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.

Foundation (Economic Factors, 15%)

• Basic Economic Concepts: The business cycle moves trough, expansion, peak, contraction, and everything else keys off where you are on it: two down quarters of gross domestic product is a common recession shorthand rather than the official test, the NBER's Business Cycle Dating Committee dates recessions after the fact, and a depression has no fixed quarter count. Monetary policy is the Fed steering money supply and rates through open market operations, administered rates, the discount window, and reserve requirements; fiscal policy is Congress and the President steering spending and taxes, where a deficit is expansionary and a surplus contractionary. Inflation erodes fixed-income value and helps borrowers, an inverted yield curve warns of recession while credit spreads widen in downturns, and a strong dollar quietly eats a U.S. investor's foreign returns.
• Analytical Methods: Time value of money is the backbone: future value compounds (FV = PV x (1 + r)^n), present value discounts, and the Rule of 72 approximates doubling time. Accept a positive net present value in dollars or an internal rate of return above the hurdle rate in percent, and prefer net present value when they conflict on mutually exclusive projects. Statistics split into central tendency (mean, median, mode) and risk: standard deviation for total risk, beta for systematic, Sharpe for return per unit of total risk, alpha for excess return, and correlation for diversification. Round it out with liquidity ratios (current, quick), the debt-to-equity leverage ratio, and the price-to-earnings and price-to-book valuation ratios.
• Types of Risk: Risk splits two ways: systematic risks (market, interest rate, inflation, currency, sector, geopolitical, and reinvestment, five of them captured by PRIME) hit the whole market or large segments of it and cannot be diversified away, mitigated only by hedging or asset allocation; unsystematic risks (credit, financial, legal and regulatory, issuer-specific, plus liquidity, political, and call) are specific to a company, industry, issuer, or country and are generally reduced, though not always fully eliminated, by holding many issuers. Beta measures systematic risk, and opportunity cost is a foregone gain, not a loss. In liquidation, debt always beats equity: secured, unsecured, subordinated, preferred, then common last, and higher priority improves bankruptcy recovery without alone determining a security's overall risk or return.
• Financial Reporting: Three statements: the balance sheet is a point-in-time snapshot where Assets equal Liabilities plus Owners' Equity, the income statement runs top line (revenue) down to bottom line (net income) over a period, and the statement of cash flows sorts activity into operating, investing, and financing (interest paid and dividends received are operating, dividends paid are financing). Public companies keep the books on accrual under generally accepted accounting principles, so strong net income can hide weak cash, which is why operating cash flow adds depreciation and other non-cash items back to net income. Auditors sign off with the clean unqualified opinion at the top and qualified, adverse, or disclaimer below it, and the SEC collects the audited annual report, the unaudited quarterly report, and the 4-business-day current report for material events.

Securities Fundamentals (Investment Vehicles, 25%)

