the careers of professionals in the institutional and wealth management industries. That's according to a majority of FundFire poll respondents.

23 June 2009
about.com
Financial Training
Excerpt: The special section also notes strong growth in the number of CFA candidates worldwide, up 14 percent from June 2008, as the CFA increasingly becomes a sought-after credential in the financial industry. The difficulty of the CFA exams (only 35 percent of test takers pass the level one exam, 46 percent pass level 2 and 53 percent pass level 3) has led to growth in demand for qualified trainers to supplement the self-study program offered by the CFA Institute.

23 June 2009
newrulesofinvesting.com
New Rules Interview with Jeff Borack, Analyst/Blogger
Excerpt: Taking the first two levels of CFA exams has helped a lot too. I kind of viewed it as a formal training program since I was working at a small shop that didn’t have the time or resources to hold my hand through the initial stages of the learning process.

23 June 2009
Top1000Funds.com (Australia)
CFA Members Vote on Short Selling Rules
Excerpt: Global regulators acted to suspend short selling on certain equity sectors and markets in response to the market crisis in October 2008. This poll of members by the CFA Institute Centre for Financial Market Integrity will be used in a comment letter to the SEC in June.

22 June 2009
Financial Standard online (Australia)
Remuneration Fix to Restructure Industry
Excerpt: “My feeling is that it’s probably going to make for a sombre and less interesting [industry] because it’s less rewarding in the short term, but I think it will be far more sustainable business and industry. I think it would be a healthy development quite frankly,” said Lazberger at a CFA Institute roundtable.

22 June 2009
IFA (Australia)
Push for Mandatory Ethics Study
Excerpt: The CFA Institute aimed to promote the highest ethical and professional standards within the investment industry, and ethical components of CFA’s course should be made mandatory in investment courses in Australia, he [Emilio Gonzalez] said.

22 June 2009
Financial Times
Knowledge and Old-Fashioned Skill are Back in Favor
Excerpt: Nothing illustrates the underlying trend better than registrations to sit the exams of the CFA Institute this month. Though the financial industry absorbs many with Masters degrees in Business Administration and Finance, the Chartered Financial Analyst qualification, pursued part-time by those already hired, has become the industry’s benchmark.

22 June 2009
Barron's
Special Report – Retirement: The New Way to Crunch Your Numbers
Excerpt: The sweet spot for LDI is investors with portfolios in the $500,000 to $10 million range, argues Larry Siegel, research director at the CFA Institute's Research Foundation.

22 June 2009
The Times of India
Back to School
Excerpt: Talking about the courses that professionals generally opt for, Ghose articulates, "Professional education most commonly comprises either an MBA, an executive MBA or CFA."

22 June 2009
Reuters
Investor Group Says FASB’s Independence Has Eroded
Excerpt: Its members include 13 investment professionals from such organizations as the Council of Institutional Investors and the CFA Centre for Financial Market Integrity; a former regulator; and analysts from Moody's Corp , Standard & Poor's, Goldman Sachs & Co , J.P. Morgan Securities and the California Public Employees' Retirement System.

21 June 2009
Huffington Post
8 Common Sense Questions to Ask a Potential Investment Counsel
Excerpt: What educational qualifications do you have? Older, more experienced counselors may not have a high level of formal education, in which case experience would be key. But younger counselors should have some formal education, such as the CFA designation, which stands for Chartered Financial Analyst. This is a rigorously controlled global standard for portfolio management.

21 June 2009
Financial Post
Play it Safe with Life-Cycle Investing
Excerpt: The scholarly version is Thoughts on the Future: Life-Cycle Investing in Theory and Practice, published in the Financial Analysts Journal.

19 June 2009
seekingalpha.com
Four Reasons Why Stock Screeners Won’t Work for Next Few Years
Excerpt: Many buy-and-hold investors have essentially lost a decade of accumulated wealth, and there is no guarantee that these losses will be reclaimed, according to a recent article in the May/June 2009 issue of CFA Institute Magazine.

19 June 2009
Professional Pensions
Comment: Mistrust of Actuarial Profession Justified
Excerpt: Only this morning I read a survey from the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute which found 77 percent of those surveyed believed markets behaved irrationally. Or for the purpose of pension find accounting, markets are failing to rationally value pension schemes.

18 June 2009
The Advocate & Greenwich Times
Recession Is a Time to Teach Kids about Money
Excerpt: Although many high net-worth families are following through with their long-term financial plans, fewer are setting up accounts for their children, grandchildren and charities, said Stephen Horan, head of professional education content and private wealth with the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute. "If you want your nest egg to last, you can spend no more than 5 to 10 percent per year," he said, adding that the wealthy also are affected by the recession as other sources of income dry up.

