Free CFA Institute CFA-Level-III Exam Questions

Harold Chang, CFA, has been the lead portfolio manager for the Woodlock Management Group (WMG) for the last five years. WMG runs several equity and fixed income portfolios, all of which are authorized to use derivatives as long as such positions are consistent with the portfolio's strategy. The WMG Equity Opportunities Fund takes advantage of long and short profit opportunities in equity securities. The fund's positions are often a relatively large percentage of the issuer's outstanding shares and fund trades frequently move securities prices. Chang runs the Equity Opportunities Fund and is concerned that his performance for the last three quarters has put his position as lead manager in jeopardy. Over the last three quarters, Chang has been underperforming his benchmark by an increasing margin and is determined to reduce the degree of underperformance before the end of the next quarter. Accordingly, Chang makes the following transactions for the fund: Transaction 1: Chang discovers that the implied volatility of call options on GreenCo is too high. As a result, Chang shorts a large position in the stock options while simultaneously taking a long position in GreenCo stock, using the funds from the short position to partially pay for the long stock. The GreenCo purchase caused the share price to move up slightly. After several months, the GreenCo stock position has accumulated a large unrealized gain. Chang sells a portion of the GreenCo position to rebalance the portfolio. Richard Stirr, CFA, who is also a portfolio manager for WMG, runs the firm's Fixed Income Fund. Stirr is known for his ability to generate excess returns above his benchmark, even in declining markets. Stirr is convinced that even though he has only been with WMG for two and a half years, he will be named lead portfolio manager if he can keep his performance figures strong through the next quarter. To achieve this positive performance, Stirr enters into the following transactions for the fund: Transaction 2: Stirr decides to take a short forward position on the senior bonds of ONB Corporation, which Stirr currently owns in his Fixed Income Fund. Stirr made his decision after overhearing two of his firm's investment bankers discussing an unannounced bond offering for ONB that will subordinate all of its outstanding debt. As expected, the price of the ONB bonds falls when the upcoming offering is announced. Stirr delivers the bonds to settle the forward contract, preventing large losses for his investors. Transaction 3: Sitrr has noticed that in a foreign bond market, participants are slow to react to new information relevant to the value of their country's sovereign debt securities. Stirr, along with other investors, knows that an announcement from his firm regarding the sovereign bonds will be made the following day. Stirr doesn't know for sure, but expects the news to be positive, and prepares to enter a purchase order. When the positive news is released, Stirr is the first to act, making a large purchase before other investors and selling the position after other market participants react and move the sovereign bond price higher. Because of their experience with derivatives instruments, Chang and Stirr are asked to provide investment advice for Cherry Creek, LLC, a commodities trading advisor. Cherry Creek uses managed futures strategies that incorporate long and short positions in commodity futures to generate returns uncorrelated with securities markets. The firm has asked Chang and Stirr to help extend their reach to include equity and fixed income derivatives strategies. Chang has been investing with Cherry Creek since its inception and has accepted increased shares in his Cherry Creek account as compensation for his advice. Chang has not disclosed his arrangement with Cherry Creek since he meets with the firm only during his personal time. Stirr declines any formal compensation but instead requests that Cherry Creek refer their clients requesting traditional investment services to WMG. Cherry Creek agrees to the arrangement. Three months have passed since the transactions made by Chang and Stirr occurred. Both managers met their performance goals and are preparing to present their results to clients via an electronic newsletter published every quarter. The managers want to ensure their newsletters are in compliance with CFA Institute Standards of Professional Conduct. Chang states, "in order to comply with the Standards, we are required to disclose the process used to analyze and select portfolio holdings, the method used to construct our portfolios, and any changes that have been made to the overall investment process. In addition, we must include in the newsletter all factors used to make each portfolio decision over the last quarter and an assessment of the portfolio's risks." Stirr responds by claiming, "we must also clearly indicate that projections included in our report are not factual evidence but rather conjecture based on our own statistical analysis. However, I believe we can reduce the amount of information included in the report from what you have suggested and instead issue more of a summary report as long as we maintain a full report in our internal records." Determine whether Chang's comments regarding the disclosure of investment processes used to manage WMG's portfolios and the disclosure of factors used to make portfolio decisions over the last quarter are correct.

