FIA Cheat Sheet 2026

The 30 highest-yield FIA facts, distilled from real exam questions. Print it, save it as a PDF, or study it here — free, no sign-up.

1. When normalizing financial data across companies of different sizes, analysts most commonly use: → Common-size analysis (percentage of sales or total assets)
2. An AML compliance officer at a broker-dealer receives a subpoena from law enforcement requesting customer account records. The correct first step is to: → Contact legal counsel and follow firm procedures before producing any records
3. The SEC's Market Access Rule (Rule 15c3-5) requires broker-dealers to implement risk management controls before providing customers with: → Direct market access or sponsored access to trade in securities
4. What is the role of a 'payment gateway' in e-commerce transactions? → It authorizes and captures payment data between merchant and processor
5. A company with a beta of 1.5, a risk-free rate of 3%, and a market risk premium of 6% has a cost of equity of: → 12%
6. Which portfolio construction approach uses mean-variance optimization to select asset weights? → Markowitz optimization
7. What does 'systemic risk' refer to in financial regulation? → Risk of collapse of an entire financial system due to interconnected failures
8. Which regulation focuses on data privacy? → GDPR
9. Which of the following best describes 'purchasing power parity' (PPP) as a theory of exchange rates? → Exchange rates should adjust so that identical goods cost the same in different countries
10. A bank's leverage ratio under U.S. regulatory requirements is calculated as Tier 1 capital divided by: → Total average assets
11. Which concept explains why $1 received today is worth more than $1 received one year from now? → Time value of money
12. A portfolio has an expected return of 12%, a standard deviation of 18%, and the risk-free rate is 3%. What is its Sharpe ratio? → 0.50
13. Which of the following is a leading economic indicator? → Stock market performance
14. A pivot table in financial analysis is primarily used to: → Summarize, group, and cross-tabulate large datasets dynamically
15. What is the primary function of a market maker? → To continuously quote buy and sell prices, providing liquidity
16. An analyst notices that a company's operating cash flow is consistently lower than its net income over several years. This divergence most likely signals: → Potential earnings management or aggressive revenue recognition
17. What does IPO stand for in the context of capital markets? → Initial Public Offering
18. Which of the following best describes a 'know your customer' (KYC) obligation under FINRA Rule 2090? → Using reasonable diligence to know the essential facts about every customer and account
19. Which risk measure captures the potential loss in a portfolio at a specified confidence level over a given time period? → Value at Risk (VaR)
20. A commodity producer who sells futures contracts to lock in a future sale price is engaging in: → A short hedge to protect against falling prices
21. Under US GAAP, which inventory costing method typically results in the lowest net income during periods of rising prices? → LIFO
22. According to CAPM, which type of risk is rewarded with higher expected returns? → Systematic risk
23. Which measure of central tendency is MOST affected by extreme outlier values in a dataset? → Mean
24. A rights offering allows existing shareholders to: → Purchase additional shares at a discount before the public offering
25. The SEC's Regulation S-P primarily governs: → Privacy of consumer financial information held by broker-dealers
26. Under the put-call parity relationship, buying a call and selling a put at the same strike and expiry is equivalent to: → A long forward position on the underlying asset
27. Which of the following best explains why the weighted average cost of capital (WACC) is used as the discount rate in DCF analysis? → It reflects the blended required return of all capital providers
28. Which section of the cash flow statement would reflect the proceeds from selling a manufacturing plant? → Investing activities
29. A researcher wants to ensure survey results represent a city's population by income level. Which sampling method is most appropriate? → Stratified random sampling
30. Which of the following best describes 'mark-to-market' for a futures position? → Daily settlement of gains and losses through the margin account