Series 4

It is a multiple-choice exam of 125 items with a duration of 3 hours and 15 minutes, which works out to roughly 90 seconds per question. The passing score is 72 and the exam fee is $200. Plan to move steadily - there is little slack for re-reading long scenario questions.

Yes. The Series 4 has corequisite exam requirements: candidates must pass the Securities Industry Essentials (SIE) Exam and the General Securities Representative Exam (Series 7) to hold the Registered Options Principal registration. You must also be associated with and sponsored by a FINRA member firm or other applicable SRO member firm to sit for a principal-level exam.

General options trading supervision carries 30 items, associated persons and personnel management 28, options account activities 25, opening new options accounts 21, regulatory practices and requirements 12, and options communications 9 - totaling 125. The personnel-management function is easy to overlook, but at 28 items it is the second-largest block on the exam.

Covered activities include supervising a member's options sales practices with the public for equity options, foreign currency options, interest rate options, index options, and options on government and mortgage-backed securities. Expect questions that require you to apply supervisory rules across all of those product types rather than just equity options.

Under current policy, you wait 30 days after the first and second unsuccessful attempts and 180 days after the third. Effective January 19, 2027, those periods drop to 15 days and 60 days respectively. Requests to shorten a waiting period before that date will not be processed, and rescheduling fees may apply.

It is a principal-level exam, so questions test supervisory judgment - approving accounts, escalation, written procedures - not just definitions. The most common weak spots are personnel-management and communications rules that candidates skim, and options strategy mechanics they last studied for the Series 7. Breadth across six job functions leaves little room to skip a topic.

Start with opening and approving new options accounts and the suitability and disclosure work around them. Then move to account activity and general options trading supervision, which together supply 55 items. Finish with options communications, regulatory practices, and associated-person supervision, and keep cycling practice questions from earlier sections so the rules stay fresh.

Answer in sets under timed conditions, then review every miss for the underlying supervisory principle rather than the specific fact. Write down the rule or procedure you should have applied. Repeat missed topics after a week. Because the passing score is 72, aim to be scoring comfortably above that on mixed sets before scheduling.

Book once your practice scores are consistently above the passing score of 72 and you have covered all six job functions at least once. Schedule with enough buffer to absorb a retake waiting period - currently 30 days after a first or second unsuccessful attempt, dropping to 15 days for attempts on or after January 19, 2027.