• Cash and Cash Equivalents: Cash equivalents are the safest, most liquid slice of a portfolio, built to preserve principal. Insured bank deposits (demand deposits and certificates of deposit) carry Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation coverage of $250,000 per depositor, per bank, per ownership category, but that insurance protects against bank failure, not secondary-market losses on negotiable or brokered certificates. Money market securities mature in one year or less and are never insured: commercial paper is unsecured corporate notes exempt from SEC registration up to 270 days only if the proceeds fund a current transaction, Treasury bills are government-backed discount securities exempt from state and local tax, and money market mutual funds chase a $1.00 net asset value that is a target rather than a guarantee, under a 60-day weighted average maturity and a 397-day per-security limit.
• Fixed Income Securities: Fixed income is debt sorted by issuer. Treasuries have no default risk and are state-tax-exempt, with Treasury bills sold at a discount and only notes and bonds paying coupons. Agencies are fully taxable, and only Ginnie Mae carries full faith and credit; mortgage-backed pass-throughs pay monthly and face opposing prepayment and extension risk. Corporates pay $1,000 par with debt always ranking above equity. Municipals deliver federally tax-exempt interest split into general obligation (taxing power, voter approval) and revenue (project-backed) bonds, and their capital gains stay taxable. Nail each issuer's backing and tax treatment, and remember Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities and STRIPS phantom income.
• Fixed Income Characteristics: Bond prices and yields see-saw in opposite directions: coupon above market rate means a premium (price over par, amortized down), coupon below means a discount (price under par, accreted up), and every bond converges to par at maturity. The yield ladder climbs for discounts (nominal, then current yield, then yield to maturity, then yield to call) and dips in reverse for premiums, with yield to worst always the lowest; use yield to call on premium callable bonds. Duration measures rate sensitivity (roughly the percent price move per 1% rate change), rising with longer maturity, lower coupon, and lower yield, and equaling maturity for zeros; use effective duration when a call is embedded. Ratings gate at investment grade (BBB-/Baa3), spreads widen in recessions, and interest rate risk trades off inversely against reinvestment risk, balanced by immunization.
• Equity Securities: Common stock is ownership: voting rights, unlimited upside, limited liability, and a last-in-line residual claim, with dividends only if the board declares them and cumulative voting the minority shareholder's friend. Preferred stock is the hybrid: fixed dividend, priority over common, usually no vote, bond-like sensitivity to interest rates, and flavors of cumulative, participating, convertible, callable, and floating rate. Investor-friendly features cut the dividend rate while the callable feature raises it. American Depositary Receipts hold foreign shares in dollars but keep currency risk, and in liquidation every creditor is paid before any equity, preferred before common.
• Equity Characteristics: Only the board declares dividends, and you must buy before the ex-dividend date (the record date under T+1 settlement) to collect. Cash dividends are taxed on receipt while stock dividends just lower your per-share cost basis; qualified dividends earn capital-gains rates, and cumulative preferred arrearages clear before any common dividend. Cumulative voting helps the minority, statutory helps the majority, preemptive rights guard common-stock ownership percentage where granted, and common stock stands last in liquidation. Restricted securities carry holding periods (6 months reporting, 1 year non-reporting), and affiliates also face volume limits and Form 144 filings even on control stock bought in the open market. Incentive stock options go to employees only with alternative minimum tax at exercise, and non-qualified options tax the spread as ordinary income.
• Equity Valuation Methods: Two schools value stocks: fundamental analysis studies the company's financials (top-down or bottom-up) to find intrinsic value long-term, while technical analysis studies only price and volume for short-term direction, so sort each tool to its school. Fundamental ratios include price-to-earnings and price-to-book, plus book value per share (subtract preferred stock first), the dividend payout ratio, and dividend yield (watch for yield traps). The dividend discount model values a stock as the present value of future dividends, with the Gordon Growth Model dividing next year's dividend by required return minus growth (and breaking when growth meets or exceeds return). Discounted cash flow is the broader model, where a higher discount rate lowers value and terminal value dominates the total.
• Equity Public Offering: An initial public offering is a company's first stock sale in the primary market, so proceeds go to the issuer: file a registration statement, wait out the minimum cooling-off period (indications of interest and the red herring, but no money), then deliver the final prospectus once the SEC declares the registration effective, which is never an "approval." Underwriters take the issue on firm commitment (buy it all as principal) or best efforts (sell as agent, unsold returns to the issuer), and only the managing underwriter may stabilize the aftermarket or exercise the 15% greenshoe. A secondary offering resells existing shares with no dilution, a follow-on issues new dilutive shares, and a special-purpose acquisition company is a blank-check shell whose investors may redeem regardless of how they vote.

Advanced Securities (Investment Vehicles, 25%)