18 June 2009
CT Post
Recession is a Time to Teach Kids About Money
Excerpt: Although many high net-worth families are following through with their long-term financial plans, fewer are setting up accounts for their children, grandchildren and charities, said Stephen Horan, head of professional education content and private wealth with the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute. "If you want your nest egg to last, you can spend no more than 5 to 10 percent per year," he said, adding that the wealthy also are affected by the recession as other sources of income dry up.

18 June 2009
allaboutalpha.com
Crowds May Not Be So “Wise” after All
Excerpt: The FT takes a jab at our friends from the CFA Institute (and also at virtually all business schools) for teaching efficient markets for so long.  Now, says the paper, “…the credit crisis has forced the high priests of rational market theory to question their own creed.” The paper reports that over three quarters of the members of the CFA Society of the UK “strongly” or “very strongly” disagreed that markets are rational.  The head of the Society tells the FT that the past year has ushered in a period of “questioning” of long-held assumptions by its members.

18 June 2009
Daily Telegraph (UK)
Investors Are Finally Seeing the Nonsense in the Efficient Market Theory
Excerpt: In this context, it was interesting to see a report this week that the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute, which has been teaching efficient markets theory for decades, has admitted that most of its members have lost the faith. Two thirds say they no longer believe market prices reflect all available information and three quarters disagree that investors as a whole behave “rationally”.

17 June 2009
financialstandard.com.au
Nigerians Seek CFA Certificate
Excerpt: Nigerian finance executives are increasingly seeking to boost their credentials after the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) program recorded a 44 per cent jump in the number of local professionals signing up in a year.

17 June 2009
Hindustan Times
Open an Account in Finance Now
Excerpt: A second degree (academic or professional) in accounting/finance considerably improves employability and opens up many more attractive careers. An undergraduate in accounting/finance/commerce has the option of pursuing professional courses like the CA (chartered accountancy), CFA (certified financial analysis), CWA (cost and works accountancy), and CS (company secretaryship).

15 June 2009
Investment Adviser
Survey Questions Efficiency
Excerpt: The survey was conducted ahead of the annual conference of the CFA Institute, which is to be held this June under the theme "Whatever Happened to Efficient Markets?" The conference will feature presentations from leading practitioners, academics and regulators.

15 June 2009
Financial Times
Crisis of Faith for High Priests of Rational Markets
Excerpt: However, the CFA survey suggests that the finance industry is not yet ready to rip up all its creed yet. Though two-thirds of the financial professionals surveyed said they regarded behavioural finance as a useful addition to the theories of the efficient market, just 14 per cent thought behavioural finance alone could become the new paradigm. Meanwhile, the CFA itself is hedging its bets: it is now introducing more behavioural finance into its own course, but alongside classic techniques such as the capital asset pricing model.

15 June 2009
moneymanagement.com.au
Role of Industry Bodies in Building Community Trust Questioned
Excerpt: Colonial First State Global Asset Management chief executive Mark Lazberger has questioned the role key financial services associations’ play in building community trust in the asset management sector in comparison with accountancy body the CFA Institute. Lazberger said the CFA Institute could be differentiated from other financial services industry bodies by the exacting education requirements placed on its members and by the focus on ethics and professional standards within this education. 

15 June 2009
Pensions & Investment
A Giant Loss for Investment World
Excerpt: Rodney Sullivan, head of publications at the CFA Institute, Charlottesville, Va., regularly met Mr. Bernstein and his wife and business partner, Barbara, when visiting New York. After publishing a couple of articles in the Journal of Portfolio Management – which Mr. Bernstein founded in 1974 – Mr. Sullivan said Mr. Bernstein asked him: “'Where have you been hiding all of those great articles?' That was worth the price of admission to hear that from Peter.”

15 June 2009
jpmak.blogspot.com
CFA 2009 Exam – Mental Rigour
Excerpt: This year, I guess there were record numbers of enrollment for the exam. Everybody wants to skill-up! In these times of economic slow-down.

15 June 2009
Indian Express
Bringing World Class Training to Indian Terrain
Excerpt: It seemed like yet another step to promote education and investment in India. National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM), a public trust established by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI); CFA Institute, the global association for investment professionals and the Indian Association of Investment Professionals (IAIP), a member society of CFA Institute announced signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly organize education, training and research for the investment industry in India.

