CAIA Level I study plan

Reconstruct the CAIA Standards of Practice and Code of Ethics from memory, mapping each standard to a concrete fiduciary duty

Apply the ethics decision framework to at least six written mini-scenarios and identify the specific violation and remediation

Classify hedge fund strategies by return driver, typical leverage, liquidity terms, and market exposure

Compute and interpret key hedge fund fee structures, including high-water marks and hurdle rates, on worked numeric examples

Explain how managed futures and trend-following programs generate returns and why their crisis behavior differs from equity long/short

Map the alternative investment landscape by liquidity, valuation frequency, and investor type using a self-drawn comparison table

Differentiate private equity fund structures, drawdown mechanics, and the J-curve effect on reported returns

Compute IRR, TVPI, DPI, and RVPI from a cash flow schedule and explain when each metric misleads

Distinguish private debt strategies (direct lending, mezzanine, distressed) by collateral position and covenant structure

Explain how valuation lag and appraisal-based pricing distort reported volatility and correlation for private assets

Compare real estate, infrastructure, farmland, timber, and commodities by inflation sensitivity, income yield, and capital appreciation source

Compute net operating income, cap rate, and implied value for a property and explain how leverage changes equity returns

Decompose a structured product into its underlying cash flows and identify the embedded options, caps, or tranching features

Explain credit tranching, subordination, and loss allocation across a securitization structure with a worked waterfall

Rank real asset and structured product categories by liquidity risk and valuation transparency, and justify the ranking

Compute and interpret Sharpe, Sortino, Treynor, information ratio, and maximum drawdown on a single return series and state when each fails

Explain how adding an alternative investment with documented smoothing affects a mean-variance efficient frontier

Apply the CAPM and multi-factor models to estimate expected returns and decompose active return into factor and alpha components

Reconcile value at risk, expected shortfall, and stress testing as complementary rather than substitute risk measures

Illustrate how fat tails, skew, and kurtosis alter the interpretation of standard deviation-based risk metrics for alternative portfolios

Re-derive hedge fund return attribution and identify which portion of reported return is manager skill versus beta exposure

Compare fund-of-funds, managed accounts, and separate accounts on fee layering, transparency, and control

Explain private equity exit routes, vintage-year diversification, and the effect of dry powder on deployment returns

Recompute performance metrics from earlier weeks without notes to confirm retention

Diagnose at least ten previously missed questions from Weeks 1-4 and write the corrected reasoning for each

Reconstruct commodity futures curve dynamics including contango, backwardation, roll yield, and the cost of carry

Explain how infrastructure and real estate valuations respond to discount-rate and cash-flow-growth shocks

Distinguish structured product payoff profiles and identify the scenario in which each underperforms a plain vanilla alternative

Reproduce the full alternative investment taxonomy and its liquidity, leverage, and valuation characteristics from memory

Solve timed calculation sets on roll yield, cap rates, and tranche loss allocation without reference material

Re-apply the ethics framework to a fresh set of scenarios covering conflicts of interest, soft dollars, performance reporting, and confidentiality

Explain the behavioral and structural biases that make ethics violations likely in alternative investment settings

Reconcile portfolio risk budgeting and factor exposure limits for a portfolio containing hedge funds and private assets

Explain liquidity and duration matching between investor liabilities and alternative investment cash flow profiles

Identify the standard exam traps in each domain and write the countermeasure for each

Retrieve the core formulas, definitions, and ethics standards across all eight domains without notes

Re-solve every question in your error log and confirm each is now answered correctly with sound reasoning

Practice time allocation and answer triage under exam conditions on two additional timed sets

Consolidate the highest-frequency, highest-value facts into a final one-page review sheet

Confirm readiness by meeting or exceeding the target score on the final full-length mock