The simple answer is that there don't appear to be many. I have a fair number of people contacting me via the blog asking my views on whether they should do the CQF. When I read postings about alternative courses

http://www.wilmott.com/blogs/dcfc/index.cfm/2008/2/27/Fordham-University-MS-in-Quantitaitve-Finance-MSQF

http://www.bnet.fordham.edu/msqf/faq/index.htm

http://www.wilmott.com/messageview.cfm?catid=16&threadid=59013

it makes you realise that you have to do a lot of research before committing your or you employer's money

I've written about this a few times before

http://www.noelwatson.com/blog/PermaLink,guid,33601e55-4ff4-427d-b151-16b470397ba5.aspx

http://www.noelwatson.com/blog/PermaLink,guid,1bfaa336-2aa0-4753-ae71-53b623a4886b.aspx

but the exam on Saturday marked the end of my CQF course. Passing Modules 1-5 exams and completing the Module 6 coursework allows you to obtain a pass, but you need to score more than 80% in the final exam to get a distinction. The results are out in around 2 weeks.

If anyone wants to discuss my thoughts on the course drop me an email.

I originally posted about this way back in June last year

http://www.noelwatson.com/blog/PermaLink,guid,33601e55-4ff4-427d-b151-16b470397ba5.aspx

Unfortunately due to work commitments at the time I wasn't able to dedicate my full attention to the course, so decided to postpone until January of this year. I have now completed 2 modules, so am 1/3 of the way through the course.

http://www.7city.com/cqf_program.php?area=quants&outline=cqf&course=program

A module is 4 weeks long, and this is how the workload has panned out

The work has been challenging, with a typical module consisting of

• Week 1 (20 hours)

Monday: Complete exam from prior module

Tuesday: As above (usually take day off work)

Wednesday: Lecture 18:00 - 20:30 (hand in exam)

Thursday: Work on questions from lecture

Friday: Work on questions from lecture

• Week 2 (10 hours)

Wednesday: Lecture 18:00 - 20:30

• Week 3 (10 hours)

Wednesday: Lecture 18:00 - 20:30

• Week 4 (25 hours)

Monday: Lecture 18:00 - 20:30

Wednesday: Lecture 18:00 - 20:30 (Exam handed out)

Thursday: Start exam

Friday: Sometimes an exam workshop is laid on

Weekend: Exam

Module 3 started last night, with the first lecture being about Black Sholes model

I started using these tools at the weekend after they were recommended at the first CQF lecture. I think it is a good idea as it is easier to keep copies of work than paper.

Firstly, the text is entered using WinEdit

http://www.winedt.com/

and is then compiled and opened using MiKTeK

http://www.miktex.org/

A good help file can be found here

http://tug.org/tex-archive/info/lshort/english/lshort.pdf

After looking at the CQF a while ago

http://www.noelwatson.com/blog/PermaLink,guid,018fedc5-7a72-423e-9a01-a5cb4a12ea12.aspx

and completing the Maths for Quant course recently,

http://www.noelwatson.com/blog/PermaLink,guid,12aae4a3-4821-4a72-b973-36a6f5e30710.aspx

I started the CQF yesterday evening.

The lecture was about random behaviour of assets and lasted for about two and a half hours, with around an hour spent working with an Excel spreadsheet looking at normal distribution and how share prices differ from this. This lesson reinforced how powerful Excel is for creating quick solutions (this is a double edged sword), and there were a few Excel functions that were new to me. It was good to get to work with real world data - this helps this information to sink in better.

After attending the CQF open evening and looking at the practice test, I decided that I was in strong need of a Maths refresher - I signed up for the 7 city Maths for Quant course

http://www.7city.com/maths_for_quants.php?area=quants&outline=matqua&course=matqua

This starts on Wednesday with the CQF starting next month. I will give full feedback upon completion (hopefully!) of the CQF in December.

Paul Wilmott's "Introduction to Quantitative Finance" was one of the first finance books that I read.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471498629/qid=1136302597/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/026-8223383-2541264

This drew me to the Wilmott forum

http://www.wilmott.com/index.cfm

and also the CQF course

http://www.7city.com/CQF/index.cfm?ccs=181

There are a total of 24 sessions, four per module. The total cost for the course is £10k + VAT. This appears to be reasonable value, and the fact that you are shelling out a large amount of money would make you ensure that you took in as much information as you could.

An alternative approach is to go via a University and do a part time Msc or something similar

• Kings college

http://www.mth.kcl.ac.uk/research/finmath/MSc.html

http://www.mth.kcl.ac.uk/research/finmath/practical.html

• Imperial

http://www.imperial.ac.uk/cpd/mathfin/

I am going to research the CQF further any potentially enroll in the Autumn course