Mock 2 First Half
Mock 2 First Half
Q.2 Tom Jones, CFA is an independent research analyst with a huge social media following across
multiple social media platforms. Unicorn Capital is underwriting AXA Bank’s IPO. Tom Jones has
been contacted by Unicorn Capital to issue a favorable report on AXA Bank shares for a cash
compensation. To be in compliance with the CFA Code and Standards, Tom Jones should most likely ?
Q.3 Jonathan Brooks, CFA, is a stockbroker in Hong Kong. Yi, his neighbor and a well-known financial
blogger tells him that he is about to publish information about a firm that is under a lot of pressure
from its creditor. Brooks should most likely
Q.5 Robert Zane, CFA, was retained by Alpha Beta Management (ABM) to manage their corporate
pension plan. ABM has approached Zane and requested that Zane invests 50% of the entire plan in
ABM stocks. Since the country in which Zane practices does not regulate the investments of
company retirement plans, Zane may:
A. Invest 50% of all of the retirement plan assets in ABM stock in line with the
management’s request only if he can document that the investment is more prudent than any
other investment opportunity he might find.
B. Invest a portion of the retirement plan in ABM stock if the investment is prudent and if he
keeps the overall portfolio properly diversified.
C. Disregard the management’s request and fail to invest any funds in ABM stock, regardless
of the stock’s prospects.
A. A violation of ethical standards reflects not only an employee's conduct but also that of
their supervisor.
B. It is not the supervisor’s responsibility to ensure that investment reports are compliant
with the Code and Standards.
C. Reasonable supervision is typically determined as a function of the number of employees
supervised and the specific jobs being done.
Q.7 Which one of the following statements is most likely incorrect in the context of survivorship
bias?
A. Survivorship bias results in an overestimation of past returns of mutual funds.
B. Many losing funds are closed and merged into other funds to hide poor performance.
C. Survivorship bias is not an important issue to take into account when analyzing past
performance.
Q.8 Which of the following statement regarding the GIPS is least likely accurate?
Q.9 Marco Rubio is a CFA member working as an equity analyst at Bright Stock Brokers. After
thorough analysis, he has concluded that the stock of M & M is overpriced at its current level.
However, he is aware that his firm’s investment division is in talks with M & M to underwrite a
rights issue, and is concerned that a negative research report might hurt the good relationship
between the two entities and possibly scuttle the underwriting plans. Rubio needs to write a report
right away. Which of the following outlines the best course of action for Mr. Rubio?
A. Material Public Information may consist of discussions with management that may reveal
information that isn’t material but may give valuable clues.
B. “Firewall” is a common term applied to the barriers created to prevent sensitive
information from being disseminated between a firm's departments.
C. A compliance program is incomplete if all it does is create awareness of the definition of
insider trading and the fines and jail sentences to which the employee could be liable.
Q.12 Josianne Feng, CFA, is a new fund manager charged with the management of 50 stocks. What
should be her policy for proxy voting?
A. T he manager should never vote since the manager’s votes don’t always represent the
clients' opinions.
B. T he manager has a responsibility to investors to vote the shares to the investors' benefit
but can skip routine votes that would require too much time on a cost-benefit basis.
C. T he manager is always responsible for voting but not disclosing the proxy voting policy to
all the clients since that's part of confidential information.
Q.13 Rob Harrington, a stockbroker, works for a large New York bank. His long-term friend and a
stock trader at the same bank calls him one evening to ask him if there are any clients interested in
stock PT LN. Since there are no policies or procedures to discourage employees from sharing
information, Harrington should most likely
Q.14 T hrough his son, who works at ACIA Corp., a stockbroker learns that ACIA Corp. is altering its
accounting records. He decides to advise his clients to sell the stock of ACIA Corp. Is this a violation
of the Code and Standards? Why?
