One-Page Cheat Sheet

This is the whole book at a glance. It assumes you have already worked through the units; each line is a memory jog, not a first lesson. If a line reminds you that you forgot something, go back to that unit's rapid-fire sheet.

Registration & Personnel Management (Function 1, 6%)

• Broker-Dealer Registration: A broker is an agent trading for others and a dealer is a principal trading its own account, and any firm engaged in that business must register with the SEC before touching interstate commerce. Registration runs three tiers (federal, self-regulatory, and state) all through one Form BD on the Central Registration Depository, with Form BDW handling withdrawal and Form BR each branch. FINRA membership adds the 14-standard New Member Application, a Continuing Membership Application for 25%-or-more ownership and material changes, and a two-year retention of jurisdiction that no withdrawal can dodge, while the Securities Investor Protection Corporation automatically covers up to $500,000 per customer for the firm's failure, never for market losses.
• Associated Person Registration: An associated person is anyone the firm controls or is controlled by, plus its principals and employees, but registration only attaches when that person also engages in the securities business, so the two-tier test is your first move on any personnel question. Lock the filing windows cold: Form U5 within 30 days, a statutory-disqualification Form U4 amendment within 10 days, 2 years of retained jurisdiction, 5-year residential and 10-year employment history, and the December 31 Regulatory Element deadline. Fingerprinting turns on access to securities, money, or records; statutory disqualification turns on any felony or a securities-related misdemeanor within 10 years; and a disqualified person stays only through a firm-filed Form MC-400 and heightened supervision approved by the National Adjudicatory Council.

General Broker-Dealer Supervision (Function 2, 30%)

• Written Supervisory Procedures and Controls: Every firm establishes, maintains, and enforces a supervisory system on seven pillars, documented in written supervisory procedures and scaled to size and risk under the reasonable-review standard. Offices are classified as Office of Supervisory Jurisdiction, branch, or non-branch, with supervisory-jurisdiction offices and supervising branches inspected annually and everything else at least every three years, always by an independent inspector filing a written report. Three layers stack: the supervisory system, internal supervisory controls (tested, reported to senior management, enhanced above $200 million gross revenue), and the chief executive's annual certification (preceding-12-month compliance-officer meeting, board report within 45 days). Round it out with a written business continuity plan covering 10 elements plus customer fund access, two emergency contact persons, current registration and contact-system filings, and electronic access to the FINRA Manual.
• Conduct of Associated Persons: Commercial honor is the catch-all that stacks on everything; the general antifraud rule (scheme, misstatement or omission, fraudulent course of business) is the federal bedrock, with $5 million/20-year individual and $25 million entity criminal penalties. Do not misuse customer assets: no unauthorized borrowing, no guarantees against loss, and no sharing without both written approvals plus proportionate contribution (family waives proportionality, never firm approval). Trading while AWARE of material nonpublic information is insider trading unless a pre-awareness prearranged plan protects you, misappropriation reaches non-insiders, and firms owe written information barriers backed by treble-damage controlling-person liability. Know the manipulation practices, the 25% buyback safe harbor, the 10-day record-date notice, the 30-day outside-account window, and the 5-and-10-business-day transaction-review reports for investment-banking firms.
• Compensation Practices: Networking arrangements put a registered broker-dealer inside a bank: written disclosures always, oral disclosure when the account opens on premises, physical separation, and only a one-time nominal referral fee to bank staff. You cannot pay anyone who should be registered, except a retiring rep's continuing commissions under a pre-retirement written contract or a foreign finder's initial referral of non-U.S. clients. Non-cash compensation is four categories built on total production, sales contests must credit products equally, the gift cap is $300 per person per year (formerly $100) aggregated firm-wide and a floor beneath stricter pay-to-play rules, order acceptance is never clerical, and every dollar ties back to a per-associated-person transaction record.
• Product and Service Supervision: Every new product clears a documented committee (approve, disapprove, or table) before recommendation, and that record is reasonable-basis suitability, alongside customer-specific matching and quantitative surveillance for excessive activity. Variable-contract compensation flows only through the firm, deferred variable annuities get a 7-business-day principal review before transmission, and the Investment Company Act sets fund classes (unit investment trusts have no board), the 75-5-10 diversified test, distribution-fee caps, and forward pricing. Convertibles and warrants are equity securities, commodity futures are not securities, Regulation A runs $20 million and $75 million tiers, restricted-stock resales carry holding-period and volume limits, the Trust Indenture Act reaches public corporate debt above $10 million, and a new line of business needs a continuing membership application filed before the change is effected.
• Disciplinary Actions and Customer Disputes: Firms keep written customer complaints at the Office of Supervisory Jurisdiction for at least 4 years, file per-event reports within 30 days (theft or forgery, regulatory actions, settlements over $15,000 for a registered person or $25,000 for the firm, statutory disqualifications), and file the quarterly statistical roll-up by the 15th of the month after quarter-end. Regulatory discipline flows through FINRA investigations (2-year tail over former associated persons, refuse-to-respond bar) into the Code of Procedure (Hearing Panel decides, 25-day appeal to the National Adjudicatory Council, then FINRA Board, SEC, and the courts). Private disputes split into binding arbitration (customer's unilateral right, non-waivable industry mandate, $50,000-or-less simplified track) and voluntary, non-binding mediation. Expungement stays narrow: an arbitration finding under one of three standards plus court confirmation.
• Books and Records: The umbrella rule pulls the SEC's recordmaking and records-retention rules into FINRA jurisdiction, so a format failure is a standalone FINRA offense and the longer of any two periods always controls. Records to be made cover per-office recordkeeping designations, dual sign-off on accounts, and the compliance-architect record; records to be preserved cover 3-years-after-superseded manuals and write-once-read-many (WORM) or audit-trail electronic storage with a third-party-or-executive-officer access undertaking. Lock the retention ladder: 6 years default and customer account information, 4 years complaints, 3 years negotiable-instrument authorizations (first 2 years easily accessible). Nonresident firms keep U.S. copies producible within 14 days, withdrawing firms hand records off on Form BDW, and the taping rule catches firms concentrating disciplined-firm reps (40% / 4 / 20% by size), with a one-time 60-day cure.
• Financial Responsibility and Funding: Financial responsibility is a system of overlapping floors and triggers. The net capital rule sets liquid-asset minimums by firm type ($250,000 carrying, $50,000 or $5,000 introducing, $1,000,000 prime broker, $100,000 market maker, $25,000 mutual fund retailer) and a ratio (15:1 aggregate indebtedness under the Basic Method, 2% of debits under the Alternative Method). The customer protection rule segregates customer securities under possession or control and customer cash in the Special Reserve Bank Account, computed weekly (or daily above $500 million in average credits). FOCUS reports and the 150 / 120 / 100 early-warning ladder keep regulators informed. Regulation T sets 50% initial margin and the 90-day cash-account freeze; FINRA sets 25% / 30% maintenance and the $25,000 Pattern Day Trader floor. Hypothecation caps pledging at the customer's debt, and the Securities Investor Protection Corporation backstops the customer at $500,000 total ($250,000 cash) if the firm fails anyway.