Jack Higgins, CFA, and Tim Tyler, CFA, are analysts for Integrated Analytics (LA), a U.S.-based investmentanalysis firm. JA provides bond analysis for both individual and institutional portfolio managers throughout theworld. The firm specializes in the valuation of international bonds, with consideration of currency risk. IAtypically uses forward contracts to hedge currency risk.Higgins and Tyler are considering the purchase of a bond issued by a Norwegian petroleum products firm,Bergen Petroleum. They have concerns, however, regarding the strength of the Norwegian krone currency(NKr) in the near term, and they want to investigate the potential return from hedged strategies. Higginssuggests that they consider forward contracts with the same maturity as the investment holding period, which isestimated at one year. He states that if IA expects the Norwegian NKr to depreciate and that the Swedish krona(Sk) to appreciate, then IA should enter into a hedge where they sell Norwegian NKr and buy Swedish Sk via aone-year forward contract. The Swedish Sk could then be converted to dollars at the spot rate in one year.Tyler states that if an investor cannot obtain a forward contract denominated in Norwegian NKr and if theNorwegian NKr and euro are positively correlated, then a forward contract should be entered into where euroswill be exchanged for dollars in one year. Tyler then provides Higgins the following data on risk-free rates andspot rates in Norway and the U.S., as well as the expected return on the Bergen Petroleum bond.Return on Bergen Petroleum bond in Norwegian NKr 7.00%Risk-free rate in Norway 4.80%Expected change in the NKr relative to the U.S. dollar -0.40%Risk-free rate in United States 2.50%Higgins and Tyler discuss the relationship between spot rates and forward rates and comment as follows.• Higgins: "The relationship between spot rates and forward rates is referred to as interest rate parity, wherehigher forward rates imply that a country's spot rate will increase in the future."• Tyler: "Interest rate parity depends on covered interest arbitrage which works as follows. Suppose the 1-yearU.K. interest rate is 5.5%, the 1-year Japanese interest rate is 2.3%, the Japanese yen is at a one-year forwardpremium of 4.1%, and transactions costs are minimal. In this case, the international trader should borrow yen.Invest in pound denominated bonds, and use a yen-pound forward contract to pay back the yen loan."The following day, Higgins and Tyler discuss various emerging market bond strategies and make the followingstatements.• Higgins: "Over time, the quality in emerging market sovereign bonds has declined, due in part to contagionand the competitive devaluations that often accompany crises in emerging markets. When one countrydevalues their currency, others often quickly follow and as a result the countries default on their external debt,which is usually denominated in a hard currency."• Tyler: "Investing outside the index can provide excess returns. Because the most common emerging marketbond index is concentrated in Latin America, the portfolio manager can earn an alpha by investing in emergingcountry bonds outside of this region."Turning their attention to specific issues of bonds, Higgins and Tyler examine the characteristics of two bonds:a six-year maturity bond issued by the Midlothian Corporation and a twelve-year maturity bond issued by theHorgen Corporation. The Midlothian bond is a U.S. issue and the Horgen bond was issued by a firm based inSwitzerland. The characteristics of each bond are shown in the table below. Higgins and Tyler discuss therelative attractiveness of each bond and, using a total return approach, which bond should be invested in,assuming a 1-year time horizon.Which of the following statements provides the best description of the advantage of using breakeven spread analysis? Breakeven spread analysis: 

Theresa Bair, CFA, a portfolio manager for Brinton Investment Company (BIC), has recently been promoted to lead portfolio manager for her firm's new small capitalization closed-end equity fund, the Quaker Fund. BIC is an asset management firm headquartered in Holland with regional offices in several other European countries. After accepting the position, Bair received a letter from the three principals of BIC. The letter congratulated Bair on her accomplishment and new position with the firm and also provided some guidance as to her new role and the firm's expectations. Among other things, the letter stated the following: "Because our firm is based in Holland and you will have clients located in many European countries, it is essential that you determine what laws and regulations are applicable to the management of this new fund. It is your responsibility to obtain this knowledge and comply with appropriate regulations. This is the first time we have offered a fund devoted solely to small capitalization securities, so we will observe your progress carefully. You will likely need to arrange for our sister companies to quietly buy and sell Quaker Fund shares over the first month of