L 1 Mockv 12020 Juneamquestions
L 1 Mockv 12020 Juneamquestions
L 1 Mockv 12020 Juneamquestions
com
Level I of CFA® Program
1st Mock Exam
June 2020
Revision 1
A. clients.
B. industry.
C. own behavior.
2. Alonzo Myers manages accounts at GRTY Securities. Jerry Reed, one of his
clients, e-mailed Myers to buy 300 shares in the IPO of JJKS Corp’s stock. Few
days later, despite being a hot issue, Myers succeeded prorating 500 shares of
JJKS Corp. for his clients. After purchasing 500 shares for his clients and 300
shares for Reed as per request, he purchased remaining 200 shares for his wife.
Myers:
A. did not violate the standards by purchasing 200 shares for his wife and 300
shares for Reed.
B. violated the standards by purchasing 200 shares for his wife and only 300
shares for Reed.
C. violated the standards by purchasing 200 shares for his wife but is in
compliance for purchasing 300 shares for Reed as per his request.
3. McKinney Alpha is an accredited research firm that only hires experienced and
competent analysts offering them training and financial courses from time to time.
The firm allows analysts to either prepare their own research or rely on secondary
sources. Tyler Klein, an analyst at McKinney uses a research report prepared at
Gemma Brokerage. If Klein will use that report, he will:
A. eliminate the need for in-depth due diligence on the part of the investor.
B. participate in competitive bids against other compliant firms throughout
the world.
C. assure prospective clients that the reported historical track record is
complete and fairly presented.
10. Mathew Chambers manages individual accounts, including his father’s, at Harvey
Securities. During a Sunday lunch at a restaurant with his friend Neil Rojas,
Chambers noticed the directors of Navarro Motors sitting at the adjacent table.
Rojas stated, “I believe Navarro has hired a new CEO as the firm is undertaking
many positive amendments in its production process”. On Monday Chambers
noticed a $1 increase in Navarro’s share price and purchased 500 shares for his
father’s account. Chambers least likely violated:
11. Blanco Shell Investments (BSI) is a small family owned investment bank and its
shares are relatively illiquid. In a casual meeting Brett Palmer, managing director
at BSI, told his friend, Leon Fox, that BSI is going to earn substantial profits in
its commodities business. In the next few days Fox purchases BSI shares while
Palmer disposes his position in BSI and switches his job. Two months later BSI
announces huge losses in its commodities business and the share price decreases
by $2. Palmer has violated the CFA Institute Standards of Professional Conduct
concerning
12. After 5-years of service with Jacob Securities as a financial planner, Shane
Alvarado planned to start his own practice in his hometown. He informed his
employer through email three days before starting his independent practice. The
employer was on a business trip for a week and on his return he accepted his
resignation. Alvarado always maintained his personal records related to training
programs that he conducted at Jacob Securities, and he used that material in his
new project. Alvarado:
13. During the morning section of the CFA Level 1 exam, when the proctor made the
final 5 minutes announcement, Enrique, a candidate next to Rachael noticed and
told Rachael that she was not filling her answers on the sheet provided. Rachael
immediately started transferring answers on to the answer sheet. When the proctor
made the final announcement, Rachael succeeded filling 100 circles and by the
time proctor reached at her table, she had only 5 circles left to fill. Rachael
instantly handed her sheet to the proctor. Is Rachael or Enrique in violation of the
standard relating to conduct as members and candidates in the CFA Program?
14. Dan Fisher is an investment manager at Rotterdam Securities and often uses
Topaz brokerage services for his clients. Corey Foster, Fisher’s client, has
directed him to use the services of Luna Brokerage House for him. Fisher believes
that Topaz offers best price and better research reports compared to Luna. The
best course of action for Fisher is to use the services of:
A. Topaz for all of his clients as he is obligated to seek best price and best
execution.
B. Luna for Foster and should disclose to him that he may not be getting best
execution.
C. Topaz for all his clients as brokerage commission is the asset of the
Rotterdam and will be used to maximize the value of client’s portfolio.
A. refusing the offer of SOTO trust to avoid a conflict of interest with his
employer.
B. accepting the offer and achieving the target without compromising his
objectivity towards other clients.
