CFA Level III study plan

Draft a personal decision checklist that maps each Code and Standards subsection to a concrete pre-trade or pre-disclosure action

Apply the checklist to 15 short ethics vignettes and log the specific standard breached in each

Derive a set of capital market expectations by linking growth, inflation, and valuation inputs to expected asset class returns

Compute strategic asset allocation weights for two investor profiles, one using mean-variance optimization and one using a Black-Litterman style blend of views

Contrast asset-only and liability-relative optimization frameworks in writing, including the objective function each uses

Construct an optimal risky portfolio from given expected returns, volatilities, and correlations, and locate the tangency point

Translate a client's return objective, risk tolerance, and constraints into a written investment policy statement

Evaluate rebalancing policy choices by comparing calendar, threshold, and range-based rules on turnover and tracking error

Explain how taxes, concentrated low-basis positions, and liquidity needs alter the theoretically optimal allocation

Build a risk budget that decomposes total portfolio risk across asset classes and factors

Compute time-weighted and money-weighted returns for the same cash flow stream and explain why they diverge

Perform Brinson-style attribution that splits active return into allocation and selection effects and reconciles to total return

Calculate and interpret Sharpe, information ratio, treynor, and capture ratios for two managers

Summarize the core GIPS requirements for composite construction, disclosure, and verification

Re-derive the strategic allocation from week one and stress-test it against two adverse macro scenarios

Size and mark-to-market an equity index futures hedge that reduces portfolio beta to a target level

Construct a currency hedge overlay and compute the residual currency exposure at 50% and 100% hedge ratios

Price and interpret protective puts, covered calls, and collars on a concentrated equity position

Estimate value at risk using parametric and historical simulation methods and compare the results

Identify basis risk, roll cost, and counterparty exposure in each proposed hedging structure

Map the specialized pathway curriculum into a three-level outline and flag the five topics with the lowest self-assessed confidence

Work through a full pathway-specific case from objective setting through recommendation

Write the recommendation memo in the format expected on the constructed response section, using bullet-point justification

Connect pathway content back to at least three core domains so the material is studied as one integrated body of knowledge

Note the pathway-specific formulas you must be able to reproduce from memory and drill them

Re-drill the ethics standards by rewriting each standard from memory and checking against the source text

Resolve 25 additional ethics vignettes, focusing on soft-dollar, allocation, and referral-fee fact patterns

Rework asset allocation problems involving regime shifts, home bias, and illiquid asset classes

Compare the asset allocation outputs from weeks one and three and explain the sources of any change

Rebuild your personal error log and rank the ten most frequent mistake patterns across the first five weeks

Complete two full-length timed mock exams under exam conditions and score them by domain

Review every missed item in portfolio construction, performance measurement, and derivatives until you can state the correct reasoning without notes

Redo all calculation-based misses cold, with no formula sheet in front of you

Practice constructed response answers under a strict per-question time cap

Identify the two domains where marginal study hours will now yield the highest score gain

Close every outstanding item on the week seven remediation list

Reproduce from memory the key formulas across all six domains and check each against the source

Re-read the ethics standards in full on the final two days and re-drill the decision checklist

Complete one final half-length mock focused only on previously missed item types

Finalize a one-page exam-day time allocation and question-sequencing plan