• Pooled Investments: The Investment Company Act of 1940 defines management companies (open-end and closed-end funds), unit investment trusts, and obsolete face-amount certificates. Open-end funds issue and redeem directly with the fund at net asset value using forward pricing, redeem within 7 calendar days, and cannot be margined or shorted; closed-end funds issue fixed shares trading on an exchange at a premium or discount and can be margined and shorted; unit investment trusts hold a fixed, unmanaged portfolio under a trustee with a termination date and no management fee; exchange-traded funds trade intraday, kept tax-efficient by authorized-participant in-kind creation. REITs sit outside the Act, distributing 90% of taxable income, while private funds skip registration through the accredited-investor or qualified-purchaser exemption.
• Pooled Investment Characteristics: The expense ratio captures ongoing costs (management, 12b-1, admin) but never sales loads, and the sales charge is figured on the public offering price, not net asset value. The 8.5% load ceiling is conditional, not automatic, and steps down to 8.0%, 7.75%, or 7.25% when a condition is missing; Class A charges a front-end load for large, long-term investors, Class B a declining back-end charge that often converts to A, and Class C level fees, traditionally without converting. Fund capital gains distributions are long-term based on the fund's holding period, real estate investment trust payouts are generally ordinary income under the 75/75/90 rules, and fund exchanges within a family are taxable.
• Derivative Securities: A derivative draws its value from an underlying asset; a standard equity option is the right to buy (call) or sell (put) 100 shares, with buyers holding rights and writers holding obligations, all issued and guaranteed by the Options Clearing Corporation, which erases counterparty risk. Only in-the-money options have intrinsic value, "call up, put down" fixes both direction and break-even, equity options settle in shares while index options settle in cash, and the corporation itself issues rights (short-term, below-market, anti-dilution) and warrants (long-term, above-market, a bond sweetener), both dilutive when exercised. Futures and forwards obligate both parties: futures are standardized, exchange-traded, cleared, and carry a performance-bond margin restored to the initial level, while forwards are private, customizable, and stuck with counterparty risk.
• Derivative Characteristics: Derivatives cost a premium (options) or margin, a performance bond, for futures; option premium is intrinsic value plus time value, and time decay always favors the seller. The two adviser hedges are the protective put (long stock plus long put, insurance that keeps unlimited upside) and the covered call (long stock plus short call, income that caps upside at strike plus premium); long options risk only the premium paid, while naked call writing is unlimited loss and naked put loss is capped at strike minus premium. Forwards carry significant counterparty risk, futures and listed options none, and every recommendation must match the client under the adviser's fiduciary duty.
• Alternative Investments: Alternative investments are five non-traditional products, each with a signature risk. Limited partnerships pass income and losses through on a K-1 and lock capital up for years, so illiquidity disqualifies near-retirement clients; the general partner has unlimited liability while the limited partner does not, and a limited partner who exercises control over management risks that shield; exchange-traded notes and structured products are unsecured issuer promises, so credit risk is the point, and structured-product principal protection holds only at maturity. Leveraged and inverse funds reset daily, so returns can diverge sharply from the stated multiple and decay in volatile markets over any period longer than a single session, making both intraday tools rather than buy-and-hold holdings; match every product to time horizon, liquidity needs, and risk tolerance.
• Insurance Based Products: The word "variable" decides everything: variable annuities, variable life, and variable universal life put money in a separate account where the owner bears investment risk, making them securities sold by prospectus and requiring both a securities and an insurance license. Fixed and indexed annuities, whole life, and universal life sit in the general account where the insurer bears the risk (term life has no cash value at all), and only state insurance departments regulate them. Annuity gains are always ordinary income, taxed last-in-first-out on accumulation-phase withdrawals and by the exclusion ratio at annuitization, with a 10% penalty before age 59 1/2, whereas life insurance withdrawals recover basis first (income-first once the policy becomes a Modified Endowment Contract) and death benefits still pass income-tax-free.
• Other Assets: Commodities split into hard (mined) and soft (grown); their futures and other derivatives answer to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, not the SEC, and the physical commodity itself is not a security. Precious metals generate no income and hedge both inflation and falling equities; physical metal and metal-backed funds are taxed as collectibles at up to 28%, regulated futures at a blended 60/40 rate regardless of holding period, and producer stocks as ordinary equities, while contango means futures above spot and backwardation below. Bitcoin is a commodity because it fails the fourth Howey prong; other tokens are securities, under both federal and state law, when the Howey test is met, whatever the label, and the tax service treats every digital asset as property, so each swap is taxable and exchange holdings carry no deposit or investor-protection insurance.

Clients (Client Recommendations, 30%)

