CMSA Certification Review: Is It Worth It? (+ Discount Code)
Is the CMSA certification worth it? Of course, if you’re about to invest your money and time in this CFI program, you want to know if it’s worth the effort. Don’t worry! After reading this CMSA review, you will find out everything you need to know about the Capital Markets And Securities Analyst certification program.
IN THIS ARTICLE
- What Is The CMSA Certification?
- CMSA Review: The Course
- CMSA Review: The Tests
- Is The CMSA Worth It?
- CMSA Certification Discount Code
What Is The CMSA Certification?
The Capital Markets And Securities Analyst (CMSA) certification is a new designation released in 2020 by the Corporate Finance Institute which provides students with the most critical knowledge about equities, fixed income, foreign exchange, commodities, and derivatives.
This certification program has been released only a few months ago, but their most famous FMVA certification counts more than 600,000 students worldwide (including me!). You can just make a quick search on Linkedin to find out how many certified financial modeling & valuation analysts earned the certification.
You can learn more about my experience as an FMVA student in my FMVA Review.
The training program is entirely online, and you can get your certification after passing the 13-modules tests. You can take the tests as many times as you want until you pass it.
CMSA Review: The Course
As mentioned above, the course is 100% online, with more than 100 hours of recorded video lessons you can take whenever and wherever you want.
They aren’t live but, if you are a full-immersion student, you can reach out at your professors at any time via email, and they usually respond within a business day. With the full-immersion bundle, you can have premium email support from a qualified financial analyst, for up to 5 course-related questions per week.
The training program consists of 6 core courses and 7 elective courses that you can choose among 9 alternatives. The core courses cover the foundational knowledge of capital markets, while the elective ones go more in-depth about specific topics such as trading using technical analysis, options trading strategies, behavioral finance, and more.
As we said previously, there are more than 100 hours of video lessons. For this reason, one of the questions I received the most is: Are lessons boring to take?
The answer is: No, absolutely.
They have nothing to do with an average university lecture. You won’t spend 2 hours following a boring lecture since every topic is packed into a ten to twenty minutes video lesson that is interesting, engaging, and real-world inspired. These little nuggets of knowledge make it easy to complete the program since you can take a lesson any time you have as little as twenty minutes free.
Another question I often received is: How much time do you need to complete the program?
According to the CFI, the average completion time is 6 months, but If you want to have a better idea about the time it will take you, just divide the lesson hours (approximately 100) by the time you can dedicate it daily. If you can study for 1 hour/day, you should achieve the CMSA certification in 3 months.
CMSA Review: The Tests
To obtain your certification you must earn a minimum passing grade of 80% in each course assessment. As you can guess, this is one of the most frequently asked questions: Are the tests difficult to pass?
I pass most of the tests on the first attempt, but there are some assessments I passed only after trying more times. The most difficult one has been the elective course on high yield bonds, subordinated debt, and Loans.
Every time you pass a test, you achieve a certificate of course completion. Once you completed every course, you obtain the CMSA diploma.
Here’s an example of a certificate of course completion and my CMSA diploma:
Is The CMSA Certification Worth It?
Yes, it is definitely worth it. Going deeper about trading strategies, derivatives, and other capital markets products has been an insightful experience. Obviously, as discussed also in the FMVA review, becoming a certified CMSA doesn’t mean that you’ll get access to every job you want or that you will automatically get a six-figure salary. No hiring manager will hire you just because you are a CMSA.
What I mean is that it’s not about the certification, it’s about the skills. That’s what it is about, and that’s why the CMSA certification is worth it. It is worth it because it will help you achieve the skills and knowledge required to deeply understand capital markets. It is worth it because a company won’t need to spend hours and hours on your training like with most new graduates.
CFI certifications do exactly what they promise you: bridging the gap between what you’ve learned in university and the skills you need to have in the real world.
What’s more, it is an incredible resource that will support you forever. One year ago I obtained my FMVA certification and I still review my FMVA course every time I have doubts about financial modeling. And I’m sure that, one year from now, it will be the same with CMSA.
CMSA Certification Discount Code
As a student, I know that even a small investment can be a big thing. For this reason, I’m happy to share with you a 10% Off CMSA Coupon.
All you have to do is sign up for the program using this link and use the following coupon code: CFIPARTNER10.
CMSA Review: Conclusion
The Capital Markets & Securities Analyst (CMSA) certification program covers the most critical knowledge and skills required to bridge the gap between theory and practical experience and gain a comprehensive understanding of the most popular capital markets products including equities, fixed income, foreign exchange, commodities, and derivatives.
It is ideal for any student who wants to work in sales & trading, asset management, wealth management, treasury, risk management, and commercial banking, whether on the buy-side or the sell-side.
If you have some doubts or questions, don’t hesitate to ask. Just write a comment below — I’ll be happy to help you.
See you in the next article!
Manuel
This post may contain affiliate links that allow you to access a 10% discount for the CMSA certification program while I may earn a small commission if you buy something using them. Thanks!
