GARP's Financial Risk Manager (FRM) Certification

SC Training Brochure ( brochure)

Live Instruction Classes


Key Features

• Structured and rapid learning: rely entirely on our materials to learn and revise each concept from scratch
• Reduce study time from roughly 400-500hrs to 100-150hrs
• Virtual FRM offers on-line access to audio recordings and lectures may be re-played. Each license also includes on-line access to all course materials (course slides, our own sample questions and answers plus FRM-WQA). Our course materials summarize the core readings, which greatly reduces the required study time. This year's material will be available on-line between March and May.
• FRM-WQA:  fully worked solutions to all available and relevant past exam papers
• On-going support via e-mail leading up to the exam
• Live instruction 5-Day Course or 3-Day intensive Revision Course in many cities worldwide
• Professionals not taking the FRM are invited to attend one or more of our Risk modules. We also offer customized risk training. Please contact us for further details.

• Online only: Pre-FRM Quantitative Analysis Primer and Calculator Usage
• Intensive 1-Day Course:  Quantitative Analysis: Module 1
• Intensive 2-Day Course:  Market Risk Measurement and Management: Module 2
• Intensive 1-Day Course:  Credit Risk Measurement and Management: Module 3
• Intensive 1/2-Day Course (4 hours:  Operational and Integrated Risk Management, Legal and Ethics: Module 4
• Intensive 1/2-Day Course (3 hours: Risk Management and Investment Management: Module 5
• Intensive 3-Day (30 hours) Revision Course

Self Study Options

• vFRM: Virtual FRM offers candidates on-line access to audio recordings of lectures. Lectures may be re-played. Each license also includes all course materials: our own sample questions and answers, as well as FRM-WQA (worked questions and answers to all relevant and available past exam papers). All 2007 material is available online and most should be relevant for the 2008 exam. GARP releases the 2008 syllabus in February/March each year. By May our online material will be updated. We strongly recommend candidates to register early as there is a large quantity of material to cover. All licenses are valid till end 2008.
• On-going support via e-mail leading up to the exam

• Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP)
• FRM Exam: Useful Background Information
• Course Materials
• Success Guarantee
• On-Going Support
• Course Locations and Dates
• Registration
• Cancellations
• 2007 FRM Syllabus
• Module 1: Quantitative Analysis - 10%
• Module 2: Market Risk Measurement and Management - 30%
• Module 3: Credit Risk Measurement and Management - 25%
• Module 4: Operational & Integrated Risk Management and Ethics - 25%
• Module 5: Risk Management and Investment Management - 10%

Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP)

GARP is a not-for-profit association serving the international risk community. GARP's FRM is the world's most prestigious certification program that measures a financial risk manager's capabilities. The Financial Risk Manager ® certification program is the international benchmark qualification for professional risk managers. Since its inception in 1997, 10,685 practitioners from 4,500 companies have passed the examination, held each November at locations around the world. The examination tests one's ability to manage financial risk dynamically in real life settings and covers operational, credit and market risk, as well as quantitative analysis, legal issues and ethics. The FRM is the benchmark companies use to determine whether an employee conforms to the highest industry standards and is well versed in broad and detailed risk management concepts and techniques. For information about the FRM program, visit www.garp.com/frmexam/.

FRM Exam: Useful Background Information

The FRM syllabus consists of roughly 3,000 pages of readings. Assuming only 5 minutes per page this would require 250 hours to read the material; first-reading, summarizing, revising and testing yourself might take 400-500hrs. Depending on an individual's academic background and work experience relying on our material alone vastly reduces study time to around 100-150hrs.

GARP's FRM Handbook only serves as a final revision tool - it is not a study book. It summarizes key material but assumes a considerable amount of knowledge and candidates relying on this book alone are unlikely to pass the exam. The Handbook also misses out certain topics.

For advice on how to prepare for the FRM, send us an e-mail outlining your academic background and work experience to-date and we will respond promptly.

Course Materials

We offer candidates detailed yet concise course slides, which summarize all the core readings and can be used as a final revision tool; in addition we provide our own questions and answers per topic. FRM-WQA consists of worked questions and answers to all relevant and available past exam papers. Our worked solutions are unique in that they explain how to solve each problem and reason why the alternatives are incorrect.

Live instruction candidates also receive a printed copy of our course slides and FRM-WQA.

Success Guarantee

In the unlikely event that a candidate does not pass first time, a free vFRM license will be offered the following year. This is providing the candidate spent at least 150 hours preparing for the exam. Please note this license cannot be transferred to another user.

On-going Support

On-line FRM training support continues for live instruction candidates up until the day of the exam. Lecturers are available, via e-mail, to answer any outstanding questions.

