Quiz Test-Prep-CFA-Level-3

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. Do the suggestions in the letter from the principals of BIC violate any CFA Institute Standards of Professional Conduct?

Stephanie Mackley is a portfolio manager for Durango Wealth Management (DWM), a regional money manager catering to wealthy investors in the southwestern portion of the United States. Mackley's clients vary widely in terms of their age, net worth, and investment objectives, but all must have at least $1 million in net assets before she will accept them as clients. Many of Mackley’s clients are referred to her by Kern & Associates, an accounting and consulting firm. DWM does not provide any direct compensation to Kern & Associates for the referrals, but Mackley’s who is the president of her local CFA Society, invites Kern & Associates to give an annual presentation to the society on the subject of tax planning and minimization strategies that Kern & Associates provides for its clients. Kern & Associates' competitors have never received an invitation to present their services to the society. When Mackley receives a referral, she informs the prospect of the arrangement between DWM and Kern & Associates. DWM maintains a full research staff that analyzes and recommends equity and debt investments. All of the in-house research is provided to the firm's portfolio managers and their clients. In addition, DWM provides a subscription service to outside investors and portfolio managers. Aaron Welch, CFA, a private contractor, researches and reports on high-tech firms in the U.S. and other developed countries for several portfolio management clients. One of his latest reports rated InnerTech Inc., a small startup that develops microscopic surgical devices, as a strong buy. After reviewing the report carefully, Mackley decides to purchase shares of InnerTech for clients with account values over $6 million. She feels that accounts with less than this amount cannot accept the risk level associated with InnerTech stock. Two days after purchasing InnerTech for her clients, the stock nearly doubles in value, and the clients are ecstatic about the returns on their portfolios. Several of them give her small bouquets of flowers and boxes of chocolates, which she discloses to her supervisor at DWM. One client even offers her the use of a condo in Vail, Colorado for two weeks during ski season, if she can reproduce the results next quarter. Mackley graciously thanks her clients and asks that they refer any of their friends and relatives who are in need of asset management services. She provides brochures to a few clients who mention that they have friends who would be interested. The brochure contains a description of Mackley's services and her qualifications. At the end of the brochure, Mackley includes her full name followed by "a Chartered Financial Analyst" in bold font of the same size as her name Following is An excerpt from the brochure: "DWM can provide many of the investment services you are likely to need. For those services that we do not provide directly, such as estate planning, we have standing relationships with companies that do provide such services. 1 have a long history with DWM, serving as an investment analyst for six years and then in my current capacity as a portfolio manager for twelve years. My clients have been very satisfied with my past performance and will likely be very satisfied with my future performance, which I attribute to my significant investment experience as well as my participation in the CFA Program. I earned the right to use the CFA designation thirteen years ago. All CFA charter-holders must pass a series of three rigorous examinations that cover investment management and research analysis." Two weeks later, some of Mackley's clients request that she provide supporting documentation for the research report on InnerTech, so they can familiarize themselves with how DWM analyzes investment opportunities. Mackley asks Welch for the documents, but Welch is unable to provide copies of his supporting research since he disposed of them, according to the company's policy, one week after issuing and distributing the report. Mackley informs Welch that obtaining the supporting documents is of the utmost importance, since one of the clients requesting the materials, Craig Adams, is about to inherit S20 million and as a result will be one of the firm's most important clients. Welch agrees to recreate the research documents in order to support the firm's relationship with Adams. Does the arrangement between Mackley and Kern & Associates violate any CFA Institute Standards of Professional Conduct?

Jacques Lepage, CFA, is a portfolio manager for MontBlanc Securities and holds 4 million shares of AirCon in client portfolios. Lepage issues periodic research reports on AirCon to both discretionary and nondiscretionary accounts. In his October investment report, Lepage stated, "In my opinion, AirCon is entering a phase, which could put it 'in play' as a takeover target. Nonetheless, this possibility appears to be fully reflected in the market value of the stock." One month has passed since Lepage's October report and AirCon has just announced the firm's executive compensation packages, which include stock options (50% of which expire in one year), personal use of corporate aircraft (which can be used in conjunction with paid vacation days), and a modest base salary that constitutes a small proportion of the overall package. While he has not asked, he believes that the directors of MontBlanc will find the compensation excessive and sells the entire position immediately after the news. Unbeknownst to Lepage, three days earlier an announcement was made via Reuters and other financial news services that AirCon had produced record results that were far beyond expectations. Moreover, the firm has established a dominant position in a promising new market that is expected to generate above- average firm growth for the next five years. A few weeks after selling the AirCon holdings, Lepage bought 2.5 million shares of Spectra Vision over a period of four days. The typical trading volume of this security is about 1.3 million shares per day, and his purchases drove the price up 9% over the 4-day period. These trades were designated as appropriate for 13 accounts of differing sizes, including performance-based accounts, charitable trusts, and private accounts. The shares were allocated to the accounts on a pro rata basis at the end of each day at the average price for the day. One of the investment criteria used in evaluating equity holdings is the corporate governance structure of the issuing company. Because Lepage has dealt with this topic extensively, he has been asked to present a talk of corporate governance issues to the firm's portfolio managers and analysts at the next monthly meeting. At the meeting, Lepage makes the following comments: "When evaluating the corporate governance policies of a company, you should begin by assessing the responsibilities of the company's board of directors. In general, the board should have the responsibility to set long-term objectives that are consistent with shareholders' interests. In addition, the board must be responsible for hiring the CEO and setting his or her compensation package such that the CEO's interests are aligned with those of the shareholders. In that way the board can spend its time on matters other than monitoring the CEO. A firm with good corporate governance policies should also have an audit committee made up of independent board members that are experienced in auditing and related legal matters. The audit committee should have full access to the firm's financial statements and the ability to question auditors hired by the committee." According to the CFA Institute Standards, Lepage's statement that AirCon could be put in play is:

Wealth Management's top economist, Frederick Milton, is an economic cycle forecaster- Milton's economic forecasts indicate an economic upswing that will impact all goods and services sectors. Milton presents his economic findings to the rest of Wealth Management's professionals at their monthly meeting. All are excited about Milton's forecast of an improving economic condition that should translate into a steadily rising stock market. Nathaniel Norton and Timothy Tucker have confidence in Milton's capabilities and decide to meet with their clients. Their first meeting is with Elizabeth Mascarella to whom Norton recommends a dynamic asset allocation strategy to take advantage of Milton's forecast. However, Mascarella is concerned because the somewhat persistent back-and-forth of economic activity has translated into an oscillating stock market. Mascarella questions Norton's recommendation and asks Tucker which strategy should be followed if the market continues as it has, instead of making such "wonderful" strides. It is one year later and Frederick Milton's economic forecast has been correct, and the market has trended upward as expected. Mascarella's strategic allocation to equity, which was $600,000 of a total portfolio of $1,000,000, has increased 20%. Her overall portfolio, which contains equity, debt, and some cash, is now valued at $1,150,000. Tucker meets with Mascarella and indicates it may be time to rebalance her portfolio. Assuming a steadily rising market, the best strategy for Mascarella is:

Jack Mercer and June Seagram are investment advisors for Northern Advisors. Mercer graduated from a prestigious university in London eight years ago, whereas Seagram is newly graduated from a mid-western university in the United States. Northern provides investment advice for pension funds, foundations, endowments, and trusts. As part of their services, they evaluate the performance of outside portfolio managers. They are currently scrutinizing the performance of several portfolio managers who work for the Thompson University endowment. Over the most recent month, the record of the largest manager. Bison Management, is as follows. On March 1, the endowment account with Bison stood at $ 11,200,000. On March 16, the university contributed $4,000,000 that they received from a wealthy alumnus. After receiving that contribution, the account was valued at $ 17,800,000. On March 31, the account was valued at $16,100,000. Using this information, Mercer and Seagram calculated the time-weighted and money-weighted returns for Bison during March. Mercer states that the advantage of the time-weighted return is that it is easy to calculate and administer. Seagram states that the money-weighted return is, however, a better measure of the manager's performance. Mercer and Seagram are also evaluating the performance of Lunar Management. Risk and return data for the most recent fiscal year are shown below for both Bison and Lunar. The minimum acceptable return (MAR) for Thompson is the 4.5% spending rate on the endowment, which the endowment has determined using a geometric spending rule. The T-bill return over the same fiscal year was 3.5%. The return on the MSCI World Index was used as the market index. The World index had a return of 9% in dollar terms with a standard deviation of 23% and a beta of 1.0. Tap the image to zoom The next day at lunch, Mercer and Seagram discuss alternatives for benchmarks in assessing the performance of managers. The alternatives discussed that day are manager universes, broad market indices, style indices, factor models, and custom benchmarks. Mercer states that manager universes have the advantage of being measurable but they are subject to survivor bias. Seagram states that manager universes possess only one quality of a valid benchmark. Mercer and Seagram also provide investment advice for a hedge fund, Jaguar Investors. Jaguar specializes in exploiting mispricing in equities and over-the-counter derivatives in emerging markets. They periodically engage in providing foreign currency hedges to small firms in emerging markets when deemed profitable. This most commonly occurs when no other provider of these contracts is available to these firms. Jaguar is selling a large position in Mexican pesos in the spot market. Furthermore, they have just provided a forward contract to a firm in Russia that allows that firm to sell Swiss francs for Russian rubles in 90 days. Jaguar has also entered into a currency swap that allows a firm to receive Japanese yen in exchange for paying the Russian ruble. The time-weighted and money-weighted returns for Bison during March (assuming compounding every half- month) are closest to: Time-weighted Money-weighted

