STUDY FOR THE SECURITIES INDUSTRY ESSENTIALS EXAM (SIE) EXAM

If you plan to sit for the Securities Industry Essentials (SIE) Exam in the near future, you need to know that the SIE exam asks questions about options. The topic of options is contained in Section 2 of the FINRA Study Outline for the SIE test, Section 2 has the most questions, 33 in total, and a chunk of those are on options, found in 2.1.3 of the Study Outline. One of the characteristics of options is identifying a put or call as in-the-money, at-the-money, and out-of-the-money. Make sure you can properly apply these terms. For example, a put option is in-the-money when the stock price is below the option's strike price. If you are fuzzy about these concepts, meaning that you are unable to confidently state when an option is in-the-money, etc., you need help in preparing for the SIE exam.  Bob Eder J.D.'s book Study for the Securities Industry Essentials (SIE) Exam covers options in detail with practice questions and real-life examples.  It is available from A...

Are you planning to sit for the Securities Industry Essentials (SIE) exam? Then you owe it to yourself to consider Bob Eder's study text, Study for the Securities Industry Essentials (SIE) Exam. Bob Eder's book,  Study for the Securities Industry Essentials (SIE) Exam , can help you prepare for the SIE test.  Unlike other study texts for the SIE exam, Bob Eder does not throw in superfluous material to make the material appear larger or more important. How can you be sure? Bob Eder's book lists the numbers from FINRA's Content Outline that inform the student what the SIE exam can ask the test applicant, not superfluous material that does not have a chance of appearing. Bob Eder thus saves you valuable time in studying test material and avoiding what does not appear. I t is available through Amazon in both paperback and Kindle e-book versions.  Here is the link to Bob Eder's book on Amazon . Here is the link to FINRA's Study Outline for the SIE exam . ...

One of the valuable study aids for the Securities Industry Essentials (SIE) exam is the Content Outline published by FINRA. It lists all the topics that the SIE exam covers, meaning that if you plan to take the test, you should be prepared to answer. For example, Section 2.1.1 of the Content Outline lists order of liquidation for a company declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy, types of voting rights, benefits of convertible securities, and securities that can only be sold under SEC Rule 144. Bob Eder J.D. has a study guide for the test, covering all of the above topics. For example, his book,  Study for the Securities Industry Essentials (SIE) Exam , covers order of liquidation beginning on page 39 of Chapter 3 on Equity Securities. At the end of the section, Bob Eder inserts a question on who gets what first for a company in bankruptcy. Also in its Chapter 3, Study for the Securities Industry Essentials (SIE) Exam also covers types of rights, explaining the difference between st...

Planning to sit for the SIE exam soon? Don't go into the test without familiarizing yourself with fee-based accounts. These are securities accounts where the broker charges one yearly fee that includes commissions, investment advice, and pretty much all other miscellaneous fees and expenses. T he brokerage firm charges a percentage fee on the daily assets in the account. Thus the calculation of fees is made daily, but deducted usually on a quarterly basis. For example if the annual percentage fee for an account is two percent, the brokerage firm will calculate a daily fee using 1/365 times two percent, or .02, times the assets in the account as of the close of trading on any given day. This fee is also charged for Saturdays and Sundays, and also for other non-business days, such as holidays. The SEC includes fee-based accounts as one of its targets for its broker inspection and visitation. It has found many cases where brokers have enrolled customers in fee-based accounts, also...

Do you want to get a good grade on the SIE Exam? Make sure you know the little stuff, for example, know the characteristics of hedge funds. Here's what Bob Eder says in his text, Study for the Securities Industry Essentials Exam , about hedge funds: "A key characteristic of hedge funds is that they are almost always set up as limited partnerships, the investment manager being the fund’s general partner. Monies paid out to the investment manager are almost always considered long-term capital gains, subject to a maximum tax rate of only 20 percent for those with high taxable income. When hedge fund managers talk about "carried interest," this is jargon for their share of realized long-term capital gains, on which they will pay maximum tax of only 20 percent." We indicate here only a small example  on Hedge Funds. Bob Eder's book  covers hedge funds in Chapter 7 on Alternate Investments.  Bob Eder's book,  Study for the Securities Industry...

If you are planning to take the Securities Industry Essentials (SIE) Exam, you need to know where the test puts its oompf and emphasis. It is Section 2 on Understanding Products and Their Risks. Section 2 comprises 44 percent of the SIE's questions, or 33 questions out of 75, the largest section of all. In this post, I want to talk about investment risks. Section 2.2 indicates that its questions cover the definition and identification of certain risks. For example, if a customer asks you about capital risk, how would you respond? You should know that capital risk means that a person could lose all or a good chunk of his/her investment capital. So Joe Schlobodnick invests $100,000, his life savings and all his IRA monies, into common stock of XYZ Corp. at $100 per share. Shortly thereafter, XYZ common shares fall to zero! Improbable? Maybe, but happenings like this are not rare. Joe Schlobodnick has lost all of his invested capital. This is capital risk. The SIE exam asks abou...

A big chunk of the 75 questions on the Securities Industry Essentials exam is on understanding trading, customer accounts, and prohibited activity. There are 23 questions comprising 31 percent of all questions. For example, Section 3.1.1 of FINRA's Content Outline includes knowledge of types of orders, such as stop orders, limit orders, and market orders, good-till-cancelled orders, discretionary orders, and solicited/unsolicited orders. If you are new to the securities industry, you probably have a hazy idea of these types of orders. However, hazy is not good enough to pass the SIE exam. You need to achieve a clear bright picture of when to use stop orders, when to use limit orders, etc. We indicate here only a few of the topics covered in the SIE's section on trading, customer accounts, and prohibited activities. Bob Eder's  Study for the Securities Industry Essentials (SIE) Exam   covers the subject in detail.  Study for the Securities Industry Essentials (SIE)...