• Client Types: A sole proprietorship has no liability shield and general partnerships leave partners fully liable, while limited liability companies and S corporations give both protection and pass-through taxation, and C corporations trade double taxation for protection and perpetual life. S corporations cap holders at 100 U.S. owners, counting a family as one, with a single stock class that may still carry different voting rights. Trusts run on grantor, trustee, and beneficiary: revocable avoids probate but stays in the taxable estate, irrevocable may reduce it depending on retained powers and applicable law, testamentary is born from a will, and charitable remainder and lead trusts are mirror images. Private foundations must distribute 5% of non-charitable-use assets and pay an excise tax; public charities and donor advised funds do not, and a fund donor only recommends.
• Client Profile Development: Build the full profile before any recommendation: identity through the Customer Identification Program, then the financial situation, risk tolerance, time horizon, objectives, liquidity needs, and constraints, all captured in the Investment Policy Statement. Let the most restrictive factor govern every conflict: the more risk-averse of risk capacity and risk willingness wins, and actual financials override stated preferences. Guaranteed income frees the portfolio for growth, longer horizons permit more equity, and nonfinancial factors like values, biases, demographics, and life events shape the plan too. Update beneficiaries, the profile, and the Investment Policy Statement immediately after any life event, and as a fiduciary always act in the client's best interest.
• Special Account Types: Specialty accounts split by purpose and by who holds the reins. 529 plans and Coverdell education savings accounts fund education tax-deferred with tax-free qualified withdrawals, but the 529 owner keeps control forever while Coverdell adds a $2,000 cap and contributor income limits. Uniform Gifts to Minors Act and Uniform Transfers to Minors Act custodial gifts are irrevocable: the minor owns the assets and takes full control at the age of majority, and they count as student assets for aid. Health savings accounts are the triple-tax-advantage account, tied to a high-deductible health plan, portable, and penalty-free for non-medical use after age 65.
• Ownership and Estate Planning Techniques: Titling drives control and inheritance: joint tenants with right of survivorship, tenancy by the entirety, and community property with a survivorship election pass to survivors and skip probate, while tenants in common goes to the estate through probate, and community property alone gets the double step-up in basis. Revocable trusts avoid probate but keep assets in the taxable estate; irrevocable trusts may reduce estate tax and shield assets, depending on retained powers and applicable law, but cost the grantor control. Testamentary trusts still probate; living trusts do not. Beneficiary designations and transfer-on-death accounts override the will, qualified domestic relations orders split employer plans penalty-free in divorce, and donor advised funds trade an irrevocable gift for an immediate deduction and later advisory grants.
• Tax Considerations: Holding period drives everything: one year or less is short-term ordinary income, more than a year earns the preferential 0%, 15%, or 20% long-term rate that qualified dividends also share, while real estate investment trust dividends stay ordinary and master limited partnership distributions are often return of capital. Harvest losses to offset gains dollar-for-dollar, then up to $3,000 against ordinary income, but watch the wash-sale rule, which defers any loss on a substantially identical repurchase within 30 days by adding it to the new basis. Cost basis starts at purchase price plus fees; inherited assets reset to fair market value, a step-up or step-down, while gifts carry over the donor's basis. Layer on the alternative minimum tax for incentive-stock-option exercises and private activity bonds.
• Retirement Plans: A Traditional individual retirement account gives a possible upfront deduction, tax-deferred growth, and ordinary-income taxation at distribution, while a Roth is funded with after-tax dollars, grows tax-free, and pays qualified distributions tax-free with no lifetime required minimum distributions. Employer plans span 401(k), 403(b), 457(b), SEP, and SIMPLE, where defined benefit shifts investment risk to the employer and defined contribution shifts it to the employee. Lock in the shared IRA limit of $7,500, or $8,600 at 50 and older, the 10% penalty before age 59 1/2, required minimum distributions starting April 1 of the year after turning 73 (75 for those born in 1960 or later), and the 60-day indirect-rollover window with its 20% mandatory withholding on employer-plan distributions.
• ERISA Issues: The Employee Retirement Income Security Act governs private employer retirement plans and is enforced by the Department of Labor, not the SEC, so government and individual-IRA plans are out, and church plans are out unless they elect coverage. A fiduciary is defined by function, and owes loyalty, prudence under the higher prudent expert standard, diversification, and adherence to compliant plan documents. A 3(38) manager takes on discretion and liability that a 3(21) adviser only shares; an Investment Policy Statement is optional but binding once adopted. Prohibited transactions with parties in interest are strict liability with narrow exemptions for reasonable-compensation services and participant loans, while the participant-directed safe harbor shields fiduciaries from participants' own choices but never from the duty to select and monitor the options prudently.

Strategy (Client Recommendations, 30%)

