designation in the rapidly growing sphere of alternative investments.
The AIMA is the hedge fund industry's global, not-for-profit trade association, with over 1,500 corporate members worldwide. Members include leading hedge fund managers, fund of hedge funds managers, prime brokers, legal and accounting services, and fund administrators, all of whom benefit from the AIMA's active influence in policy development; its leadership in industry initiatives, including education and sound practice manuals; and its excellent reputation with regulators.
The CISDM of the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, seeks to enhance the understanding of the field of alternative investments through research, education, and networking opportunities for member donors, industry professionals, and academics.
The CAIA Association has experienced rapid growth in its membership over the past 13 years. It is now a truly global professional organization, with over 7,000 members in over 80 countries. We strive to stay nimble in our process so that curriculum remains relevant and keeps pace with the constant changes in this dynamic industry.
Benefits
Although the CAIA Association's origins are largely based in the efforts of professionals in the hedge fund and managed futures space, these founders correctly identified a void in the wider understanding of alternative investments as a whole. From the beginning, the CAIA curriculum has also covered private equity, commodities, and real assets, always with an eye toward shifts in the industry. Today, several hundred CAIA members identify their main area of expertise as real estate or private equity, and several hundred more are from family offices, pension funds, endowments, and sovereign wealth funds, which allocate across multiple classes within the alternative investment industry. To ensure benefit to the widest spectrum of members, we have developed curriculum subcommittees that represent each area of coverage within the curriculum. Alternative investment areas and products share some distinct features, such as the relative freedom on the part of investment managers to act in the best interests of their investors, alignment of interests between asset owners and asset managers, and relative illiquidity of the investment positions of some investment products. These characteristics necessitate conceptual and actual modifications to the standard investment performance analysis and decision-making paradigms.
Our curriculum readings are designed with two goals in mind. First, to provide readers with the tools needed to solve problems they encounter in performing their professional duties. Second, to provide them with a conceptual framework that is essential for investment professionals who strive to keep up with new developments in the alternative investment industry.
Readers will find the publications in our series to be beneficial, whether from the standpoint of allocating to new asset classes and strategies in order to gain broader diversification or from the standpoint of a specialist needing to better understand the competing options available to sophisticated investors globally. In both cases, readers will be better equipped to serve their clients' needs.
The CAIA Programs and the CAIA Alternative Investment Analyst Series
The CAIA Level I required readings are contained in this one text, supplemented only by the CFA Institute's Standards of Practice Handbook. Level I candidates are assumed to have mastered some knowledge of financial markets, securities pricing, and derivatives markets in advance of commencing studies for the Level I exam.
Many resources are freely available on our website (caia.org). We will continue to update the CAIA Level I Study Guide every six months (each exam cycle). The study guide outlines all of the readings and corresponding learning objectives (LOs) that candidates are responsible for meeting. The guide also contains important information for candidates regarding the use of LOs, testing policies, topic weightings, where to find and report errata, and much more. The entire exam process is outlined in the CAIA Candidate Handbook, which is available at caia.org. Candidates can also access a workbook that solves the problems presented at the end of each chapter and other important study aids.
We believe you will find this series to be the most comprehensive, rigorous, and globally relevant source of educational material available within the field of alternative investments.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the many individuals who played important roles in producing this book. In particular, we owe great thanks to William Kelly, Chief Executive Officer of the CAIA Association, and our committee members:
Curriculum Advisory Council
Stephane Amara, CAIA
Mark Anson, CAIA
Garry Crowder
David McCarthy
Tom Robinson, CAIA
Hilary Till
James Tomeo
Hedge Funds, CTAs, and Fund of Hedge Funds Committee
Jaeson Dubrovay, CAIA
Mark Hutchinson
Kathryn Kaminski, CAIA
Jim Liew
Hamlin Lovell, CAIA
Putri Pascualy
Mark Wiltshire, CAIA
Real Assets (Real Estate, Commodities, Infrastructure, Intellectual Properties, and Natural Resources) Committee
Tom Arnold, CAIA
Andrew Baum
Georg Inderst
Sameer Jain
Tom Johnson, CAIA
David Lynn
George A. Martin
Joelle Miffre
Richard Spurgin
Private Equity and Venture Capital Committee
James Bachman, CAIA
Erik Benrud, CAIA
Douglas Cumming
Ludovic Phalippou
Pierre-Yves Mathonet
Thomas Meyer
Gitanjali M. Swamy
Due Diligence, Risk Management, and Regulation Committee
Gordon Barnes, CAIA
Michal Crowder
Jason Scharfman
Christopher Schelling, CAIA
Sean Gill, CAIA
Tom Kehoe
Danny Santiago, CAIA
Asset Allocation, Endowments, Pension Funds, and Sovereign Funds Committee
