AMIB Promotor de Valores common mistakes
AMIB Promotor de Valores · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Classifying an instrument as equity or debt by its commercial name (e.g., "bono convertible", "acción preferente") instead of by its contractual cash-flow rights and residual claim.
Candidates memorize product labels from marketing materials and skip the legal/economic substance test, so hybrid instruments get misfiled.
What to do instead
For every instrument, write two lines before answering: (1) does it promise fixed/contractual payments, (2) does it grant residual ownership or voting rights. Classify from those two answers, then note the hybrid feature separately.
Treating the price-yield relationship as linear, and predicting duration-based price changes of equal magnitude for equal up and down yield moves.
Candidates learn duration as a single multiplier and never internalize convexity, so they miss asymmetric price behavior on large yield shifts.
What to do instead
Practice computing price change with duration alone and then with duration plus convexity for a ±200 bp shift; state explicitly that the duration-only estimate overstates the loss and understates the gain.
Applying the regulatory framework of the local securities law to a cross-border or foreign-issuer scenario without checking which regime and which registration exemption actually governs.
Candidates over-generalize the domestic rule set and assume one law covers every offering, including private placements and foreign issuances.
What to do instead
Build a one-page decision tree: type of issuer, type of investor, public vs. private offer, local vs. foreign venue. Answer only after locating the scenario on that tree.
Confusing the roles and liabilities of the broker-dealer, the promoter/representative, the exchange, and the regulator when a question describes a conduct failure.
The functions overlap in day-to-day practice, so candidates attribute supervisory or sanctioning powers to the wrong entity.
What to do instead
Memorize a four-column table (entity / authorizes / supervises / sanctions) and, for each practice question, name the entity that would act before choosing the answer.
Selecting a portfolio recommendation from expected return alone, ignoring the client's stated horizon, liquidity needs, and risk tolerance documented in the profile.
Candidates default to the highest-return option as "best" and treat suitability as a formality rather than the binding constraint.
What to do instead
Before evaluating any option, restate the client's profile in three bullets (horizon, liquidity, tolerance) and eliminate every option that breaches one of them; only then compare returns among survivors.
Pricing a derivative by its payoff at maturity without discounting or without accounting for the underlying's carry, dividends, or funding cost.
Candidates focus on the terminal payoff diagram and forget that forward/futures prices embed financing and income flows.
What to do instead
Always write the cost-of-carry relationship first (spot, funding rate, income yield, time) and check that the quoted forward/futures price is consistent with it before answering.
Treating a structured product as a plain bond and ignoring the embedded option that caps upside or creates principal-at-risk exposure.
The capital-protection label and the coupon dominate attention, so the payoff conditionality is overlooked.
What to do instead
Decompose every structured note into its building blocks (zero-coupon bond plus option or plus short put) and state the worst-case and best-case payoff before answering.
Answering ethics items by choosing the option that is legal or profitable rather than the one that satisfies the duty of loyalty and full disclosure to the client.
Candidates conflate compliance with ethics, so a permitted-but-undisclosed conflict looks acceptable.
What to do instead
Apply a fixed three-question filter to every ethics item: is there a conflict, was it disclosed in writing, and would the client still consent if fully informed. Reject any option that fails one.
Handling a suspicious-transaction item by recommending that the promoter confront the client or quietly close the account instead of escalating internally and preserving confidentiality.
Candidates apply general customer-service instincts and forget the tipping-off prohibition and the internal reporting chain.
What to do instead
Memorize the sequence: detect, document, report to the compliance officer, do not tip off the client, do not terminate to avoid reporting. Choose the option that follows that sequence.
Computing valuation multiples or ratios with mismatched inputs, such as pairing enterprise value with net income or a per-share price with an aggregate cash flow.
Candidates memorize formulas as symbols and lose track of whether each input is an equity or an enterprise-level figure.
What to do instead
Label every input as equity-level or enterprise-level before substituting; require numerator and denominator to be at the same level, and sanity-check the result against an industry range.