• Capital Market Theory: Modern portfolio theory builds the efficient frontier by combining assets that are not perfectly correlated, reducing risk at any correlation below +1.0; portfolios below the frontier are suboptimal, individual securities typically plot there because they carry unsystematic risk, and nothing plots above it. The capital asset pricing model prices a security off systematic risk alone, E(R) = Rf + beta x (Rm - Rf), and alpha is the difference between actual return and that expected value. Standard deviation is total risk, beta is systematic risk, and R-squared tells you when beta is trustworthy. The security market line flags undervalued (above) versus overvalued (below), the capital market line uses standard deviation for efficient portfolios only, and the efficient market hypothesis (weak, semi-strong, strong) points toward passive index investing.
• Portfolio Management Strategies: Asset allocation beats security selection. Strategic allocation is the long-term, client-driven target you rebalance back to; tactical allocation is a short-term, market-driven deviation that returns to target. Active management tries to beat a benchmark at higher fees and turnover while most funds underperform after costs, and passive management just matches the index cheaply on the efficient market hypothesis. Growth chases earnings and wins in expansions, value hunts bargains and tends to win in recoveries. Diversification kills unsystematic risk but never market risk, dollar-cost averaging buys more shares when prices fall, and protective puts guard downside while covered calls sell away upside for income.
• Trading Securities: A market order guarantees execution but not price, a limit order guarantees price but not execution, a stop becomes a market order at its trigger, and a stop-limit becomes a limit order that may gap through; buy limits and sell stops go below the market while sell limits and buy stops go above. Investors buy at the ask and sell at the bid, and most securities settle T+1. Cash-account payment is due within the Regulation T period, and free riding triggers a 90-day freeze; margin runs on 50% initial, 25% FINRA maintenance, and a $2,000 equity floor waived down to the purchase cost but not for short sales. Commission signals agency, a market maker trades as principal, and best execution means reasonable diligence.
• Portfolio Performance Measures: Total return and holding period return use one formula, ending minus beginning plus income over beginning, and multi-year returns annualize geometrically, (1 + HPR)^(1/n) - 1, never by dividing by the years. The Sharpe ratio rewards excess return per unit of total risk (standard deviation), while alpha measures skill against the expected return built on beta. Time-weighted return grades the manager and is required by the Global Investment Performance Standards; dollar-weighted return equals the internal rate of return and grades the investor's actual, cash-flow-timed experience. Subtract inflation for real return, apply one minus the tax rate for after-tax, and divide by one minus the tax rate for tax-equivalent yield. Match the benchmark to the portfolio and its type, remembering the Dow is price-weighted.

Legal Framework (Laws & Ethics, 30%)

• Securities and Issuer Regulation: A security includes notes, stocks, bonds, and investment contracts, and the Howey Test (money in a common enterprise, profits from others' efforts) decides whether an unusual instrument qualifies, so variable annuities are in and fixed annuities are out. States register securities three ways: filing (notification, seasoned issuers, auto-effective with the federal registration), coordination (paired with the SEC, the offering workhorse, auto-effective once state conditions are met), and qualification (state-only, no federal filing, effective only when the Administrator orders it), and all three last one year from the effective date. Exempt securities are exempt by what they are, exempt transactions by how they are sold, and federal covered securities escape state registration entirely under the National Securities Markets Improvement Act, but nothing, ever, is exempt from antifraud.
• Investment Adviser Regulation: An investment adviser is anyone who clears the ABC test: advice about securities, as a regular business, for any compensation, direct or indirect. Some persons are excluded from the definition outright (lawyers, accountants, teachers, engineers when incidental; domestic banks; broker-dealers with no special compensation; publishers of general circulation), while de minimis advisers meet the definition but skip registration, and private-fund advisers are exempt from full SEC registration though states may still require registration or a notice filing. Registration splits on assets under management: under $25 million is state-only, $25 million to $100 million is the mid-size state band, and $110 million and above is federal covered, with a $90 million / $110 million buffer that stops firms from flipping back and forth. Federal covered advisers only notice file, and states keep antifraud authority over everyone.
• Investment Adviser Representative Regulation: An investment adviser representative is any individual employed by or associated with an investment adviser who makes recommendations, manages accounts, determines advice, solicits advisory services, or supervises those functions; performing any one triggers registration, while solely clerical staff are excluded. Representatives always register with the state, never the SEC, filing Form U4 through the Investment Adviser Registration Depository in every state where they keep a place of business. The exam-favorite trap: a representative of a federal covered adviser still registers at the state level even though the adviser itself registers with the SEC. Pass the Series 65, or the Series 66 with the Series 7 and SIE, or waive the Series 65 exam requirement with a qualifying designation.
• Broker-Dealer Regulation: A broker-dealer effects securities transactions as agent (commissions) or dealer (markups plus the spread), and can never wear both hats in one trade. Agents, issuers, and banks, savings institutions, and trust companies are excluded from the definition, so they never register. State registration is dodged only with no place of business in the state, either serving institutions exclusively or servicing a snowbird existing client whose residence is elsewhere. Register with Form BD through the Central Registration Depository; registration is effective at noon on the 30th day, expires December 31, and withdrawal leaves the Administrator able to bring willful-violation proceedings for one more year.
• Agent Regulation: An agent is always an individual (natural person) who represents a broker-dealer or issuer in effecting or attempting to effect securities transactions; no entity can be an agent, and mere solicitation is enough to trigger the definition. Registration runs on Form U4 through the Central Registration Depository, is tied to a specific employer, expires December 31st, and defaults to effective on the 30th day at noon after filing absent a denial order or pending proceeding. Under the Act an amendment is due promptly, while FINRA sets the familiar 10-day and 30-day Form U4 clocks, and on any transfer the agent, the old firm, and the new firm all notify the Administrator at once. Master the natural-person rule, the narrow issuer-agent exclusions, and which rulebook each deadline comes from.
• Remedies and Administrative Provisions: The Administrator investigates, subpoenas, makes rules, and issues cease-and-desist orders with or without a hearing, but only a court grants injunctions, imposes fines, orders restitution, or imprisons. Administrative actions (denial, suspension, revocation) demand both public interest and a listed ground; a summary suspension owes a hearing set within 15 days of a written request, and none if none is requested. Civil liability lets a defrauded buyer rescind, recovering price plus interest minus income, under a statute of limitations of the earlier of 3 years from sale or 2 years from discovery, with a 30-day rescission-offer window. Criminal penalties follow the 5-5-3 rule (5-year statute of limitations, $5,000 fine, 3 years imprisonment) and are referred out to prosecutors, while judicial review runs 60 days without an automatic stay.

