What to know
Identify the rule, formula, or decision criterion before reading the answer choices. CFA Level I distractors often use the right vocabulary with the wrong condition.
Ethical and Professional Standards
Integrated Hard Ethics Scenarios practice questions
Integrated Hard Ethics Scenarios is part of CFA Level I Ethical and Professional Standards. Ethics questions test judgment under the Code and Standards, especially duties to clients, employers, markets, and the CFA Program. Use this page to review the controlling ideas, then work through 4 questions with answer explanations and common traps.
Review the worked explanations before moving into adaptive practice. The app version can mix this topic with due reviews and weak related concepts.
Practice this topicHow to practice
Work each item under time pressure, then compare your reasoning with the step-by-step explanation and key takeaway.
Review signal
Missed questions should become scheduled reviews when the error comes from a concept gap, formula setup, or answer-choice trap.
Ethical and Professional Standards
Integrated Hard Ethics Scenarios
A chief investment officer asks an analyst to include a back-tested factor strategy in a client pitch while labeling it 'ten-year performance.' Local law permits the label if a footnote says results are hypothetical. The analyst believes the footnote is too small to notice. The most appropriate response is to:
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Integrated Hard Ethics Scenarios
A trading desk head approves a recommendation upgrade at 8:00 a.m. and tells portfolio managers client orders may start at 9:30 a.m. At 8:15 a.m., she notices that one trader bought shares for his spouse's account. The trader says the written personal trading policy mentions only accounts in employees' own names. The desk head's most appropriate response is to:
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Integrated Hard Ethics Scenarios
A wealth adviser recommends a high-fee private credit fund to a client for whom it may be suitable only as a small allocation. The fund sponsor pays the adviser's firm a placement fee disclosed in the offering memorandum. Separately, the sponsor offers the adviser a personal vacation if aggregate client subscriptions exceed a target. The adviser discloses the placement fee to the client but NOT the vacation offer. The most accurate conclusion is that:
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Integrated Hard Ethics Scenarios
A client accidentally emails an adviser confidential acquisition plans for a public company. The adviser forwards the email to a friend at another firm saying, 'Do NOT trade until this is public.' The adviser then deletes the email from the firm's system to avoid creating a record. The adviser's most likely violations are:
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