Deep Dive: CFA® Level I Prep 2026

Trace cash through operations with direct vs. indirect methods and statement linkages. Link income statement & balance sheet to CFO, CFI, CFF. Build direct and indirect operating cash flows. Convert indirect to direct and IFRS vs. GAAP presentation quirks.

Assets, liabilities, equity—learn placement, measurement and ratio signals. Intangibles vs. goodwill impairment tests. Financial instruments: cost vs. fair value. Key leverage & liquidity ratios and common-size BS hacks.

From topline to EPS, decode how revenues, matching, and non-recurring items reshape the story. 5-step revenue test (IFRS 15/ASC 606). Capitalize vs. expense costs. Basic vs. diluted EPS math. Common-size & margin radar.

Kick-start Season 4 by mapping the six-step framework analysts use to turn raw filings into insight. Purpose & context: set the question first. Collect → process → interpret data like a pro. Regulated vs. alternative info sources. How IFRS & US GAAP differences trip your comps.

Strip a company to its DNA: who it serves, what it sells, how it captures value. Revenue logic, cost structure, moat and network effects. Classic vs. platform vs. subscription plays. Innovation, disruption & why some models age fast. Checklist: test any issuer’s model in five quick questions.

Debt or equity? Peek inside the Modigliani–Miller lab and the real-world frictionsthat bend theory. WACC, target weights, pecking-order & agency costs. MM props I & II—tax shields, distress costs, optimal leverage. Market timing & hybrid instruments (convertibles, prefs). Signals management sends when it sells stock or borrows big.

From factory floors to fintech apps—learn how issuers vet and fund projects. NPV vs. IRR vs. ROIC and why NPV rules. Expansion, compliance, new-line & option-embedded projects. Capital budgeting pitfalls and behavioral traps. Real options: delay, grow, abandon decisions that flex with uncertainty.

Cash is the fuel—learn to measure it, speed it and never run dry. Decode the cash-conversion cycle (DIO + DSO − DPO). Distinguish conservative vs. aggressive WC policies. Primary vs. secondary liquidity sources when crisis hits. Spot drags (bad A/R) and pulls (tight credit) before ratios scream.

Zoom in on boards, committees and incentives that make—or break—value creation. Principal–agent conflicts & classic agency costs. Audit, nom-gov & comp committees—what great ones do daily. Activism, poison pills, dual-class shares: protecting or harming owners? Governance failures (Theranos, Dieselgate) and the lessons analysts track.

Follow the cash—and the conflicts—between lenders, shareholders, boards, managersand the wider world. Debt vs. equity: priority claims, risk, return, agency costs. Stakeholder vs. shareholder governance—why ESG now drives value. Spot drags & pulls on liquidity that keep treasurers up at night.

Kick off Season 3 by mapping how businesses are legally built—and why it matters toanalysts. Compare sole proprietorships, partnerships, and limited companies. See why limited liability and owner–manager separation fuel capital raising. Contrast publicly listed vs. privately held issuers and IPO/​go-private paths. Meet the many shareholder types—from families to governments.

Practice cross‑rates, forwards, premiums‑discounts and covered‑interest parity so you can price multicurrency cash‑flows with confidence.

Identify FX players, quote conventions, currency regimes and the trade‑balance link; assess how capital controls tilt returns and risk.

Weigh the gains, losses and welfare shifts from tariffs, quotas, subsidies and regional blocs; master comparative advantage and integration tiers.

Map state and non‑state actors, globalization forces, trade institutions and risk signposts so you can price political shocks into investments.

Dive into central‑bank mandates, policy rates, open‑market ops, reserve requirements and transmission channels from money to growth and inflation.

Unpack deficits, the debt burden, spending vs. tax levers and the fiscal multiplier so you can model how budgets shift aggregate demand.

Track expansion, peak, contraction and trough; link credit cycles, indicators and now‑casting tools to corporate earnings and asset returns.

Compare perfect, monopolistic and oligopoly markets; find breakeven and shutdown points; see how pricing power changes with concentration and scale.

Unpack the 3 Vs (+ veracity) of Big Data, AI & ML toolkits, data pipelines,visualisation, and NLP—all tailored to quantitative investing.

Estimate slopes and intercepts with OLS, check key assumptions, interpretANOVA, R², and transform data (log‑lin, lin‑log, log‑log) for better fits.

Learn to verify co‑movement: t‑tests for Pearson correlation, Spearman rankfor monotonic links, and chi‑square for independence in contingency tables.

Master the six‑step test framework, Type I/II errors, power, and the bread‑and‑buttert‑, χ²‑, F‑ and non‑parametric tests used throughout finance.

From sampling designs to the central‑limit theorem, nail standard errors andbootstrap confidence intervals so you can quantify parameter uncertainty likea pro.

Discover lognormal price behaviour, Monte Carlo pricing and risk, andbootstrap resampling when history is all you have—key tools for modernquant finance.