Chartered Financial Analyst - CFA

The official stamp of approval for financial analysts. And if you don't know, financial analysts are people trained to look at a company's books and use that information to make projections for the future and recommendations about how the company can improve.

Think about movies and TV shows set on Wall Street. One rich guy wants to take over another rich guy's business; he marches into the board room with a bunch of people in suits, and says something like "I'm launching a hostile takeover and there's nothing you can do about it!" Well, some of those extras in suits are meant to represent financial analysts. Some probably represent lawyers too, but we're not talking about them here. Thankfully.

Anyway, a CFA (like the imaginary certifications held by the characters those movie extras are playing) get issued by the CFA Institute. To get one, you need to fulfill an education requirement and pass three levels of exams.