CFA Level 2: Ethical and Professional Standards
Master the CFA Level II Ethical and Professional Standards topic area. This course covers all three official 2026 Learning Modules across seven teaching chapters: the Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct — the six components of the Code, the seven Standards, who is bound by them and to what, how the Professional Conduct Program actually enforces them, and the stricter-rule relationship between the Standards and the law; the full guidance for Standards I through VII applied the way Level II tests it — knowledge of the law and the dissociation ladder, independence under issuer and client pressure, misrepresentation from plagiarism to simulated backtests presented as achieved performance, misconduct, competence, material nonpublic information and the exact boundary of the mosaic theory, expert networks, transaction-based and information-based market manipulation, loyalty prudence and care, soft dollars, fair dealing in an oversubscribed IPO, suitability against an investment policy statement, performance presentation and the composite a marketing deck would rather you not see, confidentiality and its three exceptions, loyalty to employers on departure, additional compensation arrangements, supervisory responsibility that survives delegation, diligence and reasonable basis for model-driven recommendations, fact versus opinion in client communication, record retention, conflicts of interest, priority of transactions around a model-portfolio update, referral fees, and conduct as a CFA Institute member or candidate; and the Level II application skill itself — rendering defensible verdicts on real-world workflows, compliance policies, and individual conduct, standard by standard. The whole course runs on one firm-wide conduct review: a new Chief Compliance Officer works desk by desk through one asset manager, every scenario is resolved standard by standard, every number in every exhibit is verified, and the findings build to the exam's real lesson — ethics vignettes are multi-standard by construction. The course closes with a full timed item-set exam in the official format: seven 4-question vignettes with three answer options, 84 minutes. Aligned to the 10-15% CFA Level II exam weight.
- Level: intermediate
- Duration: 4 weeks
- 9 sections
- Price: $20
Topics: CFA Institute Code of Ethics, Standards of Professional Conduct, Professional Conduct Program, knowledge of the law, independence and objectivity, misrepresentation, misconduct, competence, material nonpublic information, mosaic theory, expert networks, market manipulation, marking the close, loyalty prudence and care, soft dollars, fair dealing, IPO allocation, suitability, investment policy statement, performance presentation, composite returns, confidentiality, duties to employers, additional compensation arrangements, responsibilities of supervisors, diligence and reasonable basis, third-party research, communication with clients, record retention, conflicts of interest, priority of transactions, front running, referral fees, CFA designation usage, candidate conduct, compliance procedures, ethics case analysis, CFA Level II, item sets, vignettes
What's inside
- Ethical and Professional Standards (CFA Level II)
- Chapter 1: The Code and Standards
- Chapter 2: Standard I — Professionalism
- Chapter 3: Standard II — Integrity of Capital Markets
- Chapter 4: Standard III — Duties to Clients
- Chapter 5: Standards IV and V — Duties to Employers; Investment Analysis, Recommendations, and Actions
- Chapter 6: Standards VI and VII — Conflicts of Interest; Responsibilities as a Member or Candidate
- Chapter 7: Application of the Code and Standards
- Chapter 8: Ethics Item-Set Exam