Customer-Related Activities (Function 3, 21%)

• Account Opening and AML: Onboarding stacks three layers: customer-account information collects identity and contact data (both rep and principal sign, updated every 36 months, kept 6 years after closure), the Customer Identification Program verifies four elements and holds records 5 years after closure, and the anti-money-laundering program stands on five pillars. Two Bank Secrecy Act filings run the exam: the Currency Transaction Report for cash over $10,000 within 15 days (objective) and the Suspicious Activity Report at $5,000 within 30 days with suspicion (strictly confidential, tipping off is a crime). The Office of Foreign Assets Control screens sanctions, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network takes the filings, the Automated Customer Account Transfer Service moves accounts on a customer-signed form the firm cannot obstruct, and Regulation S-P and Regulation S-ID guard information from the inside and impersonators from the outside.
• Communications with the Public: Sort every communication by the 25-retail / 30-day count: only-institutional is institutional, 25 or fewer retail is correspondence, more than 25 retail is retail. Retail needs pre-use principal approval; correspondence and institutional need supervisory review under written procedures; institutional and correspondence are never filed while most retail filings run within 10 business days of first use (self-created rankings, bond fund volatility ratings, and security futures flip to 10 business days pre-use, and new members pre-file for one year). Content must be fair, balanced, and not misleading, with fund ads carrying standardized 1/5/10-year returns and the prospectus advisory. Telemarketing runs 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. at the called party's location with two do-not-call layers, the taping rule fires on concentrated disciplined-firm hires, records are kept 3 years against 6 for account records, and the anti-touting prohibition bars paying to move a security's price through published content.
• Recommendations and Disclosures: Know your customer gathers the essential facts, then Regulation Best Interest governs retail recommendations through its four obligations (Disclosure, Care, Conflict, Compliance) while suitability's three layers govern institutional ones, with Reg BI sitting above suitability and requiring explicit cost consideration. Price fairly under the 5% guideline, get written order-by-order consent for retail net transactions, deliver Form CRS and the annual disclosure stack, document discretion with three writings, disclose and approve day trading while enforcing the $25,000 pattern-day-trader minimum, never sell just below a breakpoint, and recognize, investigate, escalate, and document every red flag.

