FINRA SIE Exam 2026: Complete Prep Course + Practice

Explore capital markets as the economy's engine, detailing the four market types—primary, secondary, third, and fourth—and how issuers, investors and institutions interact through IPOs and venues NYSE, Nasdaq, and OTC.

Explore how companies raise capital through public offerings and private placements, including IPO processes, registration, cooling-off periods, and the role of Regulation D and Rule 144.

Learn how restricted stock and control stock affect selling, and apply rule 144 as a safe harbor with six- or twelve-month holding periods, volume limits, and form 144.

Explore debt securities as loans to issuers—Treasury, federal agencies, corporations, and municipalities—offering fixed income, with bondholders as creditors who have priority in bankruptcy.

Compare strips and tips to grasp zero-coupon strips, inflation-adjusted tips, and associated phantom income taxes; learn who uses them and how inflation affects principal and payments.

Explore agency and mortgage backed securities, including Ginnie Mae’s explicit government guarantee, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac implicit backing, pass-through payments, prepayment and extension risks, and cmos with tranches.

Learn how corporate bonds differ: secured versus unsecured, callable and convertible features, credit ratings and default risk, and the bankruptcy priority order, with yield implications.

Define derivatives as contracts whose value derives from an asset, including stocks, bonds, commodities, currencies, indexes, and volatility, and show how options, futures, forwards, and warrants enable hedging and speculation.

Define futures and forwards, contrast standardized exchange-traded futures with customized over-the-counter forwards, and explain margin, daily settlement, and counterparty risk for hedging and speculation.

Explain how exchange-traded funds trade on exchanges, hold diverse baskets of securities, and differ from mutual funds in pricing, creation and redemption, tax efficiency, and intraday accessibility.

Compare open-end funds, closed-end funds, and UITs, highlighting closed-end trading at premium or discount to NAV and UITs' fixed portfolios with no ongoing management.

Explore hedge funds, fund of funds, and the investment company act provisions that govern these alternatives, including accreditation thresholds, exemptions, fee structures, and risks for sophisticated investors.

Explore direct participation programs as pooled investments in ventures like real estate or oil and gas, featuring pass-through taxation, general and limited partners, schedule k-1, and illiquidity.

Explore traditional and roth iras, their tax treatment, rmds, contribution limits, eligibility, rollovers, early withdrawal rules, and features of sep ira and simple ira.

Explore fixed and variable annuities as insurance contracts with tax-deferred growth, accumulation and annuitization, surrender charges, and death benefits; understand that variable annuities are securities requiring SEC registration and licenses.

Map the regulatory framework from the Securities and Exchange Commission to sros, blue sky laws, and state regulators. Identify finra, msrb, sipc roles, u4/u5 filings, and continuing education.

Master KYC and suitability under FINRA rules, and apply Reg BI to broker-dealers' retail communications. Learn Form CRS requirements and the 25 retail investors in 30 days rule.

Identify prohibited trading and sales practices, including insider trading and MNPI rules. Understand penalties, outside business activities, PSTs, OBAs, gifts, and political contribution rules.