The first level of CAIA introduces you to the foundations and environment of alternative investments, including quantitative foundations, statistical foundations, measures of risk and performance, foundations of financial economics, benchmarking and performance attribution, alpha, beta, and hypothesis testing, and regression, multivariate, and nonlinear methods.

You will complete an exam covering all of these topics at the end of level 1. CAIA recommends spending a minimum of 200 hours of study time for each level. To be awarded the CAIA charter, you should continue your studies with level II.

The second level takes a deeper look at the areas introduced in Level 1, including asset allocation and institutional investors, private equity, real assets, commodities, hedge funds and managed futures, and structured products.

CAIA recommend spending a minimum of 200 hours of study time for each level. After you’ve passed both CAIA exams, and you have the relevant work experience, you’re eligible to apply to the CAIA Association and join a global community of over 10,000 CAIA Charterholders in more than 90 countries.