FM Study Guide 2026
Everything you need to pass the FM exam in one place: the exam format, every topic to study, real practice questions with explanations, flashcards, and full-length practice tests. Free, no sign-up needed.
📋 FM Exam Format at a Glance
📚 FM Topics to Study (21)
✍️ Sample FM Questions & Answers
1. What continuing education requirement supports portfolio management competence?
Financial markets, regulations, and best practices evolve constantly, requiring ongoing education for competent practice.
2. A portfolio holds 1,000 options with a delta of 0.6. How many shares of the underlying stock are required to delta-hedge the portfolio?
Formula: Hedge Shares = Delta × Number of Options Calculation: Hedge Shares = 0.6 × 1,000 = 1,200
3. An arithmetic increasing annuity-immediate has payments of $100, $200, $300, $400, $500 at the end of years 1 through 5. Which expression gives its present value at 5% annual interest?
An arithmetic increasing annuity with first payment P and common difference P uses (Ia)(n,i), so PV = P × (Ia)(5,5%) = 100 × (Ia)(5, 5%).
4. Which statement about the amortization method for a level-payment loan is CORRECT?
In early periods the outstanding balance is large, so interest charges are high and only a small portion of the fixed payment reduces principal.
5. The no-arbitrage forward price F₀ for a non-dividend-paying stock with current price S₀ at effective annual rate i over T years is:
The no-arbitrage forward price equals the future value of the current spot price: F₀ = S₀(1 + i)^T.
6. An annuity-due differs from an ordinary annuity (annuity-immediate) in that its payments occur at:
An annuity-due (denoted with a double-dot) makes payments at the start of each period, while an ordinary annuity pays at the end.
🎯 Free FM Practice Tests
📖 FM Guides & Articles
What Practice Test Geeks adds beyond an AI chat for FM
An AI chatbot can quiz you, but it can't reproduce the exam conditions or keep your record. Here you get:
- A timed, full-length FM mock exam — 30 questions in 150 minutes with a 70% pass mark, modeled on the official exam's question count and time limit, followed by a score report broken down by exam domain.
- A fixed FM question bank: the same test every attempt, so your score is comparable from one try to the next instead of changing with every regenerated quiz.
- Progress saved on your device: completed tests, scores and missed questions stay in My Progress, so you can retake only what you got wrong.
- A printable FM cheat sheet you can print or save as a PDF.
- FM flashcards built from the same question bank.
- Free FM practice tests with the correct answer shown after each question.
How this page was made: written with AI tools and published by Nathan Beja, founder of Practice Test Geeks, who is responsible for its content. Exam facts are checked against the official sources listed below. Not reviewed by a subject-matter expert. Editorial policy
Sources & references
Exam facts on this page (fees, format, dates, passing scores) are checked against these official sources; the date is our last check. Editorial policy
- soa.org — Exam dates, registration deadline, test dates, eligibility, exam format, score release, test delivery, fees · verified Oct 2026
- prometric.com — Test delivery · verified Oct 2026