Fourteen questions and nine separate sections, which makes this the broadest chapter in the syllabus. It also contains the first learning objective phrased as be able to calculate, so it is the first chapter where reading is not enough.
Deposits, money market instruments and money market funds. The syllabus explicitly includes negative interest rates, which is worth noticing because it changes the sign of answers that would otherwise be automatic.
The structure of the market, how currencies are quoted, settlement, and a calculation: the forward rate using interest rate parity. This is examinable as a calculation, not as a description.
Key features including negative interest rates again, and then yields: running yield, yield to redemption, capital returns, volatility and the yield curve. Understanding is required here rather than knowledge, which is a higher bar.
Direct property, property funds and REITs, and how they differ as ways of holding the same underlying asset.
Share types, depositary receipts, warrants, the benefits of holding shares, and market structure: order driven against quote driven, principal against agency, on exchange against over the counter.
Futures and options at a definitional level. Commodities by how physical characteristics, supply, demand, storage and transport drive prices. Digital assets by background, key features and risks.
Dematerialised, registered and bearer form. Delivery versus payment and central counterparties. Mandatory and optional corporate actions, which the syllabus lists individually.
A short revision checklist built from the official syllabus and from the explanations in our own question bank. Use it to check yourself after studying the chapter. It does not replace the official workbook, and it is not a prediction of what any exam will contain. Unfamiliar term? See the glossary.
The published examination specification allocates 14 of the 100 questions to this element. CISI notes the count may vary slightly between papers, so treat 14 as the weighting rather than a guarantee. Our bank holds 168 questions across the 18 learning objectives in this chapter, weighted to that same specification.
These are not predictions about any exam. They are places where the syllabus itself draws a line between two things that sound similar, which is where precise reading pays.
The forward rate moves against the currency with the higher interest rate. Getting the direction right matters more than the arithmetic, because an inverted answer is usually one of the options.
Running yield ignores the capital gain or loss to maturity. Yield to redemption does not. A bond bought below par has a redemption yield above its running yield.
Order driven matches buyers and sellers directly. Quote driven means a market maker posts prices and takes the other side. The distinction is who provides the price.
The syllabus lists both. A rights issue gives you a choice. A stock split does not.
The objective is background, key features and risks. Expect questions about price volatility, custody arrangements and regulatory uncertainty rather than technology.
5 of the 25 Formula Lab lessons cover Chapter 3, across markets & rates. Each lesson gives you the recognition cue that tells you which formula a question wants, the formula itself, the method in order, a worked example, a sense check for spotting an answer that is wrong by a factor or a sign, and its drills. The drills run the formulas backwards as well as forwards.
This chapter is broad enough that a general set will scatter across nine sections and teach you little. Filter to Chapter 3, then narrow further by difficulty once you know where you stand. Do the interest rate parity calculation in Formula Lab separately, because a calculation you meet once inside a mixed set is a calculation you will not retain.
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