Q.15 In the context of Global Investment Performance Standards, composites refer to:
Q.16 Billy Perignon is scheduled to have dinner with a client whose portfolio he manages. Perignon
plans to advise the client to add 5000 shares to his current EER position. Before the meeting, and
under Standard (V) – Investment Analysis, Recommendations, and Actions, Perignon should:
Q.17 A CFA® charter holder gathers the opening prices of stock ABC from a widely read publication.
T he CFA® charter holder uses the data as part of a report he is preparing but fails to disclose the
data source in the report. T he charter holder’s actions are most likely
Q.18 According to the Code of Ethics, a member reflects credit on the profession when he/she:
Q.19 According to the CFA Institute Code of Ethics, CFA Institute Members and Candidates must do
all of the following, except:
Q.20 Which of the following is not a possible disciplinary sanction with respect to the CFA Institute's
enforcement of the Code and Standards?
A. Private censure.
B. Payment of a fine.
C. Suspension of a candidate from further participation in the CFA program.
Q.21 T im Peters, CFA is a Senior Investment Manager at Staples Asset Managers. He will be leaving
the company at the end of the month to join Grey Capital as a Chief Investment Officer where among
his major responsibilities will be to increase the funds under management. During his last day at
Staples Asset Managers, T im contacts two of the clients he brought to Staples and informs them of
the services he would offer them if they moved their accounts to Grey Capital. Under the CFA Code
and Standards, T im Peters most likely ?
Q.22 Mark Roberts works as a portfolio analyst at First Community T rust. He is charged with
managing the account of one Sarah Sanders, a client. Ms. Sanders pays First Community T rust a fee
based on the performance of assets in her portfolio. Mr. Robert's employer pays him a salary for
managing Ms. Sanders' account. Sarah Sanders offers Mr. Roberts an all-expenses-paid trip to Las
Vegas, including free accommodation and use of her yacht, provided that she earns at least 20%
yearly pre-tax profit from her portfolio. What should Mr. Roberts do concerning the offer?
Q.23 Zeng Yi, CFA, is an analyst at Power Stocks Inc. T he next morning, Power Stocks Inc. will
announce a change in recommendation from a hold to a sell on YYZ stock. Yi happens to be a member
of the team that decided to change the recommendation. Yi's father has an account at Power Stocks
Inc. that contains YYZ stock. According to the Code and Standards, trading on Yi's father’s account
should most likely begin?
Q.24 Which of the following is most likely correct regarding standard 1(B)- Independence and
objectivity?
A. Members and candidates should solicit gifts from their clients only after attaining great
portfolio returns.
B. Members and candidates should issue favorable reports, even if forged, of top companies
upon request.
C. Members and candidates should not accept gifts, benefits, compensations, or
considerations from their clients or prospective clients.
Q.25 A financial analyst who is a CFA member sends a research report on a company to his
supervisor. T he supervisor approves the report, but the analyst soon discovers that the supervisor
plans to release a version of the report that shows stronger earnings estimates than the original
report, without a reasonable and adequate In response to this, the analyst should most likely :
Q.26 Jonathan Ingram, CFA, is a research analyst following Mountain Corp. All the information he has
gathered suggests Mountain’s stock should be rated “weak-hold.” During a recent dinner with a
friend, Ingram overheard another experienced analyst saying that the stock should be rated “buy.” He
returns to his office the next day and issues a “buy” recommendation. Ingram:
Q.27 If a supervisor makes a reasonable effort to detect violations by their subordinates but fails to
detect a violation that occurs, he:
Q.28 John Rose owns a brokerage firm. He has received an allocation of shares from an IPO. He
intends to allocate the shares across all accounts he manages. One of those accounts is owned by his
cousin. John allocates many shares to his cousin’s account and ultimately fails to allocate several
other eligible clients. Which of the following is most likely true?