C. making an immediate written report to his employer specifying the$50,000
cash offer proposed by the trust
16. GIPS standards least likely resolve misleading practices related to:
A. survivorship bias.
B. varying time periods.
C. analyst financial statement adjustments.
17. Sullivan Investments, an asset management firm, complied with the GIPS
standards on 1 January 2006. Can Sullivan link its non-GIPS compliance
performance for periods beginning on or after 1 January 2000 with its GIPS
compliance performance?
A. No.
B. Yes.
C. Only if it discloses periods of non-compliance.
18. Which of the following statements is most likely correct regarding the major
sections of GIPS standards?
19. Three friends Sam, Patricia and Robert will receive equal dollar amounts in two
years from their maturing investments, however, they invested in such a way that:
• the interest rate offered to Patricia and Sam is same but compounding for
Patricia is monthly and for Sam is quarterly.
• compounding for Robert and Patricia is same but the interest rate offered
to Robert is higher.
A. Sam.
B. Robert.
C. Patricia.
A. variance.
B. sample size.
C. mean value.
21. A property and potential benefit of using arithmetic mean is its ability to:
22. An analyst calculated the expected value of Howe Inc.’s EPS as $5.91 based on
the probability distribution of Howe’s EPS for the current fiscal year.
The standard deviation of the Howe’s EPS for the current fiscal year is closest to:
A. 0.9662.
B. 0.9829.
C. 2.8816.
23. A professor is practicing a new method of teaching and is unsure about its impact
on students’ performance. His students generally maintained an average 3.2 GPA
throughout the semester. He selects a sample of 25 students with a mean GPA of
3.0 and standard deviation of 0.62. The professor is concerned whether the sample
results are consistent with the average GPA results of 3.2.
Exhibit: T-Table
df. p = 0.05 p = 0.10
24 1.711 1.318
25 1.708 1.316
Determine whether the null hypothesis is rejected or not at the 0.10 level of
significance.
A. The null hypothesis is rejected as the t-value of 1.6129 is > 1.318 at the
0.10 significance level.
B. The null hypothesis is not rejected as -1.6129 does not satisfy either t >
1.711 or t < -1.711.
C. The null hypothesis is not rejected as the calculated t value of 0.322 is less
than 1.318 at the 0.10 significance level.
24. An analyst gathered the following information about return distributions of two
portfolios.
Kurtosis Skewness
Portfolio A 2.5 -3.7
Portfolio B 1.3 +4.2
Which of the following statements is most likely correct regarding portfolio A and
B?
25. Which of the following least accurately outlines a property of the normal
distribution function? It:
28. Which of the following statements is most likely correct regarding parametric and
non-parametric tests?
30. An analyst gathered the following national data (in millions of U.S dollars) for a
country for the year 2013.
Exhibit:
Consumer $461,580 Personal disposable $555,790
spending (m) income
Government $392,676 Interest paid by $13,400
spending consumers
Personal $906,230 Consumer transfers to $1,500
Income foreigners
Using the data provided in exhibit 1, the household saving (in millions) is closest
to:
A. $37,074.
B. $68,904.
C. $79,310.
31. Which of the following is most likely common among the assumptions of the
Ricardian model and Heckscher-Ohlin model?
32. In 2016, a firm earned $500,000 for selling 1,000 units. However, if 1,500 units
were sold, revenue would be total $720,000. The marginal revenue per unit
associated with selling 1,500 units instead 1,000 units would be closest to:
A. $440
B. $480
C. $500
34. Which of the following indicator measures the price of the basket of goods and
services produced within an economy in a given year?
A. GDP deflator.
B. Producer price index.
C. Consumer price index.
36. To determine the impact of changes in exchange rates on trade balance, the
‘absorption approach’ most likely exhibits the:
37. Over the last week, the Japanese yen has appreciated 15.7% against pound
sterling (GBP). The depreciation of GBP against the Japanese yen will be closest
to:
A. 14.4%
B. 15.7%.
C. 18.6%
39. Which of the following characteristics most likely demonstrates that the firm is
operating in monopolistic competition?
40. To deal with short-run stabilization, as compared to monetary policy, fiscal policy
is most likely:
41. On 1st January 2011, Arnold Inc. purchases a machine for $325,000 and
immediately leases the machine through a direct finance lease that requires five
annual payments of $80,498 starting from 1st January 2011. The carrying amount
is equal to its purchase price and the relevant discount rate is 12%.
