Series 7 Cheat Sheet.

If the question says … the answer is …

• If the stem counts retail recipients of one piece inside a month, then the head count decides correspondence versus retail communication, and only the latter needs principal approval before first use.
• If a customer refuses to give financial information, then the account opens for unsolicited orders and receives no recommendations.
• If two unrelated owners want their shares to pass to their own heirs, then tenants in common; if the survivor should take everything, joint tenants with right of survivorship.
• If a customer said do whatever you think is best on the phone, then no discretion exists until it is granted in writing.
• If the stem asks which of four yields is lowest on a premium bond, then yield to call; on a discount bond, nominal yield.
• If the stem wants federally taxable but state-exempt interest, then a direct Treasury obligation, never an agency pass-through.
• If a municipal bond bought at a premium is held to maturity, then no loss, because the premium was amortized; bought at a market discount, ordinary income.
• If the stem describes a straddle, then add both premiums and move that far beyond the strike in each direction for the breakevens.
• If a Regulation T deposit comes out below the minimum equity floor, then the floor governs, unless the purchase itself is smaller.
• If a variable annuity's separate account earned less than the assumed interest rate, then the next check is smaller even though the return was positive.
• If a customer wants to protect a gain on a long position, then a sell stop below the market; a sell limit below the market fills immediately.
• If a plain stop is elected, then it is a market order; a stop-limit becomes a limit that may never execute.

Numbers that decide questions

Options and margin formulas

The arithmetic the Options and Margin items repeat. Margin figures are Regulation T's initial requirement and FINRA Rule 4210's minimums; the option figures follow from the contract itself.

Outline weights

• Seeks business for the broker-dealer (7%): 9 scored questions
• Opens accounts after obtaining and evaluating the customer profile (9%): 11 scored questions
• Provides investment information, makes recommendations, transfers assets and maintains records (73%): 91 scored questions
• Obtains and verifies instructions and processes transactions (11%): 14 scored questions

Registration rules that trip people up

Your cost and clock if you sit both exams

The SIE runs 105 minutes on its own schedule. Sit it and the Series 7 separately and the General Securities Representative path costs $495 total and uses 330 minutes of seat time across two appointments — a sum FINRA does not publish as one figure.

Night-before checklist

• Write the four functions with their counts from memory; if one is off, reread the outline weights above.
• Redo one straddle, one spread and one margin-floor problem by hand.
• Recite the muni tax pair: premium amortized, market discount ordinary income.
• Draw the four order types on a price line, stops and limits on both sides of the market.
• Confirm your Prometric appointment on FINRA's page and stop studying by early evening.