Professional Excellence (Laws & Ethics, 30%)

• Client Communication: Investment advisers are fiduciaries who must disclose every material fact, and omission is fraud. The Form ADV Part 2A brochure goes to clients before or at signing; a state adviser delivering at signing must give a 5-business-day penalty-free termination right, while the 48-hour advance option needs none. File the annual amendment within 90 days of fiscal year-end and deliver the updated brochure within 120. Never guarantee performance, never let a signed waiver stand, and treat a majority-ownership change as an assignment needing consent. Both the marketing rule and the current NASAA Model Rule permit testimonials with disclosure, and registration is never an endorsement.
• Ethical Practices and Fiduciary Obligations: An investment adviser is a fiduciary owing a duty of care (best-interest, know-your-client advice) and a duty of loyalty (client first, all conflicts disclosed), and that duty cannot be waived. Custody means any access to client assets (fee deduction counts), and once it exists you need a qualified custodian, quarterly client statements, Form ADV reporting, and an annual surprise exam, unless the adviser's only custody is fee deduction under that narrower exemption. Compensation must be disclosed up front, performance fees are limited to qualified clients, soft dollars fit only inside the safe harbor, and agency cross transactions need prospective consent plus per-trade confirmations and no dual recommendation. Lock in the prohibited practices and the vulnerable-adult 15-business-day hold.

The Math: Calculations to Know Cold

The Series 65 is not a math test, but a handful of calculations show up often enough that fumbling one is a wasted point. The trap is rarely the arithmetic; it is the red-herring numbers stuffed into the question, so know each formula cold and pull out only the figures it actually needs.

Know these cold:

• Total return: (ending value minus beginning value plus income) divided by beginning value. The one return that counts price change and income together.
• Current yield / dividend yield: annual income divided by current price. Uses market price, not par or cost.
• Nominal vs. real return: real return is nominal return minus the inflation rate. "After inflation" means subtract.
• Future value (compounding): present value times (1 plus rate) raised to the number of periods. More periods and a higher rate both grow the ending number.
• Tax-equivalent yield (muni comparison): municipal yield divided by (1 minus the tax bracket). Turns a tax-free muni into its taxable equivalent so you can compare apples to apples.
• Price-to-earnings: market price per share divided by earnings per share. Higher multiple means the market pays more per dollar of earnings.
• The accounting identity: Assets equal Liabilities plus Owners' Equity. Every balance-sheet question rests on it.
• Cost basis and capital gains: gain is sale price minus adjusted basis; basis is purchase price plus commissions, one year or less is short-term ordinary, more than a year is long-term. Inherited assets step up, gifts carry over the donor's basis.

Lower-yield, but worth a look (a question or two at most):

• Rule of 72: 72 divided by the rate approximates the years to double.
• Capital asset pricing model: risk-free rate plus beta times (market return minus risk-free rate). Once in a blue moon.
• Options premium: cost paid when you buy, income collected when you write. Keep the simple in-and-out-of-pocket straight.
• Tax on an incentive stock option: alternative minimum tax on the spread at exercise, capital gains at a qualifying sale.
• Convertible parity: stock price times the conversion ratio (or par divided by the conversion price) gives the parity value of the convertible bond or preferred.

Reality check on the calculator: Most test-takers report reaching for the calculator only about three times across all 140 questions, sometimes fewer, rarely as many as eight. Every person's exam draws a different mix, so treat the math as a small, well-defined slice worth locking down, not a mountain to fear.

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