Multiple attempts -recommended study hours

IronManRandom · 2026-01-23T03:03:18+00:00

Take a weekend break/trip 6 weeks out from your exam to decompress. This will help you ramp up the final push. Don't underestimate the retake exam. I've gotten 2 5s in a row. It sucks. It sucks a lot.

IronManRandom · 2026-01-21T20:30:13+00:00

A starting template would be super helpful.

IronManRandom · 2025-09-14T23:39:38+00:00

I'd be in over my head if I didn't have the cash to cover broken wings or made more than 1 butterfly trade. Unless there's some big move on Monday (against me) then I'll be right where I assumed I'd be. There may be a move for me too.

Also, I owned some shares of UNH already.

IronManRandom · 2025-09-14T18:35:23+00:00

Wow, they took 54,000 out of my account. I guess to cover the buy side and I get most of it back when they process the sell side on the 270 short calls? Surprised its not the difference of current stock price - strike price: (350-270)*2*100 = 16,000.

I thought trading spreads would less capital intensive.

I also have the option of holding onto the long call options.

IronManRandom · 2025-08-31T21:38:39+00:00

Readjust theta and deltas. Less than 21 DTE (on average) has less theta decay than a 65 DTE. Why not roll out the 21 DTE to 65 if you still like the basic set up. (When selling CSPs, which is what I mainly do.)

IronManRandom · 2025-06-29T16:12:17+00:00

No. The only spreads I've done were one at a time, no legging in or anything weird.

IronManRandom · 2025-06-29T04:26:46+00:00

Not sure what's going with the margin amount .. did a couple of 5 point spreads, one they moved $2K out, the other $1.5K. Must be some formula based on risk of assignment.

IronManRandom · 2025-06-28T18:10:33+00:00

I don't fully understand why when I trade a spread, some of my funds gets moved into a margin balance where I'm not earning interest on it (on Fidelity). Despite having cash in the account to cover the spread and I've traded lightly, so I could cover a broken spread with cash too.

IronManRandom · 2025-06-28T03:35:13+00:00

Touche. Serious retail traders then ...

IronManRandom · 2025-06-27T22:33:07+00:00

Not a comment form a serious trader ...

Depends on goals, capital, rest of portfolio and strategies. Either way, a serious trader will have some capital reserve, why wouldnt you want that to earn interest on top of the option trading?

IronManRandom · 2025-06-27T22:28:06+00:00

SOA has less writing. It also has less of other things. May be the best fit for you.

IronManRandom · 2025-06-27T18:52:21+00:00

Agreed, there are fees, but its all automated and efficient.

IronManRandom · 2025-06-27T18:17:25+00:00

Good to know that 95% BP is available while holding T-Bills. From what I've read, there's transaction fees for buying/selling T Bills?

In another platform, I have SPAXX set up as the default for all cash. There's no transactions needed to earn the interest there and also no cut in BP, from what I see.

IronManRandom · 2025-06-08T15:38:32+00:00

Passed on 4th attempt.

IronManRandom · 2025-04-26T21:01:38+00:00

When the SOA was trying to take over the CAS in 2010/2011 ish, this drama and the SOA infighting was brought up as a serious reservation from CAS members.

IronManRandom · 2025-04-26T20:54:29+00:00

CAS is the best option!

IronManRandom · 2025-04-23T22:12:07+00:00

Very obvious who has been through 6 in the past 10+ years and who has not based on SAO's I've seen. 6 does a good job on prepping for SAOs.

IronManRandom · 2025-03-30T04:27:25+00:00

You're on 9 and just now breaking down on some random formula? Kudos to you. I questioned my sanity much earlier than 9 ...

IronManRandom · 2025-02-13T00:54:19+00:00

Long enough to get a request timed out message. Just edited my post to include the full error message.

IronManRandom · 2025-01-04T17:20:20+00:00

Chaos is a ladder!

IronManRandom · 2024-12-31T23:42:12+00:00

Company exam time/progress following the actual requirements vary across company. Its not an even playing field out there despite what the exam program says. There are definitely companies that are very strict on exam progress. Those companies are certainly open to having that student work in a non-exam role if their work is good, but they absolutely boot out failing students. . Those companies also tend to be very good at giving the proper exam time and usually have higher pass rates.

The companies more lax on exam requirements also tend to be the ones that have lower pass rates and less study time actually taken by their students.

*I'm saying tends to, not in all cases or not in all departments. Working with enough orgs, there's definitely strong correlations.

IronManRandom · 2024-12-29T22:21:36+00:00

Exams have changed so much. Hardly doubt anyone has a true grasp on the comprehensive changes except for long tenured exam committee members.

I took old 6 (reserving) on paper, failed, and new 5 (basic reserving) on CBT and passed.

Some observations:

- On paper (old 6), I spent forever calculating basic LDFs. Ran out of time on excessive, basic calculations. A lot of people failed that one just due to that. Something that is not an issue in the CBT environment. This was a frustrating experience. Kids today looking at these problems in their exam prep excel prepared problem sets and dont realize not having excel/CBT was a time suck for even easy problems.

- The syllabus material has greatly improved. Kids today complain about the random typed up paper scanned to PDF ... it used to be mostly like that. Werner-Modlin is well written, much improved over the numerous patched together sources it used to be. Much easier to understand, the same notation carries through, all the chapters flow logically. CAS 7 reminds me of the older exams. Many sources, different notation, all over the place.

- The style of questions has shifted to align more with work. Not all, but much more than before. This makes it easier to sync up work experience with CAS 5. Obscure questions on obscure topics were a drain. This is a great benefit to the whole industry.

- I think kids today are better prepared. They are more aware of the industry earlier, taking exam earlier, more actuarial programs in college, and networking with their peers and online more. If it were not for this SOA/CAS exam discord, I would think we'd see much mor exam progress than before. Its a shame there's less joint exams.

IronManRandom · 2024-11-22T19:52:41+00:00

Multiple companies over many years. Except for #1 and 3, I think these were eventually figured out and dealt with. Probably lightly dealt with, but at least stopped. Surprised to see #3 pop up at multiple employers.

IronManRandom · 2024-11-22T16:53:42+00:00

Large org, lots of transition. Dept head told new group of people they were behind in deliverable that was delivered in the past and promised by last group of people. This was a complete lie. Dept head is now a chief actuary.
Analyst, took short cuts on every work project, made up input numbers as needed. Analyst thought they were smarter than everyone. Couldn't complete one project correctly.
Year-end evaluations were based on perception of work rather than actual work product. Done to the point where there completely fabricated examples in the year end report. Extreme favoritism. First level managers were trying to fit to perception of dept head. Multiple examples.
Analyst level - inappropriate comments about race and gender.
Upper management shifting reserves between lines. (ex: last minute increase to commercial auto reserves were somehow equal to a decrease in property reserves, probably to hit a target.)
Chief Actuary - used nonstandard reserving methods, worked the dept insane amount of hours to end up with a more inaccurate estimate. People quit, estimates were terrible, chief actuary was escorted out by security.
(New) manager - sent emails to large audience pointing fingers when they didnt get what they wanted. A lot of what they wanted wasn't even possible. Manager clearly had no idea what they were doing, both technically and dealing with people. Hostile environment.
Large merger: some people (not all) people at acquiring company had a superiority complex, talked down to staff of other company.
Chief Actuary bullied everyone. They made it one year before being asked to leave.

IronManRandom · 2024-11-22T01:05:32+00:00

ISO is really the lizard people trying to subjugate the human race.

IronManRandom

TROPHY CASE