Open Exam Prep

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - The critical difference between short-term capital gains (taxed at ordinary income rates) and long-term capital gains (taxed at preferential rates). - The holding period for long-term capital gains is more than one year, and inherited securities are automatically treated as long-term. - The wash sale rule disallows a tax loss if t...

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - The mechanics of how Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA) leads to a lower average cost per share compared to the average share price. - Key differences and exam-tested scenarios for Dollar Cost Averaging versus lump-sum investing. - How systematic investing and automatic reinvestment plans are practical applications of DCA. - Common exam t...

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - To differentiate passive bond strategies: laddering for steady cash flow, barbells for a yield/liquidity mix, and bullets for a specific future liability. - That immunization is a method to offset interest rate risk by matching a portfolio's duration to an investor's time horizon. - To identify the motives behind different b...

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - Why passive investing, through index funds, typically features significantly lower expense ratios than active management. - How the low portfolio turnover of index funds leads to greater tax efficiency by minimizing capital gains distributions. - The long-term performance data indicating that a majority of active managers fail to outperform their benchmarks a...

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - Strategic allocation is a long-term, passive strategy based on a client's policy statement, while tactical allocation involves short-term, active deviations to exploit market opportunities. - A constant ratio plan rebalances a portfolio back to its target percentages when market movements cause the allocation to drift. - A constant dollar plan maintains a...

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - The Sharpe Ratio uses standard deviation to measure return per unit of total risk, making it ideal for non-diversified portfolios. - The Treynor Ratio uses beta to measure return per unit of systematic risk, making it the correct choice for well-diversified portfolios. - Jensen's Alpha is a measure of a manager's s...

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - Standard deviation measures an investment's total risk, which is the combination of systematic and unsystematic risk. - Beta is a narrower metric that measures only the systematic, or market, risk of an investment relative to a benchmark like the S&P 500. - Alpha represents the excess return an investment earns above i...

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - Weak-form EMH states that past price and volume data are priced in, making technical analysis ineffective. - Semi-strong form EMH posits all public information is reflected in prices, rendering both technical and fundamental analysis useless for outperformance. - Strong-form EMH asserts that all information, including private insider data, is priced in, m...

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - How to calculate a security's expected return using the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) formula. - The roles of the risk-free rate, beta, and the market risk premium in the CAPM calculation. - Why the Security Market Line (SML) is the graphical representation of CAPM. - How to use the SML t...

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT) assumes investors are risk-averse and seek to maximize returns for a given level of risk. - The efficient frontier represents a set of optimal portfolios offering the highest return for each level of risk. - Diversification can reduce unsystematic (company-specific) risk but not systematic (market) risk. - T...

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - That the Know Your Customer (KYC) rule requires gathering all relevant financial information before making any recommendations. - Why Investment Adviser Representatives (IARs) are held to a fiduciary standard, which is a higher legal duty than the suitability standard. - How a recommendation can be technically "suitable" but still violate the f...

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - The specific income ($200k/$300k) and net worth ($1M) thresholds for an Accredited Investor. - Why the value of a primary residence is a common exam trap in the net worth calculation. - The definition of a Qualified Purchaser, focusing on the $5 million in investments requirement. - How these definitions allow a...

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - The key tax and control differences between revocable and irrevocable trusts. - The fiduciary responsibilities of a trustee under the Uniform Prudent Investor Act. - How trusts and wills interact with the probate process in estate planning. - The purpose and application of the Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax (GSTT). - A mnemonic t...

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - The fiduciary considerations for a sole proprietorship center on the single owner's suitability due to unlimited personal liability. - For general partnerships, suitability must be determined for all partners because they all share unlimited liability. - LLCs and S-corporations offer limited liability, and investment recommendations must consider all members or shareholders. ...

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - How the four client life stages (Accumulation, Consolidation, Spending, Gifting) directly impact suitable asset allocation on the Series 65 exam. - The critical difference between risk capacity and risk tolerance, and which takes precedence in exam scenarios. - Why a client's time horizon for a specific goal can override their general life s...

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - The key difference between term and permanent life insurance for suitability questions. - Why variable life insurance is considered a security while whole life is not. - The defining feature of universal life insurance that the exam will test: premium flexibility. - The specific rules for a tax-free Section 1035 exchange and t...

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - The distinction between the accumulation and annuitization phases and how they are tested. - The different risk profiles of fixed, variable, and indexed annuities and why only variable annuities are securities. - The LIFO (Last-In, First-Out) tax treatment for non-qualified annuity withdrawals, a common exam trap. - The dual threat of s...

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - A covered call is used to generate income on a long stock position but caps the maximum potential gain. - A protective put acts as insurance for a long stock position, limiting downside risk while retaining unlimited upside potential. - The breakeven for a covered call is calculated by subtracting the p...

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - The fundamental rights of call and put option buyers. - How to calculate an option's intrinsic and time value. - The distinction between an option being "in-the-money" versus the breakeven point. - Key terminology for option buyers and sellers that you will see on the exam. - A simple mnemonic to r...

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - Hedge funds and private equity are unregistered securities suitable only for accredited investors who meet specific income or net worth tests. - The net worth calculation for an accredited investor explicitly excludes the value of their primary residence, a common exam trap. - These investments are characterized by limited liquidity, often e...

