Qualification advice needed?

[ahsan_jq]

Hi ,

Im in finance and trading sector for quite a few years now. I have done(and doing) software system analysis and development for traders/dealers/other corporate services(finance,compliance etc) in an IB and Brokerage firms(Prime brokerage and MarketMaker).

Im interested in SII or IMC (or some other industry qualification). The targets are, acquire more business knowledge (short term), involve in some derivatives/CFD/FX trading (medium term) and career change towards more business oriented positions (in long term).

Im in impression that IMC is quite entry level qualiication whereas SII is bit more detailed. Presumable, IMC is intended for people who are interested more in Asset and Fund Management whereas SII is inclined more towards trading (correct me if im wrong).

I know there are different routes in SII certification for different type of people (like staff advising in securities should go for securities exam and so on).

But as far as i can im concern, i would like to get qualification which will provide me good overall understanding of domain and would help me in future to get into trader and analyst sort of positions.

As per my understanding, it looks like SII is the way forward..

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Regards,

 

[Magos]

Im in impression that IMC is quite entry level qualiication whereas SII is bit more detailed. Presumable, IMC is intended for people who are interested more in Asset and Fund Management whereas SII is inclined more towards trading (correct me if im wrong).

The above is quite right, but trading for a hedge fund according to the company policy even with FSA exams you might be required to do the IMC, it happened to me before in an interview.

FSA Unit 1 and Unit3 will get you the derivatives certificate and plus Unit 2 will get you the Securities one as well. CFD's are not mentioned in detail in either Unit 2 or 3.

My suggestion : do them all

 

[ahsan_jq]

Many thanks Magos for your suggestion.

I'd go for SII unit 1(or 2) and 3 and afterwords i'll crack on IMC stuff.

Thanks anyways.

 

[fumanchu]

You could also do the SII cert programme and do the Unit 5 which is apparently the equivalent to to the IMC ( if you do one of the Reg units 1 or 6).

If you do complete both Units 1/6 & a techinical unit (3,7 or 9) you'll get an expemtion from Unit 1 on the IMC.

Although, on the face of it, you'd have to decide early on in the Sii cert scheme as the Unit 5 seems to cover off a lot of material that you might have already covered off in Units 2, 3, 7, & 9 - no expemtions there and possbily no added benefit (as unit 5 seems to cover tax performance management etc )

See chapters 7-11
http://www.siservices.co.uk/brochures/img_pdf/CertIMIntMar06.pdf

http://www.7city.com/siicer_modules...urse=modules&unit=1&cert=wholesale&country=uk

http://www.sii.org.uk/WEB5/Infopool.nsf/HTML/qU5IM


Also, apparently if you complete units 1&2 on SII cert you can take the Unit 7 (financial derivatives which is a 75 question exam) instead of the complete unit 3 module ( which is a 100 question exam).

Hope this helps.