Course Locations and Dates

Courses Per Module

Revision Courses

Registration

Click here for our on-line inquiry form

After you inquire, we will send you our 2008 FRM Course brochure and registration instructions. Full payment is required to confirm a candidate's booking. Registrations are processed in 24-48hrs and candidates purchasing vFRM will receive a vFRM license immediately after. Training material for the 2007 FRM exam is available online. Any changes to the 2008 exam will be announced in Feb/March and our material will be updated by May. The quantitative sections and financial products usually stay the same so candidates registering early can start studying these areas. We do recommend registering as early as possible as there is a large quantity of material to cover.

Registration End-Date: Registrations for live instruction courses are accepted until 4 weeks before the course date. If a course is full we will try to run an additional course but this cannot be guaranteed. To avoid disappointment, we suggest that you register early.

Cancellations

2007 FRM® Examination - Topic Outline and Test Weightings

Module 1: Quantitative Analysis - 10%

• Probability distributions
• Mean, standard deviation, correlation, skewness and kurtosis
• Estimating parameters of distributions
• Hypothesis testing
• Linear regression and correlation
• Statistical properties and forecasting of correlation, covariance and volatility
• Extreme value theory; basic principles
• Monte Carlo analysis

Module 2: Market Risk Measurement and Management - 30%

• Interest rates and bond pricing
• Interest rate, foreign exchange, equity, and commodity risks
• Valuation and risk analysis of: futures, forwards, swaps, and options
• Derivatives on fixed income securities, interest rates, foreign exchange, equities and commodities
• Emerging market risks, including currency crises
• Identifying and measuring risk exposures
• Value at Risk:
• Definition, delta-normal, historical simulation, Monte Carlo
• Implementation
• Limitations and alternative risk measures, e.g., conditional Value at Risk
• Risk Budgeting
• Stress testing
• Cash-Flow-at-Risk and Earnings-at-Risk
• Measuring and managing corporate exposures, including cash flow at risk

Module 3: Credit Risk Measurement and Management - 25%

• Credit ratings
• Default probabilities
• Credit spreads
• Contingent claim approach and the KMV Model
• Credit risk management models
• Counterparty risks:
• Exposures
• Recovery rates
• Risk mitigation techniques, including rating triggers, collateral, and seniority clauses
• Credit derivatives: CDOs and collateralized default swaps
• Interest rates and yields
• Margining
• Netting
• Bankruptcy including offsets and priority rules
• Portfolio credit risk
• Settlement risk
• Analyzing special purpose vehicles and securitzations

Module 4: Operational & Integrated Risk Management and Legal - 25%

• Types of operational risk
• Workflow in financial institutions
• Severity and frequency distributions for operational risk
• Aggregated distributions
• Differences between market and operational VaRs
• Hedging operational risk using financial engineering
• Insuring operational risk
• Measuring firm-wide risk
• Correlations across market, credit, and operational risk
• Definition of risk capital
• Allocation of risk capital across the firm
• Evaluating the performance of risk-management systems
• Implementation risks of risk management
• Liquidity risk
• Basel II
• The three pillars
• The internal ratings-based approach (foundation and advanced IRB)
• Operational risk (foundation and advanced approach)
• Internal models approach for market risk
• Legal risk
• Benefits and costs of firm-wide risk management

Module 5: Risk Management and Investment Management - 10%

Traditional investment risk management

• Return metrics (Sharpe ratio, information ratio, VaR, relative VaR, tracking error, survivorship bias)
• Implementing VaR
• Benchmarking asset mixes
• Risk decomposition and performance attribution
• Risk budgeting
• Tracking error
• Setting risk limits
• Risk of alpha transfer strategies
• Risk management issues of pension funds

• Risk-return metrics specific to hedge funds (drawdown, Sortino ratio)
• Risks of specific strategies (fixed-income arbitrage, merger arbitrage, convert arbitrage, equity long/short-market neutral, macro, distressed debt, emerging markets)
• Asset illiquidity, valuation, and risk measurement
• The use of leverage and derivatives and the risks they create.
• Problems in measuring exposures to risk factors (dynamic strategies, leverage, derivatives, style drift)
• Correlations among hedge funds and between hedge funds and other assets

GARP Disclaimer

GARP does not endorse, promote, review or warrant the accuracy of the products or services offered by SC Training of FRM-related information, nor does it endorse any pass rates claimed by the providers. Further, GARP is not responsible for any fees or costs paid by the user to SC Training, nor is GARP responsible for any fees or costs of any person or entity providing any services to SC Training. FRM^TM, GARP^TM and Global Association of Risk Professionals^TM, are trademarks owned by the Global Association of Risk Professionals, Inc.

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