Q.29 A market survey was conducted to estimate the proportion of customers who could recognize a
certain brand by only looking at their logo. Of the 1,000 customers surveyed, 620 were able to
identify the brand. Using a 99% confidence interval and the z-table at the end of this document, the
proportion of the population that can identify the brand lies between:
Q.30 Over five years, portfolio A obtained an average return of 9% with a variance of 0.035. During
the same period, portfolio B obtained an average return of 11% with a variance of 0.050. Given that
the covariance of the two investments is 0.010, the correlation coefficient between those returns is
closest to:
A. 0.239
B. 4.183
C. 5.714
Q.31 Assume that 4% of the stocks meeting your selection criteria are in the technology industry.
Dividend-paying stocks are 2% of the total number of stocks meeting your selection criteria. T he
probability that a stock is dividend-paying, given that it is a technology stock that has met your
criteria, is closest to:
A. 0.02
B. 0.04
C. 0.08
Q.32 T he effective annual rate of a loan is 4.76%. If the loan is compounded weekly, the nominal
annual interest rate on the loan is closest to:
A. 4.65%
B. 4.68%
C. 4.70%
Q.33 Tom Jones, CFA calculates the P/E ratios of the seven stocks that are in his personal portfolio
as shown below.
From the table above the harmonic mean is closest to?
A. 11.3636
B. 11.8029
C. 12.2271
Q.34 Andrew Zilemann would like to rent a car for the next four years and wants to know how much
money he would need in his account now to cover all the payments. His bank account has an annual
interest rate of 6% compounded monthly, and the cost of the rental is $340 a month. Zilemann would
most likely need:
A. $5,321
B. $14,477
C. . $18,393
Q.35 Frank Lee, the Chief Investment Officer of Cornerstone Investment Managers has created a
contingency table of the number of companies in the Cornerstone’s portfolio by sector in two
countries.
From the data above, the marginal frequency of the financial services sector is closest to:
A. 36
B. 56
C. 58
Q.36 John works at Delta Bank and has been assigned to review a sample of 300 portfolios. He found
that these 300 portfolios have a mean return of 8% and a standard deviation of returns of 17%. T he
standard error of the sample mean is closest to:
A. 0.06%
B. 0.46%
C. 0.98%
A. -505
B. -448
C. -768
Q.38 Tom Zion, an equity research analyst uses ABA Bank’s historical dividends payments to estimate
its dividend payments for the next five years. T hese dividends estimates would most likely be
classified as:
A. ordinal data.
B. discrete data.
C. continuous data.
Q.39 Palanela’s stock is currently trading at $53. In one year, analysts predict that the stock will be
trading at $60. Palanela will also pay a dividend of $2 during this period. T he expected holding period
return on Palanela’s stock is closest to:
A. 3.78%
B. 13.21%
C. 16.98%
Q.40 T he daily closing prices of particular stock recorded for a given month most likely constitute
what type of data?
A. Panel data.
B. T ime-series data.
C. Cross-sectional data.
Q.41 A graph can be confusing if the data is incorrectly presented, or the graph is badly designed.
Which of the following is least likely a typical pitfall that analysts should avoid?
Q.42 A quantitative analyst has calculated the mean holding period return (HPR) of 1% for 110
European corporate bonds with a standard deviation of 2%. If the analyst wants to test at a 5% level
of significance that the mean HPR on European corporate bonds is different from zero, then the test
statistic is closest to:
A. 0.50
B. 5.24
C. 55.0
Q.43 T he following table shows the returns of share indexes of the counntries A and B.
T he arithmetic mean returns of country A and geometric mean return of country B of the share
indexes over the three years in the table below is closest to:
Q.44 An oil drilling company plans to invest $14.3 million in a project expected to generate $3.7
million per year for the next seven years. If the company’s opportunity cost of capital is 8%, then
the project’s net present value is closest to:
A. 4,343,123
B. 4,963,569
C. 5,672,650
A. 5.40%
B. 5.46%
C. 5.75%
Q.47 A country has a real GDP of $4.4 trillion and a nominal GDP of $4.84 trillion. T he
unemployment rate is 6.5%. T he GDP deflator is closest to:
A. 90.1
B. 110.0
C. 117.6
A. 0.5857
B. 0.9486
C. 1.0542
A. an economy in hyperinflation.
B. an economy where inflation decreases over time.
C. an economy with a consistently negative inflation growth.
Q.51 According to the Fisher effect, a decrease in expected inflation will most likely decrease:
Q.52 A look at the financial statements of a business based in Qatar reveals that for the most recent
reporting period, revenue stood at $2 million. It had a total cost amounting to $2.5 million, comprised
of T FC of $1 million and T VC of $1.5 million. T he reported net loss on the income statement stood at
$500,000, disregarding tax obligations. In prior periods, the business had consistently reported profits
on its operations. What decision should the management take regarding operations for the next few
months?
Q.53 Which one of these is more likely to create a demand curve shift of a product?
Q.54 T he price of a good has gone up from $41 to $45.As a result, its demand has gone down from
15,000,000 units to 14,000,000 units. How would you best describe elasticity in demand for this
good?
A. Elastic.
B. Inelastic.
C. T he good has unitary elasticity.
A. $ 2,570,000
B. $ 4,170,000
C. $ 7,370,000
Q.56 All else being equal, if the Canadian dollar goes from USD 0.7 to USD 0.8, goods produced in
Canada and consumed in the United States will usually be
Q.57 A European company has recently received a payment of CAD 760,000 (Canadian dollars). T he
spot rate for CAD/USD is 0.8831, and the spot rate for EUR/USD is 1.2341. T he amounts the
European company will receive in Euros is closest:
A. 697,370
B. 828,724
C. 1,062,100
A. Positive relationship between the price level and aggregate output demanded.
B. Negative relationship between the price level and aggregate output supplied.
C. Negative relationship between the price level and aggregate output demanded.
Q.61 T he demand and supply curves for a bag of rice are: D = 6 - 1P , S = 3 + 0.5P Where P is the
price of a bag of rice. T he quantity of bags of rice bought and sold at equilibrium is closest to:
A. 2
B. 4
C. 8
Q.62 Corn supplies are sharply reduced because of an epidemic in a specific country, and consumers
turn to wheat as a substitute for corn. How would you best illustrate this change in the corn market
in supply-and-demand terms?
Q.63 T he accompanying table shows the prices and yearly quantities sold of souvenir T-shirts in the
town of Springfield.
T he price elasticity of demand, when the price of a T-shirt rises from $5 to $6, is closest to:
A. 1.13
B. 1.56
C. 1.67
Q.64 A number of workers at an airplane manufacturing plant in Montreal, Canada, are laid off
because of a financial crisis. T he manufacturer isn’t sure when the plant will need to rehire. What
type of unemployment describes the workers’ situation?
A. Cyclical unemployment.
B. Frictional unemployment.
C. Structural unemployment.
Q.65 A company uses the US GAAP to prepare its financial statements. Which of the items listed
below is least likely going to be reported as an operating activity?
A. Interest paid.
B. Dividends paid.
C. Interest received.
Q.66 T he standard yield loss in the production of a drug is 10%. Due to technical issues, the yield loss
was 15% during the year. If the company follows the standard cost method when valuing its
inventory, should it include the cost incurred on the additional raw materials used in the cost of
finished goods?
Q.67 T he following financial information is available at the end of the year for Terexa Inc.
Additional Information Retained earnings at start of year = $10,000,000 Reported income for
the year = $2,000,000 Terexa’s diluted EPS is closest to:
A. $2.85
B. $2.98
C. $3.33
Q.68 Simon Belfast, an equity analyst, is analyzing two market leaders (Sun Corp. & Moon Inc.) in the
automotive industry.