A. $51,158.
B. $79,720.
C. $112,000.
42. DCT Inc. sells an asset with a historical acquisition cost of $7.8 million and an
accumulated depreciation of $1.6 million and reports a loss on the sale of $0.5
million. The sale price of the asset is closest to:
A. $5.7 million.
B. $6.7 million
C. $7.3 million.
43. Which of the following statements is most likely correct regarding the audit of
financial statements?
44. When securities are classified as ‘available for sale’ securities in U.S. GAAP
unrealized gains and losses are:
45. An analyst gathered the following information from a company’s 2013 financial
statements.
The free cash flow for the firm (FCFF) is closest to:
A. $5.1 million.
B. $8.7 million.
C. $11.1 million.
48. The elements directly related to measurement of financial performance least likely
include:
A. liabilities.
B. expenses.
C. capital maintenance adjustments.
A. $30.0 million.
B. $31.5 million.
C. $33.0 million.
50. An analyst observed the following percentage changes in Hunt PAL Inc.’s
financials from 2012 to 2013:
Revenue +33%
Net Income +38%
Assets +27%
51. The financial leverage ratio of a firm, whose total debt ratio is 54% and debt-to-
equity is 1.15, is closest to:
A. 0.47.
B. 0.62.
C. 2.13.
52. An investor asked two questions from an analyst regarding the goodwill of a
company.
Question 1: Question 2:
A. Economic Accounting
B. Accounting Economic
C. Economic & Accounting Economic
53. In 2012, the cost of ending inventory reported by T&M, a manufacturer of office
equipment, was $22 million. T&M compiles its financial statements in accordance
with IFRS.
Exhibit1
Replacement $20.5 million
cost
NRV $21.2 million
NRV less $19.7 million
profit margin
Based on the data shown in Exhibit 1, T&M would most likely write its inventory
down by:
A. $0.8 million.
B. $1.5 million.
C. $2.3 million.
55. Under IFRS the definitional criteria for identifiable intangible assets most likely
includes:
56. Knin Inc. issued a 6-year, 7% annual-coupon paying bond with a face value of
$10 million on 1st January 2011 when the market interest rate was 7.7%. Using
the effective interest rate method, the interest expense on bonds reported in 31
December 2012 is closest to:
A. $700,000.
B. $744,854.
C. $748,308.
A. an operating lease.
B. either capital or operating lease.
C. either direct financing or sales-type lease.
58. An investor uses simple stock screen criteria based on a P/E ratio of less than 5
and financial leverage ratio of less than 0.5. The investor will least likely exclude
stocks of companies:
For a 12% discount rate, as compared to project B, the discounted payback period
of project A is approximately:
A. equivalent.
B. 0.93 years higher.
C. 1.25 years higher.
60. Net present value method assumes that cash flows are reinvested at the:
61. Compute the cost of trade credit if terms are 1/10 net 30 and the account is paid
on the 30th day?
A. 13.01%
B. 20.13%
C. 44.32%
62. An analyst gathered the following information to estimate the cost of equity for JI
Inc. located in Fiji.
Exhibit 1
Risk free rate 3.2%
Market risk premium 5.5%
Beta 1.3
U.S 10-year T-bond yield 2.84%
Fiji’s 10-year dollar denominated Govt. 10.81%
bond yield
Annualized SD of Fiji’s stock market 44%
Annualized SD of Fiji’s dollar 37%
denominated bond
The sovereign yield spread and JI Inc.’s cost of equity are closest to:
63. Which of the following statements is most likely correct regarding ‘uncommitted
lines of credit’?
64. When a reliable current market price for a firm’s debt is not available, the cost of
debt can be estimated using the:
65. A manager is computing the cost of trade credit for the terms 2/10 net 30 and the
account is paid on 20th day. The cost of trade credit is closest to:
A. 24.69.
B. 44.59%.
C. 109.05%.
66. An analyst gathered the following financial information from Daniel Inc.
The degree of operating leverage of Daniel Inc. from 2013 to expected 2014 is
closest to:
A. 2.11.
B. 3.68.
C. 4.78.
67. Mike Dolan is evaluating potential impact of changes in economy and health care
conditions on Hi-Pharm Corp, a firm in the pharmaceutical business. Hi-Pharm’s
uncertainty with respect to the price and quantity of drugs produced is referred as:
A. sales risk
B. financial risk
C. operating risk
68. Seth Shelton, a financial analyst at UII Advisors is assessing the capital structure
of BenChip Corp. Seth observed that the company is also using capital and
operating leases as a source of capital along with debt and equity.