Travis Smith, CFA, is chief economic strategist and market analyst for Nashville Capital Management. He is developing a forecast of the S&P 500 stock market index utilizing different approaches. Using microeconomic analysis, Smith wants to value the S&P using a dividend discount model (DDM) valuation approach. The trailing recent 52-week dividend for the S&P 500 equaled $60. Used as a proxy for the nominal risk-free rate, Treasury rates are as follows: • 3-month T-bill rate: 3.5% • 30-year T-bond rate: 5.0% Smith uses an equity market premium equal to 6%. His estimate for the long-term outlook for ROE is 11%, and the long-run earnings retention rate is estimated at 40%. Smith also is forecasting the market trends using varied macroeconomic techniques. He believes that security prices reflect expectations about the general economy. During his monitoring and forecasting of the overall economy, Smith is evaluating cyclical indicators and the business cycle. Smith has focused his analysis on three indicators: 1. Index of industrial production. 2. Interest rate spread between 10-year T-bonds and the fed funds rate. 3. Stock prices. Smith is particularly interested in using stock market trends to predict economic turning points. In conducting his research, Smith has found that the business cycle appears to be in the slowdown phase. In his capital markets forecasting activities, Smith looks at government policy, and attempts to predict business and consumer activity, along with foreign trade. Smith has determined that government policy has a significant influence on the business cycle, and he is trying to predict changes in government policy. Smith predicts that the government fiscal policy will loosen and that the Federal Reserve monetary policy will tighten. Smith estimates the following variables: • Short-term neutral interest rate: 3.5% • Nominal GDP long-term growth rate trend: 4.25% • Federal Reserve inflation target: 2.25% Smith forecasts that inflation will increase to 3.0%, and nominal GDP will grow at a 1.5% rate. Smith's supervisor, Rasheed Gupta, requests a valuation of the S&P500 using a free cash flow to equity (FCFE) model. Gupta makes the following statement: "A valuation model that replaces dividends with free cash flow to equity is a good alternative to the DDM If 1 remember correctly, free cash flow to equity equals net income plus depreciation." Using the dividend discount model. Smith's estimate of the current S&P 500 valuation should be closest to:

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. With regard to the treatment of clients in Norway and Denmark, do the policies that Bair has selected for the Quaker Fund violate any CFA Institute Standards of Professional Conduct? Norway Denmark

Stephanie Mackley is a portfolio manager for Durango Wealth Management (DWM), a regional money manager catering to wealthy investors in the southwestern portion of the United States. Mackley's clients vary widely in terms of their age, net worth, and investment objectives, but all must have at least $1 million in net assets before she will accept them as clients. Many of Mackley’s clients are referred to her by Kern & Associates, an accounting and consulting firm. DWM does not provide any direct compensation to Kern & Associates for the referrals, but Mackley’s who is the president of her local CFA Society, invites Kern & Associates to give an annual presentation to the society on the subject of tax planning and minimization strategies that Kern & Associates provides for its clients. Kern & Associates' competitors have never received an invitation to present their services to the society. When Mackley receives a referral, she informs the prospect of the arrangement between DWM and Kern & Associates. DWM maintains a full research staff that analyzes and recommends equity and debt investments. All of the in-house research is provided to the firm's portfolio managers and their clients. In addition, DWM provides a subscription service to outside investors and portfolio managers. Aaron Welch, CFA, a private contractor, researches and reports on high-tech firms in the U.S. and other developed countries for several portfolio management clients. One of his latest reports rated InnerTech Inc., a small startup that develops microscopic surgical devices, as a strong buy. After reviewing the report carefully, Mackley decides to purchase shares of InnerTech for clients with account values over $6 million. She feels that accounts with less than this amount cannot accept the risk level associated with InnerTech stock. Two days after purchasing InnerTech for her clients, the stock nearly doubles in value, and the clients are ecstatic about the returns on their portfolios. Several of them give her small bouquets of flowers and boxes of chocolates, which she discloses to her supervisor at DWM. One client even offers her the use of a condo in Vail, Colorado for two weeks during ski season, if she can reproduce the results next quarter. Mackley graciously thanks her clients and asks that they refer any of their friends and relatives who are in need of asset management services. She provides brochures to a few clients who mention that they have friends who would be interested. The brochure contains a description of Mackley's services and her qualifications. At the end of the brochure, Mackley includes her full name followed by "a Chartered Financial Analyst" in bold font of the same size as her name Following is An excerpt from the brochure: "DWM can provide many of the investment services you are likely to need. For those services that we do not provide directly, such as estate planning, we have standing relationships with companies that do provide such services. 1 have a long history with DWM, serving as an investment analyst for six years and then in my current capacity as a portfolio manager for twelve years. My clients have been very satisfied with my past performance and will likely be very satisfied with my future performance, which I attribute to my significant investment experience as well as my participation in the CFA Program. I earned the right to use the CFA designation thirteen years ago. All CFA charter-holders must pass a series of three rigorous examinations that cover investment management and research analysis." Two weeks later, some of Mackley's clients request that she provide supporting documentation for the research report on InnerTech, so they can familiarize themselves with how DWM analyzes investment opportunities. Mackley asks Welch for the documents, but Welch is unable to provide copies of his supporting research since he disposed of them, according to the company's policy, one week after issuing and distributing the report. Mackley informs Welch that obtaining the supporting documents is of the utmost importance, since one of the clients requesting the materials, Craig Adams, is about to inherit S20 million and as a result will be one of the firm's most important clients. Welch agrees to recreate the research documents in order to support the firm's relationship with Adams. Were any CFA Institute Standards of Professional Conduct violated in conjunction with Welch's report on InnerTech and Mackley's purchase of InnerTech stock? Welch Mackley