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - Closed-end funds issue a fixed number of shares in an IPO and then trade on the secondary market like a stock. - A closed-end fund's market price is driven by supply and demand, often causing it to trade at a premium or discount to its Net Asset Value (NAV). - Unit I...

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - That ETFs can be traded throughout the day at changing prices, while mutual funds are priced only once per day at the closing Net Asset Value (NAV). - How the in-kind creation and redemption process makes ETFs generally more tax-efficient by avoiding the forced capital gain distributions common in mutual funds. ...

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - The key components of a mutual fund's expense ratio, including management fees. - The purpose of 12b-1 fees and the specific rules that dictate whether a fund can be marketed as "no-load". - The differences between load funds (Class A, B, C shares) and no-load funds. - How to analyze the l...

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - How to calculate a mutual fund's Net Asset Value (NAV) per share. - The characteristics of Class A shares, including front-end loads and breakpoint discounts. - The features of Class B shares, such as Contingent Deferred Sales Charges (CDSCs). - The structure of Class C shares with their level-load 12b-1 fees. ...

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) trade in U.S. dollars but expose investors to significant currency risk. - Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) must distribute at least 90% of their net investment income to shareholders to avoid corporate-level taxation. - Rights are short-term instruments issued to existing shareholders to let them maintain their p...

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - The core distinction between fundamental analysis (evaluating a business's intrinsic health) and technical analysis (evaluating market trends and price charts) for the Series 65 exam. - How the P/E ratio is used to assess if a stock is overvalued or undervalued, and its typical association with growth and value companies. - W...

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - That cumulative preferred stock requires issuers to pay all missed dividends (arrears) before paying common stockholders. - How convertible preferred stock offers the potential for capital appreciation by allowing conversion into common stock, usually for a lower dividend. - Why callable preferred stock benefits the issuer, who can redeem shares when i...

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - The difference between statutory and cumulative voting rights and how they are tested. - How preemptive rights protect shareholders from dilution during new share issuance. - The mechanics of forward and reverse stock splits and their impact on an investor's total position value. - The standard market capitalization classifications (large-cap, mid-cap, s...

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - The fundamental inverse relationship between bond prices and interest rates. - How to identify the correct order of yields (Nominal, Current, YTM, YTC) for both premium and discount bonds. - That duration, not maturity, is the key measure of a bond's price sensitivity to interest rate changes. - How to spot t...

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - General Obligation (GO) bonds are backed by the issuer's full faith, credit, and taxing power, and require voter approval. - Revenue bonds are financed by the income from a specific project, like a toll road or airport, and their creditworthiness depends on a feasibility study. - Municipal bond interest is exempt f...

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - Secured bonds are backed by specific assets (collateral), while unsecured bonds, known as debentures, are backed only by the issuer's creditworthiness. - The trust indenture is the formal legal agreement between the bond issuer and the trustee that details all terms, features, and covenants of the bond. - Callable bonds benefit t...

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - The key difference in government backing between GNMA (full faith and credit) and FNMA/FHLMC (implicit guarantee). - How mortgage-backed securities and pass-through certificates are structured to provide monthly income to investors. - The direct relationship between falling interest rates and increased prepayment risk for holders of mortgage-backed securities. - Common e...

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - The key maturity and interest payment differences between T-bills, T-notes, and T-bonds. - The unique tax treatment of Treasury securities: federally taxable but exempt from state and local taxes. - How TIPS provide inflation protection and the associated concept of 'phantom income'. - Why STRIPS are not issued directly by the T...

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - The key features of Treasury Bills, including their risk-free nature and issuance at a discount. - The characteristics of commercial paper, such as its 270-day maximum maturity for SEC exemption. - The role of Negotiable CDs as tradable, interest-bearing bank deposits. - How Banker's Acceptances facilitate international trade through a bank's g...

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - That a strengthening U.S. dollar negatively impacts the returns of a U.S. investor holding foreign securities like ADRs. - The critical distinction between sovereign risk (a government defaulting on its debt) and regulatory risk (a government changing laws). - Why American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), despite trading in U.S. d...

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - Inflation risk, or purchasing power risk, means an investment's nominal return may not outpace rising costs, leading to a negative real return. - The Series 65 exam tests inflation risk through suitability scenarios where conservative, fixed-income investments jeopardize a client's long-term financial goals. - Liquidity risk is directly measured by the bid-ask s...

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - The inverse relationship between interest rates and existing bond prices. - How duration measures a bond's sensitivity to interest rate changes. - Why bonds with long maturities and low coupons have the highest interest rate risk. - What reinvestment risk is and why it occurs when interest rates fall. - Common e...

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - Systematic risk, also known as market risk, is non-diversifiable and impacts the entire market through factors like interest rates and inflation. - Unsystematic risk is unique to a specific company or industry and can be significantly reduced through diversification. - Beta is the specific metric used to measure a security's systematic r...

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - How to differentiate between mean, median, and mode in a set of investment returns and why the median is crucial when outliers are present. - That standard deviation is the primary measure of an investment's volatility and risk on the Series 65 exam; a higher number means higher risk. - The significance o...

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - The Net Present Value (NPV) decision rule: Accept projects with a positive NPV and reject those with a negative NPV. - The Internal Rate of Return (IRR) decision rule: Accept projects where the IRR is greater than the required rate of return or hurdle rate. - For the Series 65 exam, NPV i...