Which of the following statements is least likely correct with regards to the
treatment of company’s capital and operating leases? Seth should:
69. Clothers is a U.S. based company that manufactures garments. The Clothers
number of days of inventory for year 2018 is 81 days whereas the Clothers’
historic average inventory turnover ratio is 5.2.
70. Aiden Inc. is planning to borrow $2 million from Next Bank as an asset-based
loan. The loan is secured using Aiden Inc.’s inventory as collateral. Under the
arrangement, Next Bank requires Aiden Inc. to certify that the goods are
segregated and held in trust, with proceeds of any sale remitted to the lender
immediately. However, there is no involvement of 3rd party to supervise the
inventory.
The arrangement type between Aiden and Next Bank is most likely:
71. For short selling purposes, if a security is extremely hard to borrow, the short
rebate rate may be:
A. very high.
B. negative or very low.
C. 10 basis points more than the overnight rate.
72. Which of the following statements is most likely correct regarding the
fundamental weighting method?
73. Smith owns 500 shares of Wood Craft Inc. and the firm is going to elect 10 board
directors. Under statutory voting Smith can cast:
74. An investor placed a market buy order for thinly traded shares of G.Z.T Inc. The
main drawback for the investor would be that:
75. The performance of commodity indices can be quite different from their
underlying commodities because
76. Which of the following statements is most likely correct? Enterprise value:
77. A firm will start paying dividends four years from now and thereafter that will be
expected to grow 5% into perpetuity. Expected dividend in year 4 is $5. If an
investor’s required rate of return is 7%, the intrinsic value of the stock is closest
to:
A. $200.
B. $204.
C. $227.
78. Which of the following is least likely a macroeconomic influence that affects an
industry’s growth? Changes in:
A. inflation.
B. interest rates.
C. technologies.
79. Which of the following most accurately illustrates the pricing rule used by the
type of order driven market?
80. Asset based valuation models work well for companies that do not have a high
proportion of:
A. intangibles.
B. fixed assets.
C. current assets.
81. An investor holds 500 shares of Siena Inc. for one year on margin. Both the
interest on loan and dividends on shares are paid at the end of the year. The other
details are as follows:
A. 7%.
B. 9%.
C. 10%.
82. The £40 par value of a non-callable non-convertible preferred stock with maturity
in two years and £5 semi-annual dividend is trading for £53.22. If the required
rate of return for the investor is 7%, the preferred stock is:
A. over-valued.
B. fairly valued.
C. under-valued.
83. A wheat farmer is worried that wheat prices will be lower than expected when his
wheat will be ready for sale hence, he entered into a forward contract with a baker
to sell his wheat of a specified quantity at a specified price on a specific future
delivery date.
Which of the following is most likely the primary purpose of the farmer to arrange
this trade?
A. to manage risk
B. to trade on information
C. to save money for the future
85. Which of the following factors least likely reduce the value of a European call
option on a stock?
A. Larger dividends
B. Lower exercise price
C. Less time to expiration
87. A type of credit derivative in which credit protection buyer makes a series of
regularly scheduled payments to credit protection seller while the seller makes no
payment until a credit event occurs is categorized as a:
89. Information can flow into the derivative before it gets into the spot market due to
the fact that derivative markets:
90. An investor buys a unit of commodity for $45. The risk-free rate is 4 percent and
the price of the commodity is expected to be $45.50 after one year. Which of the
following most likely represent a possible reason for the investor to hold the
commodity?
92. A U.S. based firm has a position in a European bond for a par value of €50
million. For a 1 basis point increase in yield the market value of the investment
changes to €49.85 million and for a 1 basis point decrease in yield investment
value changes to €51.23 million. The price value of basis point for the investment
is closest to:
A. 0.013.
B. 0.027.
C. 0.690.
94. An investor purchases a 2-year zero-coupon bond with par value of $1,000 at
$960. The implied interest earned on the bond is closest to:
A. $0.
B. $21.
C. $40.
95. An analyst observed the profitability and cash flows of firms A and B and
collected the results below.