Jacques Lepage, CFA, is a portfolio manager for MontBlanc Securities and holds 4 million shares of AirCon in client portfolios. Lepage issues periodic research reports on AirCon to both discretionary and nondiscretionary accounts. In his October investment report, Lepage stated, "In my opinion, AirCon is entering a phase, which could put it 'in play' as a takeover target. Nonetheless, this possibility appears to be fully reflected in the market value of the stock." One month has passed since Lepage's October report and AirCon has just announced the firm's executive compensation packages, which include stock options (50% of which expire in one year), personal use of corporate aircraft (which can be used in conjunction with paid vacation days), and a modest base salary that constitutes a small proportion of the overall package. While he has not asked, he believes that the directors of MontBlanc will find the compensation excessive and sells the entire position immediately after the news. Unbeknownst to Lepage, three days earlier an announcement was made via Reuters and other financial news services that AirCon had produced record results that were far beyond expectations. Moreover, the firm has established a dominant position in a promising new market that is expected to generate above- average firm growth for the next five years. A few weeks after selling the AirCon holdings, Lepage bought 2.5 million shares of Spectra Vision over a period of four days. The typical trading volume of this security is about 1.3 million shares per day, and his purchases drove the price up 9% over the 4-day period. These trades were designated as appropriate for 13 accounts of differing sizes, including performance-based accounts, charitable trusts, and private accounts. The shares were allocated to the accounts on a pro rata basis at the end of each day at the average price for the day. One of the investment criteria used in evaluating equity holdings is the corporate governance structure of the issuing company. Because Lepage has dealt with this topic extensively, he has been asked to present a talk of corporate governance issues to the firm's portfolio managers and analysts at the next monthly meeting. At the meeting, Lepage makes the following comments: "When evaluating the corporate governance policies of a company, you should begin by assessing the responsibilities of the company's board of directors. In general, the board should have the responsibility to set long-term objectives that are consistent with shareholders' interests. In addition, the board must be responsible for hiring the CEO and setting his or her compensation package such that the CEO's interests are aligned with those of the shareholders. In that way the board can spend its time on matters other than monitoring the CEO. A firm with good corporate governance policies should also have an audit committee made up of independent board members that are experienced in auditing and related legal matters. The audit committee should have full access to the firm's financial statements and the ability to question auditors hired by the committee." Which of the following is a correct assessment of Lepage's decision to sell the shares of AirCon? Lepage's decision to sell the shares was:

Wealth Management's top economist, Frederick Milton, is an economic cycle forecaster- Milton's economic forecasts indicate an economic upswing that will impact all goods and services sectors. Milton presents his economic findings to the rest of Wealth Management's professionals at their monthly meeting. All are excited about Milton's forecast of an improving economic condition that should translate into a steadily rising stock market. Nathaniel Norton and Timothy Tucker have confidence in Milton's capabilities and decide to meet with their clients. Their first meeting is with Elizabeth Mascarella to whom Norton recommends a dynamic asset allocation strategy to take advantage of Milton's forecast. However, Mascarella is concerned because the somewhat persistent back-and-forth of economic activity has translated into an oscillating stock market. Mascarella questions Norton's recommendation and asks Tucker which strategy should be followed if the market continues as it has, instead of making such "wonderful" strides. It is one year later and Frederick Milton's economic forecast has been correct, and the market has trended upward as expected. Mascarella's strategic allocation to equity, which was $600,000 of a total portfolio of $1,000,000, has increased 20%. Her overall portfolio, which contains equity, debt, and some cash, is now valued at $1,150,000. Tucker meets with Mascarella and indicates it may be time to rebalance her portfolio. Determine the preferred dynamic rebalancing strategy if the market is expected to be highly volatile, but more or less flat.