ETHICS
Question
Situation
Answer
Ethic
Practice Vol. 2
2 am
Q1
- responsible for secondary pub-
lic stock offering
- asked to change the recommen-
dation from “hold” to “buy”
- place company on re-
stricted list, giving out
only factual information
about the firm
- I(B) Independence
and Objectivity
Practice Vol. 2
2 am
Q5
- analyst discovers company has
become alarmingly slow in meet-
ing A/P obligations
- believes the company may face
bankruptcy
- take no additional ac-
tion before issue a sell
recommendation
(Mosaic theory: Nonma-
terial nonpublic infor-
mation)
- II(A) Material Non-
public Information
Practice Vol. 2
2 am
Q6
- sharing details to related per-
sonnel about inheritance which is
suspected to be illegal money
- meets firm’s primary legal
counsel before submitting evi-
dence to law enforcement
- both actions did not
violate Standards of Pro-
fessional Conduct
- III(E) Confidentiality
Practice Vol. 2
2 am
Q8
- “These CFA candidates will
ensure Milken Corp.’s continued
outstanding performance record”
- Stating analyst are dedicated to
the investment community is not
in violation
- First statement is in-
correct because CFA
doesn’t guarantee per-
formance
- Second statement is
acceptable
- VII(B) Reference to
CFA Institute, the CFA
designation
Practice Vol. 2
2 am
Q12
- Allowed analyst’s name to be
published on the report even
though he didn’t agree with the
recommendation. Analyst felt the
group had overlooked a key fac-
tor affecting the value of the sub-
ject company. Objection was
documented, but no further ac-
tion was taken
- Violated Standards by
allowing his name being
listed even though felt
the recommendation is
unsound
- V(A) Diligence and
Reasonable Basis
Practice Vol. 2
2 am
Q14
- Company is probably going to
require a goodwill write-down.
Recommendation report writes
“…based on the fact that the
company will write down good-
will sometime in the near future”
- Supervisor approves report for
public dissemination
- Both analyst and su-
pervisor violated Stan-
dards
- V(B) Communication
with Clients and Pro-
spective Clients
- IV(C) Responsibilities
of Supervisor
Practice Vol. 2
2 am
Q16
- Expressing negative comments
about CFA exams
- Did not violate Stan-
dards
- VII(B) Reference to
CFA Institute, the CFA
designation
Practice Vol. 2
2 am
Q17
- Client A allows Kevil to vote
all proxies for his account. Kevil
generally votes the proxies with
management since most of the
stocks in Client A’s account are
high-tech companies in which the
managers are the largest share-
- Kevil violated Stan-
dard with respect to Cli-
ent A as he cannot rely
on the assumption that
management happens to
be the largest sharehold-
ers
- III(A) Loyalty, Pru-
dence and Care