Using the data given in the table, Sun Corp’s cash ratio is closest to:
A. 2.1
B. 2.2
C. 2.8
A. $649,000
B. $850,500
C. $900,000
Q.70 John Smith sold a property to Jessica Goyen for $5.3 million. Smith had bought the property for
$4.2 million. Smith received a down payment of $500,000 from Goyen, with the remainder of the sale
price to be spread over a period of 7 years. However, Goyen is single and has recently lost her job,
so there is significant doubt about fulfilling all payments. Using the installment method, how much
would Smith recognize in profits attributed to the down payment?
A. $103,774
B. $500,000
C. $1,100,000
Q.71 Pinto Cruz bought an asset for $15,000. T he asset's estimated residual value is $8,000, and it has
7 years of useful life. Cruz is using the straight-line depreciation method. What is the annual
estimated expense Cruz could write down on the asset?
A. $0
B. $1,000
C. $2,000
Q.72 An analyst has gathered the following information about a specific company:
If the industry has a current ratio of 3.4, we can most likely conclude that:
Q.73 One year ago, Unisoft bought a corporate bond for $1,000 and classified it as available-for-sale.
It collected $70 in coupons, and the bond is now worth $1,030. What should Unisoft report for this
bond on its balance sheet?
A. $1,000.
B. $1,030.
C. $1,100.
Q.74 Minority interests represent the minority interests of owners of shares in subsidiary
companies when they are consolidated under the parent/controlling company's balance sheet. Under
IFRS, minority interests should be shown in the:
A. Assets.
B. Equity section.
C. Liabilities section.
Q.75 A company engaged in organizing corporate parties acquired another company engaged in the
supply of electrical fittings. T he company acquired assets having a carrying value of $4 million but
recorded them at their fair value of $5 million. Would a deferred tax be created under IFRS? What
would be the treatment under US GAAP? Assume that the tax base of the assets was not revalued.
Q.76 Given the following information about Alcany (in millions USD):
Q.77 You are given the following information about DIA Inc:
DIA Inc.’s tax burden ratio and interest burden ratio are respectively closest to:
Q.78 Payment of dividends under US GAAP is an example of which type of business activity?
A. Operating activity.
B. Financing activity.
C. Investing activity.
Q.79 A company has reported the following for the year 2014:
What is the company’s total comprehensive income?
A. $192,500
B. $197,500
C. $342,500
Q.80 AVGI is an American company reporting under IFRS. Its inventory has been bought for $16
million and is predicted to be sold for $31 million. If the net realizable value is $18 million,
inventories should be shown on the balance sheet at:
A. $16 million
B. $18 milion
C. $31 million
Q.81 Which of the following most likely has an impact on revenue recognition?
A. $2,030,000
B. $2,120,000
C. $2,330,000
A. $116,500
B. $120,000
C. $123,500
A. 144 days.
B. 155 days.
C. 258 days.
Q.85 Dynasty Corporation reported for 2016 current liabilities of $312 million and ending balance of
$35 million in cash, account receivables of $12 million, and marketable securities of $1.3 million.
Dynasty Corporation’s cash ratio is closest to:
A. 0.11
B. 0.12
C. 0.15
Q.86 In 2014, Nova Inc. reported $12.5 million in free cash flow to the firm (FCFF), $1.5 million in
interests, and $3.5 million in net borrowing. If its corporate tax rate was 22%, its free cash flow to
equity (FCFE) was closest to:
A. $7.83 million
B. $14.50 million
C. $14.80 million
Q.87 A company has reported the following for the year 2015:
T he company’s total comprehensive income for the year 2015 is closest to:
A. $231,900
B. $271,900
C. $311,900
Q.88 Compared to the same period last year, Wind Corporation’s tax rate has increased from 22% to
25%. T herefore, Wind Corporation’s:
Q.89 Dycorp reported in 2014 a net income of $1.2 million, total assets and debt of $8.5 million and
$1.5 million, respectively. Assuming that total debt equals total liabilities, Dycorp’s debt to capital
ratio is closest to:
A. 0.08
B. 0.18
C. 0.81
In 2014, the net profit margin for Zenga Company is closest to:
A. 6%
B. 9%
C. 22%