Firm A Firm B
Earnings before interest and tax 104 million 96.5 million
Free cash flow before dividends -12.5 million 8.5 million
Free cash flow after dividends N/A -0.5 million
A. firm A only.
B. firm B only.
C. firms A and B.
96. An investor buys a 10-year, 7% annual coupon payment bond and sells the bond
after 3 years. Assuming that the coupon payments are reinvested at 11.5% for 3
years. The interest on interest gain from compounding the coupon payments is
closest to:
A. $2.51.
B. $5.21.
C. $23.5.
97. A recently issued sovereign bond for a given maturity is also referred to as:
A. floating issue.
B. of the run issue.
C. benchmark issue.
98. A high yield bond issuer has offered the ‘change of control put’ to its
bondholders. Under this covenant in the event of acquisition, the bondholder has a
(n):
A. right to put limits on how much secured debt an issuer can have.
B. option to change a certain percentage of his bond value with the equity of
the issuer.
C. right to require the issuer to buy back their debt at par or at some premium
to par.
99. An annual modified duration of a fixed rate bond is 5.75. Although there is no
change in benchmark yields but due to improved financial reporting quality and a
ratings upgrade, the flat price of the bond has increased from 98.10 to 101.65 per
100 of par value. The estimated change in the credit spread of the bond is closest
to:
A. -62.93 bps.
B. -20.75 bps.
C. 361.88 bps.
A. 2.55%.
B. 3.18%.
C. 4.41%.
101. For rating agencies, the primary factor in assigning their ratings is:
A. likelihood of default.
B. potential loss severity.
C. priority of payment in the event of a default.
A. 2.2%.
B. 3.0%.
C. 4.5%.
103. Which of the following statements is most likely correct about floating rate notes
(FRNs)?
A. The higher the issuer’s credit quality, the higher the spread of a floating
rate note.
B. The interest payments of a floating rate note are highly dependent on the
current level of a reference interest rate.
C. The spread of a floating rate note is set when the bond is issued and then
resets periodically during the tenure of the bond.
105. During periods of financial crises, the correlation between hedge funds and
financial market performances may:
A. increase.
B. decrease.
C. become 0.
106. The four broad categories of hedge fund strategies identified by HFRI are:
107. For venture capital investing, later stage financing is the capital provided for a
company:
108. Which of the following is a suitable risk return measure for an analyst wanting to
asses the downside risk of an alternative investment?
A. Sharpe ratio
B. Sortino ratio
C. Standard deviation.
109. Jerry invested $11.25 m in EV Fund of funds (EVFOF) that invested the money
with Tsar Hedge Fund (THF). EV FOF and THF have “1 & 10” and “2 & 20” fee
structures respectively. Management fees are calculated using beginning of period
capital and both management and incentive fees are computed independently.
THF earned 17% annual return before management and incentive fees. Based on
the data provided, net of fees return to Jerry is closest to:
A. 7.08%.
B. 8.90%.
C. 9.44%.
110. The returns of which type of investments rely to a great extent on manager skills?
A. Commodity investments
B. Infrastructure investments
C. Private equity investments
111. The type of chart drawn on a grid, which consists of column X’s alternating with
column O’s and does not represent time or volume is most likely the:
A. bar chart.
B. candlestick chart.
C. point and figure chart.
112. Which of the following quantifies and allocates the tolerable risk by specific
metrics?
A. Risk tolerance
B. Risk Budgeting
C. Enterprise risk management
113. When an investor’s ability to take risk is above average but willingness is below
average, the investor’s risk tolerance is
A. average.
B. above average.
C. below average.
A. Beta.
B. RM – RF.
C. Jensen’s alpha.
115. Generating sufficient income and maintaining the real capital value of the fund
are most likely the objectives of:
A. insurance companies.
B. university endowments.
C. investment companies.
116. An investor earned -0.5% returns in predicting the one-week movement in the
dollar/pound exchange rate from 06/01/13 to 06/07/13. The loss an investor can
suffer by the end of May 2014 keeping the given return as representative of future
losses is closest to:
A. 1.98%.
B. 22.9%.
C. 29.6%.
117. Which of the following two measures are based on the total risk and provide
similar rankings?
118. Generating higher returns from security selection most likely depends upon:
119. Assuming the correlation between an asset and market is 0.67 and the asset and
market have standard deviations of 0.34 and 0.19 respectively, the asset beta
would be closest to:
A. 0.09.
B. 1.00.
C. 1.20.
120. Which of the following type of stock analysis relies on information that is
external to the market in an attempt to evaluate a security’s value relative to its
current price.
A. Technical analysis
B. Fundamental analysis
C. Relative strength index