Collective Investment Schemes and Other Market Instruments
This domain tests how pooled vehicles are structured, who does what inside them, and how their units are valued and traded. Expect NAV calculations and questions that separate the manager's role from the custodian's.
Fund types
Mutual funds (صندوق سرمایهگذاری مشترک) include equity, fixed-income, mixed, index, market-making and exchange-traded variants. Private vehicles include private equity, venture capital, real estate and charity funds. Other instruments tested here include mortgage-backed securities (اوراق رهنی), housing facility certificates, exchange-traded put options used by issuers as buy-back guarantees, and commodity futures and options on the IME.
Structure and governance
A fund manager (سبدگردان) licensed by the SEO runs the portfolio; a custodian (امانتدار) safekeeps assets; an auditor reviews the accounts; a board of trustees oversees certain fund types. Fund assets are segregated from the manager's own balance sheet, which is the whole point of the structure.
Valuation and dealing
Unit value is NAV per unit = (total assets − total liabilities) ÷ units outstanding, calculated and published each business day. Open-end funds issue and redeem at NAV, sometimes with a queue when redemptions exceed available liquidity. Exchange-traded funds and listed funds trade at market price, which may sit at a premium or discount to NAV; market makers and authorised participants arbitrage the gap.
Worked example
A fund holds assets of 1,200 billion rials and liabilities of 40 billion rials, including accrued management fees, with 1.16 billion units outstanding. NAV per unit = 1,160 ÷ 1.16 = 1,000 rials. If the units trade at 1,020 rials, the premium is 2%.
Traps that cost marks
Swapping manager and custodian duties; assuming a listed fund's price equals its NAV; forgetting accrued liabilities in the NAV calculation; assuming every fund permits daily redemption.