15 June 2009
Time
Are Stocks Still Good for the Long Run?
Excerpt: In April, Robert Arnott – a veteran money manager from Southern California and former editor of the finance wonks' bible, the Financial Analysts Journal − penned a much discussed article for something called the Journal of Indexes. Arnott pointed out that while stocks still beat bonds over the long, long run, they actually lost out to 20-year government bonds from March 1969 through March 2009. That 40-year period is, by most standards, a pretty long run.

15 June 2009
Times of India
Education Times
Excerpt: BBA is a basic degree and for good employment prospects needs to be enhanced by an MBA or CFA.

15 June 2009
Times of India
Making a Choice
Excerpt: The traditional commerce options include CA, CWA, CS, CFA, CFP, banking, insurance, actuarial science, venture capital, merchant and investment banking, taxation, company laws, capital market.

12 June 2009
Globe and Mail
The Rise of the CFA
Excerpt: Looking back over the past decade – through the rise and fall of tech, commodities, real estate and increasingly bewildering and volatile derivatives – one total has climbed relentlessly. That’s the number of people who hold the international passport for hard-core financial professionals: the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

11 June 2009
bankrate.com
Finding a Financial Planner
Excerpt: Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA): A designation awarded by the CFA Institute to experienced financial analysts who successfully pass three examinations covering economics, financial accounting, portfolio management, securities analysis and ethics; that have approved work experience; and meet other requirements. CFAs are more likely to work for mutual fund companies, institutional asset management organizations or pension funds. CFA charterholders are annually required to affirm their commitment to high ethical standards.

11 June 2009
Khaleej Times online (Dubai)
ESCA, CFA Emirate, and CFA Institute Sign Pact
Excerpt: The Emirates Securities and Commodities Authority, or ESCA, the financial services regulatory body for the UAE, CFA Emirates, the CFA member association for the UAE, and CFA Institute, a global association of investment professionals that awards the CFA and CIPM designations, have announced their joint signing of a memorandum of understanding to explore ways to advance professional standards in the capital markets and investment industry.

9 June 2009
Accounting and Business
Pay Check-Up: A Break with the Asian Tradition for Cautious Staff Bonuses Is Coming under Close Scrutiny in Japan
Excerpt: This is already happening at Bank of America, where shareholders voted at their annual meeting to remove CEO and board chairman Kennth Lewis from the chairmanship. “The hope is that this will encourage board members to look more closely at issues of importance to shareholders, especially compensation,” says James Allen, director of capital markets policy at the CFA Institute Centre for Financial Market Integrity.

9 June 2009
The Wall Street Journal (Europe)
Financial News: More Bank Shareholders Vote – Finding New Unity, a Few Have Thwarted Management Plans
Excerpt: Shareholders of U.K. companies are typically readier than their counterparts in continental Europe to convene meetings and remove directors. Shareholder engagement in Germany has improved in recent years, activism is gaining momentum in France and corporate social responsibility is of increasing importance in Switzerland, according to industry body CFA Institute's manual on share owners' rights in different countries.

9 June 2009
iwanttobeaca.blogspot.com (India)
CFA Level I Posed No Problem 33 Percent Pass Rate Must Be for Laurier Students
Excerpt: There is a lot of time dedication it takes to pass the CFA Level I exam. The material was easy, but it still takes a lot of time. They test you on ethics and accounting frameworks and are very specific and detailed. It's not something that you can write without studying. I recommend a minimum of 150 hours of studying even if you have an accounting or finance background. You should follow the CFA guidelines if you want to guarantee a pass.

9 June 2009
Dow Jones
FASB’s Parent Taps Lobby Firm to Fend off Pressure
Excerpt: CFA Institute spokeswoman Kathy Valentine, who was on the call, said it wasn't unusual for FASB to participate in such calls. "Their role is just to observe. They don't set the agenda," she said.

8 June 2009
Financial News
Investors Turn out in Greater Force
Excerpt: There are some positive signs in this respect in continental Europe. Shareholder engagement in Germany has improved in recent years; activism is gaining momentum in France and corporate social responsibility is of increasing importance in Switzerland, according to industry body the CFA Institute’s manual on share owners’ rights in different countries.

8 June 2009
tomspencer.com
Synopsis – The CFA Level I Exam
Excerpt: If you are a practicing or aspiring consultant, is it worth becoming a CFA Charterholder? In my honest opinion, the answer is a clear yes. The CFA curriculum is all about managing the assets of a company. If you want to be able to provide a company with comprehensive advice, it is useful (if not essential) to understand how to value a business, deal with its assets, identify appropriate investment opportunities, manage cash flows, and obtain financing.