operations. This will provide sufficient price support to allow the fund to trade closer to its net asset value than other small-cap closed-end funds. Because these funds generally trade at a discount to net asset value, if our fund trades close to its net asset value, the market may perceive it as more desirable than similar funds managed by our competitors." Bair heeded the advice from her firm's principals and collected information on the laws and regulations of three countries: Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. So far, all of the investors expressing interest in the Quaker Fund are from these areas. Based on her research, Bair decides the following policies are appropriate for the fund: Note: Laws mentioned below are assumed for illustrative purposes. • For clients located in Norway the fund will institute transaction crossing, since, unlike in Holland, the practice is not prohibited by securities laws or regulations. The process will involve internally matching buy and sell orders from Norwegian clients whenever possible. This will reduce brokerage fees and improve the fund's overall performance. • For clients located in Denmark, account statements that include the value of the clients' holdings, number of trades, and average daily trading volume will be generated on a monthly basis as required by Denmark's securities regulators, even though the laws in Holland only require such reports to be generated on a quarterly basis. • For clients located in Sweden, the fund will not disclose differing levels of service that are available for investors based upon the size of their investment. This policy is consistent with the laws and regulations in Holland. Sweden's securities regulations do not cover this type of situation.Three months after the inception of the fund, its market value has grown from $200 million to $300 million and Bair's performance has earned her a quarter-end bonus. Since it is now the end of the quarter, Bair is participating in conference calls with companies in her fund. Bair calls into the conference number for Swift Petroleum. The meeting doesn't start for another five minutes, however, and as Bair waits, she hears the CEO and CFO of Swift discussing the huge earnings restatement that will be necessary for the financial statement from the previous quarter. The restatement will not be announced until the year's end, six months from now. Bair does not remind the officers that she can hear their conversation. Once the call has ended, Bair rushes to BIC's compliance officer to inform him of what she has learned during the conference call. Bair ignores the fact that two members of the firm's investment banking division are in the office while she is telling the compliance officer what happened on the conference call. The investment bankers then proceed to sell their personal holdings of Swift Petroleum stock. After her meeting, Bair sells the Quaker Fund's holdings of Swift Petroleum stock. By selling the Quaker Fund's shares of Swift Petroleum, did Bair violate any CFA Institute Standards of Professional Conduct?

Geneva Management (GenM) selects long-only and long-short portfolio managers to develop asset allocationrecommendations for their institutional clients.GenM Advisor Marcus Reinhart recently examined the holdings of one of GenM's long-only portfolios activelymanaged by Jamison Kiley. Reinhart compiled the holdings for two consecutive non-overlapping five yearperiods. The Morningstar Style Boxes for the two periods for Kiley's portfolio are provided in Exhibits 1 and 2.Exhibit 1: Morningstar Style Box: Long-Only Manager for Five-Year Period 1Exhibit 2: Morningstar Style Box: Long-Only Manager for Five-Year Period 2Reinhart contends that the holdings-based analysis might be flawed because Kiley's portfolio holdings areknown only at the end of each quarter. Portfolio holdings at the end of the reporting period might misrepresentthe portfolio's average composition. To compliment his holdings-based analysis, Reinhart also conducts areturns-based style analysis on Kiley's portfolio. Reinhart selects four benchmarks:1. SCV: a small-cap value index.2. SCG: a small-cap growth index.3. LCV: a large-cap value index.4. LCG: a large-cap growth index.Using the benchmarks, Reinhart obtains the following regression results:Period 1: Rp = 0.02 + H0.01(SCV) + 0.02(SCG) + 0.36(LCV) + 0.61(LCG)Period 2: Rp = 0.02 + 0.01(SCV) + 0.02(SCG) + 0.60(LCV) + 0.38(LCG)Kiley's long-only portfolio is benchmarked against the S&P 500 Index. The Index's current sector allocations areshown in Exhibit 3.Exhibit 3: S&P 500 Index Sector AllocationsGenM strives to select managers whose correlation between forecast alphas and realized alphas has beenfairly high, and to allocate funds across managers in order to achieve alpha and beta separation. GenM givesReinhart a mandate to pursue a core-satellite strategy with a small number of satellites each focusing on arelatively few number of securities.In response to the core-satellite mandate, Reinhart explains that a Completeness Fund approach offers twoadvantages:Advantage 1: The Completeness Fund approach is designed to capture the stock selecting ability of the activemanager, while matching the overall portfolio's risk to its benchmark.Advantage 2: The Completeness Fund approach allows the Fund to fully capture the value added from activemanagers by eliminating misfit risk.Which one of the following statements about Kiley's long-only portfolio is most correct1? Kiley's portfolio:

