Series 7 Exam: Expert Guides and Resources

Taking the Series 7 exam, whether for the first time or the fourteenth, is a huge challenge and requires many hours of preparation. Use this cheat sheet to put your time to good use before the exam even begins and to be successful when it’s completed.Establish a Strong Study Routine for the Series 7 ExamPassing the Series 7 exam is a rite of passage for stockbrokers.

The Series 7 exam is also known as the General Securities Representative Qualification Examination. The Series 7 is the license required by most broker-dealers for their registered representatives. The Series 7 exam is required to ensure that registered representatives dealing with the public have a certain degree of knowledge, abilities, and skills needed to perform the functions of their job.

When deciding how to go about your Series 7 exam prepartion, your first mission is to identify the training mode that best suits your needs. If you’re likely to benefit from a structured environment, you may be better off in a classroom setting. A prep course can also give you emotional guidance and support from your instructors and others in your class who are forging through this stressful ordeal with you.

To make sure you don’t walk into the testing center, take one look at the computer screen, go into shock, and start drooling on the keyboard, your Series 7 exam preparation should include reviewing some of the testing details and the computerized format. Review the exam basics The Series 7 exam is a computerized, closed book (in other words, no book), three-hour and 45-minute exam.

Although many brokerage firms have their own financial analysts, you do need to know some of the basics of securities analysis to pass the Series 7. Your customers face some investment risks, and you should know the differences between technical analysis and fundamental analysis. Securities risk analysis Investors face many risks (and hopefully many rewards) when investing in the market.

Options are just another investment vehicle that (hopefully) more-savvy investors can use. An owner of an option has the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell an underlying security (stock, bond, and so on) at a fixed price; as derivatives, options draw their value from that underlying security. Investors may either exercise the option (buy or sell the security at the fixed price) or trade the option in the market.

The Bank Secrecy Act establishes the U.S. Treasury Department as the regulator for anti-money laundering programs. All broker-dealers are required to develop programs to detect possible money-laundering abuses. In addition, all broker-dealers must review the Office of Foreign Asset Control's (OFAC) Specially Designated National's (SDN) list to make sure that they're not doing business with individuals or organizations that are on the list.