8 June 2009
The Hindu Online
MoU for Investor Education
Excerpt: Placing an emphasis on raising the knowledge level of Indian investment professionals, Ashvin P. Vibhakar, managing director of CFA Institute (Asia Pacific), said, “The Indian investment industry is rapidly growing and gaining influence in the world, and we look forward to working closely under this collaboration to raise the knowledge level of Indian investment professionals.”

8 June 2009
MondoVisione.com
SEC Announces Creation of Investor Advisory Committee
Excerpt: The Advisory Committee’s other members will include: Kurt Schacht, Managing Director, CFA Institute.

6 June 2009
New Zealand Herald
Sleep at Night and Still Make Money
Excerpt: This is a great theory but because correlations are dynamic it is frequently better not to know anything about an asset's correlation than to know what isn't so. We looked at a critique of current asset allocation practice by the editor of the US Financial Analysts Journal, Richard Ennis,

6 June 2009
New York Times
Finding Financial Advice in an Age of Bad Behavior
Excerpt:A certified public accountant counts here, too, as does a chartered financial analyst. You can’t just pay to get these letters after you name; you have to earn them.

4 June 2009
The Wall Street Journal
Banks Try to Stiff-Arm New Rule
Excerpt: The group, which included representatives from the CFA Institute Centre for Financial Market Integrity and FASB, among others, also talked about the banking industry's efforts to push back the off-balance-sheet accounting measure.

3 June 2009
The Wall Street Journal (Asia)
Congress Helped Banks Defang Key Rule
Excerpt: The rule change angered some investor advocates. "This is political interference on a major issue, and it raises questions about whether accounting standards going forward will have the quality and integrity that the market needs," says Patrick Finnegan, director of financial-reporting policy for CFA Institute Centre for Financial Market Integrity, an investor trade group.

3 June 2009
Pensions & Investments
Big Names on New SEC Investor Panel
Excerpt: Along with Mr. Anson, president and executive director at Nuveen, and Ms. Hobson, president at Ariel, members will include Abe Friedman, BGI’s managing director and global head of corporate governance and proxy voting; Dallas Salisbury, EBRI president and CEO; Kurt Schacht, managing director, CFA Institute; and Ann Yerger, CII executive director, according to an SEC news release.

3 June 2009
jutiagroup.com
Could the U.S. Lose Its Triple-A Rating?
Excerpt:An investor buys an idea and waits for that idea to materialize. It might take minutes, hours, days, sometimes even years for that idea to materialize. The longer the time frame, the more likely the idea will materialize profitably, according to a recent article in the May/June 2009 issue of CFA Magazine.

3 June 2009
Wallstreetpit.com
Crony Capitalism: Financial Firms Spent Millions Lobbying Washington to Change the Mark-to-Market Rule
Excerpt: The rule change angered some investor advocates. “This is political interference on a major issue, and it raises questions about whether accounting standards going forward will have the quality and integrity that the market needs,” says Patrick Finnegan, director of financial reporting policy for the CFA Institute Centre for Financial Market Integrity, an investor trade group.

3 June 2009
Investment News
SEC Forms Investor Advisory Committee
Excerpt: Members of the advisory committee include Mercer Bullard, founder and president of Fund Democracy Inc. of Oxford, Miss.; Barbara Roper, director of investor protection for the Consumer Federation of America of Washington; Dallas Salisbury, president and chief executive of the Employee Benefit Research Institute of Washington; Kurt Schacht, managing director of the CFA Institute of Charlottesville, VA.

3 June 2009
WSJ
Congress Helped Banks Defang Key Rule
Excerpt: The rule change angered some investor advocates. "This is political interference on a major issue, and it raises questions about whether accounting standards going forward will have the quality and integrity that the market needs," says Patrick Finnegan, director of financial reporting policy for the CFA Institute Centre for Financial Market Integrity, an investor trade group.

2 June 2009
Hong Kong Economic Journal
Weak Employment Situation and Talents Nurturing Strategy
Excerpt: On the last point, Chan mentions that the demand for professional financial knowledge and skills continues to rise despite the financial tsunami, as seen by the continuous growth in registrations of the globally recognized CFA exam (quoting stats drawn from our June 09 exam release).

2 June 2009
Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News
What’s in a Name? For Analysts with a CFA Charter It’s Timelier and More Objective Forecasting
Excerpt: Is it worth it? A new study shows analysts with the CFA designation issue timelier financial forecasts than those without the credential. They also tend to be bolder and more objective in those forecasts. But the study also found CFA charterholders were average in terms of their forecasting accuracy, perhaps because other analysts had the advantage of observing the forecasts issued by CFA charterholders before writing their own.