Trading & Market Making (Function 4, 21%)

• Order Entry, Routing, and Execution: A firm constrains trading with written, enforced trader mandates and Regulation SHO aggregation units that net long and short separately at the desk level, then makes markets with two-sided continuous quotes inside the Designated Percentage, policing withdrawals with a 20-business-day suspension. Regulation SHO marks every sale long, short, or short exempt, demands a documented locate before order entry, closes out short fails by T+1 and long fails by T+3, and imposes the alternative uptick rule on a 10% intraday drop. Regulation NMS and the best-execution rule govern routing, protected quotations, and the market-center-versus-broker-dealer reports. The market access rule blocks naked sponsored access with executive-certified annual controls, Limit Up-Limit Down (15-second breach, 5-minute pause) and market-wide circuit breakers (7%, 13%, 20%) cap volatility, and the supervisor must detect and escalate prohibited conduct or own the supervisory-system failure.
• Settlement and Clearance: The Uniform Practice Code is the street-side rulebook for over-the-counter trades between members, and it steps aside whenever a registered clearing agency runs continuous net settlement or when municipals, exempted securities, mutual funds, or direct participation programs are involved. Members exchange Uniform Comparisons by the first business day after trade date, and a don't-know notice resolves any mismatch, with a one-business-day response window. Regular way settles T+1 (cash same day, firm-commitment deals priced after 4:30 p.m. Eastern default to T+2), good delivery demands the right unit plus a matching medallion-guaranteed assignment with the seller paying to cure defects, and bonds add accrued interest on 30/360 for corporates and municipals versus actual/actual for governments. Marking to the market lets a member demand a deposit on an uncompleted contract, and close-outs resolve fails: buy-ins by noon Eastern two business days out for a seller's failure to deliver, sell-outs same day for a buyer's failure to accept.
• Trade Reporting: After any off-exchange execution the firm reports the trade to the right FINRA facility on time: National Market System stock goes to a Trade Reporting Facility or the Alternative Display Facility, over-the-counter equity to the OTC Reporting Facility, and debt to the Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine (TRACE), with equity reports due within 10 seconds and TRACE within 15 minutes, every equity report carrying its short-sale mark. On top of the tape print, the Consolidated Audit Trail captures the full order lifecycle, due by 8:00 a.m. Eastern on T+1 with clocks synced within 50 milliseconds of the national time standard. Recordkeeping runs underneath: written principal approval for account-name changes, error corrections that add a second record rather than overwrite, blotters kept 3 years and audit-trail data 5, plus the penny-stock friction layer (risk disclosure before the trade, per-trade signed agreement, principal account approval) for every non-exempt customer.

Investment Banking & Research (Function 5, 21%)

• Investment Banking Activities: A public offering moves through pre-filing (no offers), the waiting period (oral offers and a red herring, no sales), and post-effective (final prospectus, selling begins), with default effectiveness on the 20th day after the last amendment. Underwriters carry the due-diligence defense that the issuer never gets. Private deals ride Regulation D (accredited thresholds, up to 35 non-accredited, Form D within 15 days), Regulation S offshore, or Regulation A mini-IPO tiers, and resales run through restricted-securities or qualified-institutional-buyer safe harbors. FINRA reviews compensation under the corporate-financing rule, polices conflicts with a Qualified Independent Underwriter above 5% of net proceeds, bars restricted-person new-issue purchases, and prohibits spinning while leaving flipping legal. Regulation M sets the restricted period and permits only disclosed, at-or-below-price stabilization; information barriers separate watch lists from firm-wide restricted lists. Tender offers stay open at least 20 business days, crossing 5% triggers a beneficial-ownership report within five business days, periodic reporting runs the annual, quarterly, and current reports with Regulation Fair Disclosure guarding selective disclosure, and the bankruptcy waterfall pays secured creditors first and common shareholders last.
• Investor Disclosure Materials: A registered deal runs pre-filing (no offers at all, the gun-jumping rule), the waiting period (oral offers plus written offers limited to a red-herring preliminary prospectus, a tombstone, or a free writing prospectus, and no sales), then post-effective (sales begin, and access-equals-delivery on the SEC's system satisfies the final-prospectus delivery duty at confirmation). Pre-filing safe harbors (well-known-seasoned-issuer talk, the 30-day no-offering-reference shield, regularly-released information, the proposed-offering notice, generic advertising) carve out limited talk. Lock the free-writing-prospectus mechanics (file at first use, legend, three-year records, none without a prelim for non-seasoned issuers), the non-participating-broker research safe harbor, and the aftermarket day-counts (25 listed IPO, 90 non-listed, 40 non-reporting follow-on, 0 reporting follow-on) plus the 48-hour IPO preliminary rule.
• Research Activities: A research report is written analysis of an equity or issuer that gives enough to base a decision on, and the moment a communication crosses that line the conflicts rule walls research off from investment banking: no banking conclusion review, no banking-driven pay from a committee that excludes banking, anti-retaliation, and personal-trading limits. Every report gets Supervisory Analyst approval and prominent front-page disclosures (firm-wide 1% ownership, banking compensation past 12 and next 3 months, ratings distribution). Stay off the air for 10 calendar days after an initial public offering and 3 after a secondary (emerging growth companies exempt), publish during a deal only inside the different-class or regular-coverage safe harbor, certify each report and each quarter under Regulation Analyst Certification, and keep the soft-dollar safe harbor to eligible research with the ineligible portion hard-dollared.

That's the whole exam on one page. If you can read each line and hear the full unit behind it, you're ready.