Robert Keith, CFA, has begun a new job at CMT Investments as Head of Compliance. Keith has just completed a review of all of CMT's operations, and has interviewed all the firm's portfolio managers. Many are CFA charterholders, but some are not. Keith intends to use the CFA Institute Code and Standards, as well as the Asset Manager Code of Professional Conduct, as ethical guidelines for CMT to follow. In the course of Keith's review of the firm's overall practices, he has noted a few situations which potentially need to be addressed. Situation 1: CMT Investments' policy regarding acceptance of gifts and entertainment is not entirely clear. There is general confusion within the firm regarding what is and is not acceptable practice regarding gifts, entertainment and additional compensation. Situation 2: Keith sees inconsistency regarding fee disclosures to clients. In some cases, information related to fees paid to investment managers for investment services provided are properly disclosed. However, a few of the periodic costs, which will affect investment return, are not disclosed to the clients. Most managers are providing clients with investment returns net of fees, but a few are just providing the gross returns. One of the managers stated "providing gross returns is acceptable, as long as I show the fees such that the client can make their own simple calculation of the returns net of fees." Situation 3: Keith has noticed a few gaps in CMT's procedure regarding use of soft dollars. There have been cases where "directed brokerage" has resulted in less than prompt execution of trades. He also found a few cases where a manager paid a higher commission than normal, in order to obtain goods or services. Keith is considering adding two statements to CMT's policy and procedures manual specifically addressing the primary issues he noted. Statement 1: "Commissions paid, and any corresponding benefits received, are the property of the client. The benefit(s) must directly benefit the client. If a manager's client directs the manager to purchase goods or services that do not provide research services that benefit the client, this violates the duty of loyalty to the client.” Statement 2: "In cases of "directed brokerage," if there is concern that the client is not receiving the best execution, it is acceptable to utilize a less than ideal broker, but it must be disclosed to the client that they may not be obtaining the best execution." Situation 4: Keith is still evaluating his data, but it appears that there may be situations where proxies were not voted. After completing his analysis of proxy voting procedures at CMT, Keith wants to insert the proper language into the procedures manual to address proxy voting. Situation 5: Keith is putting into place a "disaster recovery- plan," in order to ensure business continuity in the event of a localized disaster, and also to protect against any type of disruption in the financial markets. This plan includes the following provisions: • Procedures for communicating with clients, especially in the event of extended disruption of services provided. • Alternate arrangement for monitoring and analyzing investments in the event that primary systems become unavailable. • Plans for internal communication and coverage of crucial business functions in the event of disruption at the primary place of business, or a communications breakdown. Keith is considering adding the following provisions to the disaster recovery plan in order to properly comply with the CFA Institute Asset Manager Code of Professional Conduct: Provision 1: "A provision needs to be added incorporating off-site backup for all pertinent account information." Provision 2: "A provision mandating testing of the plan on a company-wide basis, at periodical intervals, should be added." Situation 6: Keith is spending an incredible amount of time on detailed procedures and company policies that are in compliance with the CFA Institute Code and Standards, and also in compliance with the CFA Institute Asset Manager Code of Professional Conduct. As part of this process, he has had several meetings with CMT senior management, and is second-guessing the process. One of the senior managers is indicating that it might be abetter idea to just formally adopt both the Code and Standards and the Asset Manager Code of Conduct, which would make a detailed policy and procedure manual redundant. Keith wants to assure CMT's compliance with the requirements of the CFA Institute Code and Standards of Professional Conduct. Which of the following statements most accurately describes CMT's responsibilities in order to assure compliance?