Senior Securities SpecialistSENIOR

Securities and Futures Institute (SFI) · 3 subjects, 150 questions · 50 in each subject

Who needs it

For a wider scope of business or for moving up inside a securities firm. It splits the Specialist test's investment paper into separate Investments and Financial Analysis subjects and takes both deeper, so the share of calculation rises sharply.

Format

3 subjects, 150 questions, all four-option multiple choice
50 in each subject
Subjects: Investments · Financial analysis · Securities trading regulations and practice

Registration windows, sitting dates and fees follow SFI announcements.

What to watch for

Investments and financial analysis run roughly 60–70% calculation. Sitting it while the Specialist material is still fresh is much cheaper than coming back to it later.

Investments

Dividend discount models: zero growth and the Gordon model
The security market line, required return, and estimating beta
Diversification and portfolio construction
Performance measures: Sharpe, Treynor, Jensen's alpha
Option payoff diagrams, intrinsic and time value
Macaulay and modified duration
Price-to-earnings and price-to-book
Futures pricing and hedging

Financial analysis

DuPont decomposition of ROE (margin × turnover × leverage)
ROA and ROE
Gross, operating and net margin
Debt ratio and the equity multiplier
Current and quick ratios
Receivables turnover and days sales outstanding
Operating, financial and total leverage (DTL)
Break-even and target profit
Indirect-method cash flow adjustments

Securities trading regulations and practice

The same subject as the Specialist test: scope, offering, underwriting, private placement
Tender offers and mandatory tender offers
Market manipulation (Art. 155)
Margin trading and short selling
Minimum capital, operating bonds and financial conduct rules

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 →