Eagle, Colorado
It’s crunch time in the Elevate offices. Jacob and I are in the final stages of preparation for the third and final level of the Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA®) exam.
For those of you who don’t know, this is one of the most difficult test that the world has to offer – in any discipline.
In fact, if you go to google and search the term “what is the hardest test in the world” you will find the CFA® Exam at #7 (it used to be #2, but too many people have passed lately). In 2018, around 20,000 candidates passed the Level III exam out of 35,518 who tried – around 56%, one of the highest pass rates ever. For level I the pass rate was 43% and for level II it was 45%.
If you do the math, only around 10% of those who enroll in the program will even sit for the level III exam.
The CFA® Charter is the highest distinction in the investment management profession. To learn more about the program, please click here.
The 2019 exam is on June 15th. Wish us luck!
Meanwhile, the markets are reacting to every data point or tweet that hits the newswires. It’s amazing. The S&P 500 was down 6.58% in May. Elevate accounts were down much less across the board due to the substantial amount of cash we hold in our strategies. We did hit a few stop losses and closed those positions in May. We also initiated two new (defensive) positions at the end of the month which have gotten off to a great starts.
For now, we are actively scouring the market every day for safe places to deploy your hard-earned capital. Today, the odds don’t seem to be in our favor to get aggressive, so we are in no hurry.
Finally, for those of you invested in our Appreciation portfolio – congratulations on our first “double” since launching the new Appreciation and Income strategies in July of 2018. We took profits on our investment in MercadoLibre (MELI) during the month of May. We’ll let the rest ride until we stop out or the story changes.
Thanks for reading.
Shane Fleury
Chief Investment Officer
Elevate
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This commentary expresses the views of the author as of the date indicated and such views are subject to change without notice. Elevate Capital Advisors, LLC (“Elevate”) has no duty or obligation to update the information contained herein. This information is being made available for educational purposes only. Certain information contained herein concerning economic trends and performance is based on or derived from information provided by independent third-party sources. Elevate believes that the sources from which such information has been obtained are reliable; however, it cannot guarantee the accuracy of such information and has not independently verified the accuracy or completeness of such information or the assumptions on which such information is based. This memorandum, including the information contained herein, may not be copied, reproduced, republished, or posted in whole or in part, in any form without the prior written consent of Elevate. Further, wherever there exists the potential for profit there is also the risk of loss