IAR study plan

Map the full Domain 4 blueprint into a one-page outline covering unethical business practices, fiduciary duties, and the regulatory framework, then rank each subtopic by your current confidence.

Define the core prohibited practices in your own words: market manipulation, front-running, unauthorized trading, churning, misrepresentation, and suitability violations, with one concrete client scenario for each.

Trace how the primary regulators and self-regulatory bodies divide authority over investment advisers and broker-dealers, and note which rules apply to each business model.

Build a personal glossary of 30 regulatory terms with a one-line plain-language definition for each, flagging any you cannot yet explain from memory.

Summarize the disclosure, recordkeeping, and advertising rules that govern adviser communications, and identify the specific conduct each rule is designed to prevent.

Distinguish the main forms of fiduciary breach (conflicts of interest, undisclosed compensation, principal trading) and describe the remedy or penalty each typically triggers.

Practice applying the rules by working through at least 40 scenario-style questions where you must classify conduct as permitted, prohibited, or requiring disclosure.

Write a decision checklist a compliance officer could use to triage a suspected ethics violation from detection through escalation.

Classify the major investment vehicles (equity, fixed income, pooled funds, derivatives, alternatives) by their risk, return, liquidity, and tax characteristics.

Explain the structural mechanics of mutual funds, ETFs, and closed-end funds, including how shares are priced, created, and redeemed.

Compute and interpret the key fixed-income metrics: yield to maturity, current yield, duration, and the price-yield relationship for a given bond.

Compare the fee structures and investor protections across vehicle types, and identify which costs compound most heavily over a long holding period.

Analyze options and futures payoffs, including the rights and obligations of each position and the maximum gain or loss for a defined strategy.

Explain how alternative investments (REITs, hedge funds, private equity, commodities) behave differently from traditional assets in a portfolio context.

Draft investor profiles from three short client vignettes, capturing time horizon, risk tolerance, liquidity needs, and tax situation.

Match each of those three profiles to a vehicle mix and justify every allocation choice against the stated client constraints.

Construct a portfolio recommendation that integrates asset allocation, diversification, and rebalancing rules for a sample client.

Calculate risk-adjusted performance measures (Sharpe ratio, standard deviation, beta) from provided return data and interpret what each reveals about a portfolio.

Apply the time value of money to retirement and education funding goals, solving for required contribution, future value, and shortfall.

Identify behavioral biases (anchoring, loss aversion, overconfidence) in client scenarios and prescribe a specific mitigation for each.

Interpret the major economic indicators (GDP, CPI, unemployment, interest rates) and explain how each typically affects asset prices and sector rotation.

Describe how monetary and fiscal policy transmit into markets, and predict the likely portfolio impact of a stated policy shift.

Revise the week 5 investment policy statement after introducing a market shock, documenting exactly which assumptions changed and why.

Explain the business cycle stages and map each stage to a defensible asset-class tilt.

Complete two full-length timed practice exams under test conditions and log every missed question by domain and by error type (knowledge gap, misread, calculation slip).

Re-study your three weakest subtopics across all domains using the error log, not by rereading whole chapters.

Recompute the ten calculations you have missed most often until you can complete each without notes.

Recite the key regulatory prohibitions and fiduciary duties from memory in a five-minute verbal self-quiz.

Drill the highest-yield ethics and suitability rules daily until recall is automatic, since these carry the largest combined weight.

Take one final timed practice exam and confirm a score comfortably above your target passing threshold.

Review the error log one last time and close every remaining open item, marking each resolved or consciously deprioritized.

Rehearse exam-day logistics: timing per question, flag-and-return strategy, and calculator checks.