Futures SpecialistFUTURES

Securities and Futures Institute (SFI) · 2 subjects, 100 questions · Below 60 in any subject fails

Who needs it

For soliciting futures and options business, taking orders and explaining risk at a futures firm. It carries the highest bar of the four tests.

Format

2 subjects, 100 questions, all four-option multiple choice
Below 60 in any subject fails
Subjects: Futures trading law · Futures trading theory and practice

Registration windows, sitting dates and fees follow SFI announcements.

What to watch for

The bar differs from the other three: they pass at 50 in each subject, this one requires at least 60 in every subject, so a strong paper cannot carry a weak one. Its subjects overlap nothing else, so it needs its own block of study.

Futures trading law

What counts as futures trading, the types, and the scope of the Act
Membership versus corporate exchange structures
Clearing margin and the settlement fund
Clearing and settlement
Futures trust enterprises and futures trust funds
Minimum capital and operating bonds
Financial conduct rules and capital adequacy
Market surveillance and dispute resolution
Prohibited conduct and the futures association's self-regulation

Futures trading theory and practice

Cost-of-carry pricing: F = S(1+r)^t − D + storage
Spread profit and loss
Hedge ratios, optimal contract counts, and hedge outcomes
Basis risk and cross hedging
Margin, margin calls and leverage
Call and put payoffs at expiry
Intrinsic and time value
Straddles and strangles
Protective puts and covered calls
Maximum profit, maximum loss and break-even by strategy

How to study it

For the law subjects, build the structure of the statute first, then memorise the elements and the numbers (capital, deadlines, ratios).
For the calculation subjects, drill by question type — ten questions on one formula beats fifty scattered ones.
Use mock tests to check pacing, and confirm every subject clears the bar rather than the total.
Keep an error log: the provision for law questions, the step you stalled on for calculations.

Free practice questions

The free sample on this site comes from the Securities Specialist bank; this test's full bank is in the app. Try the free questions →