SIAA Fundamentals of Securities study plan

Map the full primary-market and secondary-market lifecycle from issuer to investor, naming each intermediary's economic role

Distinguish buy-side from sell-side participants and state which side each of eight named institution types sits on

Summarize the core obligations under the securities regulator's licensing, conduct-of-business and client-money rules in your own words

Explain the difference between a market operator, a clearing house and a settlement system, and why each exists

Price a plain vanilla bond from coupon, yield and maturity inputs and explain why price and yield move inversely

Compare duration, modified duration and convexity and state which one best estimates a small yield change

Classify issuers into government, agency, corporate and supranational buckets and list the credit features of each

Describe how credit ratings, covenants and seniority affect recovery in default

Apply the suitability and know-your-client duties to three short client fact patterns

Identify the conflicts of interest, market-abuse and insider-dealing prohibitions triggered by a given trading scenario

Explain how money-laundering controls and record-keeping duties apply to an advisory firm

Summarize the regulatory treatment of fixed-income dealing, best execution and trade reporting

Distinguish ordinary shares, preference shares and depositary receipts on voting, dividend and claim priority

Compute basic and diluted earnings per share and interpret the result for an investor

Explain the mechanics and investor impact of rights issues, bonus issues and share splits

Describe how exchange listing rules and disclosure obligations protect minority shareholders

Compare open-end, closed-end and exchange-traded fund structures on pricing, liquidity and dealing costs

Explain the roles of the fund manager, trustee or custodian and administrator, and the safeguards each provides

Distinguish forwards, futures, options and swaps by payoff shape and by counterparty versus exchange clearing

Contrast hedge funds, private equity and real assets on liquidity, fee structure and valuation difficulty

Trace an order from client instruction through execution, confirmation, clearing and settlement, naming the risk at each step

Explain the trade-date versus settlement-date distinction and the role of central counterparty novation

Describe the purpose of margin, netting and delivery-versus-payment in reducing settlement risk

Identify the market infrastructure bodies that oversee trading venues and post-trade systems

Build a client risk-profile questionnaire and justify each question against a portfolio recommendation

Apply top-down and bottom-up analysis to a listed company and state the key assumptions used

Compute and interpret price-to-earnings, dividend yield and return on equity for two comparable firms

Draft a suitability rationale linking an asset allocation to a stated client objective and time horizon

Synthesize all eight domains into a single revision sheet organized by exam weighting

Complete two timed full-length practice papers and score each domain separately

Diagnose the three weakest domains from practice results and re-teach each weak area

Rehearse the calculation types that appear across equity, fixed income and fund questions