2 June 2009
National Post.com (Canada)
Saturday is D-Day for 128,600 in CFA Paper
Excerpt: Despite the downturn in financial markets in 2008, this Saturday (June 6th) a record 128,600 people from 164 countries will be taking their Level 1 and Level 2 exams for the CFA or Chartered Financial Analyst designation. This is the key credential to make it big in the financial services industry − if you want to be a stock-picker for a mutual fund company, an investment counselor, an investment banker, stock broker or dealer, or a security analyst for insurance companies or pension funds, the CFA is the main ticket needed to enter those hallowed halls.

2 June 2009
FundFire
Managers Offer Days off to Prep for CFA Exam
Excerpt: Industry professionals preparing for CFA exams this Saturday will have plenty of things to stress about this week. For employees at some asset management and investment consulting firms, balancing work and studying won’t be one of them. Many investment firms offer their employees a set number of paid days off to prepare for the exam. Some firms also offer financial incentive for employees to get their chartered financial analyst (CFA) designation. The CFA designation is widely regarded as the most rigorous and difficult certification process in the investment management industry, and a growing number of sales and marketing professionals are joining the ranks of portfolio managers and consultants going through the designation process, recruiters say.

1 June 2009
El Dorado Hills Telegraph
Another Inconvenient Truth
Excerpt: The three lucky advisors will have their own radio shows where they sell a 5-DVD set showing how you can follow their system. In April of this year, there were 56,709 people with the CFP designation. Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) numbers are harder to come by, but in 2006 alone, 116,000 people took at least one of the CFA exams. So with 50/50 odds, how long will it take to separate good money managers from lucky ones? As I mentioned, this is not the most accurate example, so let’s leave it at “a long time.”

1 June 2009
Securities Industry News
Challenges Seen in Complying with New GIPS
Excerpt: The GIPS were created by the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Institute in 1999 as a uniform and consistent, albeit voluntary, way for fund managers across the globe to calculate and report their investment performance to current and prospective clients. By doing so, managers can compete on an equal basis while investors can make fair comparisons.

1 June 2009
ISR (UK)
The Path to CDS Standardization
Excerpt: Rhodri Preece, a policy analyst based at the CFA Institute in London, stresses that increased transparency is in everyone’s best interest. In a recent paper, he says the problem for investors in more obscure CDS instruments is that they were unable to gauge the value of their holdings when the market began to dive.

1 June 2009
P&I
Investments Pros Flock to CFA Exam
Excerpt: The CFA Institute reported that 128,600 people from 154 countries plan to take one portion of the three-part examination. That's about 8.5 percent higher than the 118,500 candidates who registered in June 2008 and 36 percent higher than the 94,500 candidates in June 2007. “The labor market has become much more competitive in the current economic crisis,” said Nitin Mehta, London-based managing director for Europe, Middle East and Africa at the CFA Institute.

1 June 2009
Accounting & Business
Culture Change
Excerpt: This is already happening at Bank of America, where shareholders voted at the annual meeting to remove CEO and board chairman Kenneth Lewis from the chairmanship. “The hope is that this will encourage board members to look more closely at issues of importance to shareholders, especially compensation,” says James Allen, director of capital markets policy at the CFA Institute Centre for Financial Market Integrity.

1 June 2009
Markit Magazine
What Lies Beneath?
Excerpt: At the same time, Rhodri Preece, a policy analyst for CFA Institute Centre for Financial Market Integrity, says that market participants have focused on portfolio compression in order to provide a net position in a given contract for each counterparty.

1 June 2009
Credit Magazine
A Unifying Principle
Excerpt: “The new standard should reduce accounting based on managerial intent to minimize subjectivity,” says Vincent Papa, CFA Institute.

June 2009
Money Sense
Investing Sober
Excerpt: There is a better way. It’s called an Investment Policy Statement. Most advisers to wealthy clients put one together as a matter of course. But you don’t need a Porsche in your driveway to benefit from an IPS. The biggest benefit of an IPS is that it forces your adviser to talk – to really talk – to you. “Up until that point he might not even know how many kids you have,” says Horan.

June 2009
Kiplinger’s
Does Your Adviser Make the Grade?
Excerpt: The written agreement should be a clear road map that you can easily follow to determine whether your adviser is taking you down the path he or she laid out. Most important, it should make very clear the risks you will encounter along the way. Nintrup says she and her husband chose a "medium risk" approach after discussions with her adviser. But she didn't equate that level of risk with a potential 40 percent loss. That's a common disconnect. "A lot of times, clients say they understand percentages, but they don't internalize them," says Stephen Horan, head of private wealth management for the CFA Institute, the organization that grants the designation of Chartered Financial Analyst to investment professionals. "The mark of a good adviser is being able to make those translations."