IFMP Fixed Income Securities Certification (FISC), Pakistan study plan

Define fixed income securities and distinguish them from equity instruments, listing at least five structural features (issuer, coupon, maturity, seniority, security)

Classify the main instrument types - government bonds, T-bills, corporate bonds, sukuk, and money market instruments - and map each to its issuer and typical tenor

Explain the Pakistan sovereign market structure: role of the State Bank of Pakistan, primary dealers, auction calendar, and the difference between MTBs, PIBs, and GIS/SGIS

Build a one-page glossary of at least 30 fixed income terms in your own words

Compute price, accrued interest, and settlement proceeds for a plain vanilla bond given yield, coupon, and day-count convention

Distinguish clean versus dirty price and demonstrate the effect of settlement date on accrued interest

Explain the relationship between price, yield, and coupon, and state the direction of price change for a 100 bps yield move on short- versus long-tenor bonds

Solve at least 15 numerical bond pricing problems without reference material

Calculate and interpret yield to maturity, current yield, and yield to call for the same bond and explain why they diverge

Derive spot rates from a set of bond prices and compute forward rates from the spot curve

Describe the shape and drivers of the yield curve, including expectations, liquidity preference, and segmentation theories

Explain duration and convexity conceptually and compute Macaulay and modified duration for a coupon bond

Measure interest rate risk using modified duration and convexity and estimate price change for a 50, 100, and 200 bps parallel shift

Compare duration-based and full revaluation approaches to interest rate risk and state the limits of each

Explain credit risk components for a bond: default probability, recovery, spread, and rating migration

Interpret a credit rating scale and explain the difference between investment grade and sub-investment grade in a Pakistani issuer context

Summarize the main risks in a fixed income portfolio - interest rate, credit, liquidity, reinvestment, inflation, and currency

Explain how sukuk differ from conventional bonds in structure, ownership, and return mechanics, covering at least three common sukuk types (ijarah, murabaha, musharaka)

Describe the regulatory and market framework for fixed income in Pakistan: SECP, SBP, PSX debt market, and the role of the Central Depository

Contrast the tax and Shariah-compliance considerations that affect bond and sukuk selection for institutional investors

Outline the primary issuance process from auction announcement through allotment and settlement

Describe the portfolio management approaches for fixed income: passive indexing, laddering, barbell, bullet, and duration targeting

Explain immunization and compute the conditions under which a portfolio is immunized against a rate shift

Calculate total return of a bond portfolio including coupon reinvestment and price change over a holding period

Evaluate the trade-off between credit spread and duration risk in a rising-rate scenario using a worked example

Explain the role of fixed income in asset allocation and the diversification argument relative to equities

Describe the mechanics and use of interest rate derivatives relevant to bond portfolios: forwards, futures, and swaps, at conceptual level

Interpret monetary policy transmission to the yield curve and explain how policy rate changes affect short versus long tenors

Review and correct every error in your week 2 and week 3 problem logs

Consolidate all eight weeks into a single one-page formula and concept sheet you can reproduce from memory

Complete two full-length timed practice sets and score each

Identify your three weakest sub-topics from practice results and re-study each with a focused 45-minute session

Rehearse definitions and calculations aloud to confirm recall without notes