While many advisers will ultimately work for investment firms with large research departments that do much of their analysis for them, regulators want to make sure you not only can compute some of the most important ratios, but also know where to find the financial information needed to compute them. Regulators believe that there is no excuse for not examining these data, since regulators require companies to make them readily available on a regular basis through filings that can be easily accessed online. Thus, the exam may ask you specifically about some of the main types of filings, when they’re filed, and what will be in them.
Here’s the short list of what you can be expected to know:
Corporate SEC Filings
Filing
Purpose
Prospectus
Filed prior to new security being issued; contains all info about the issuer potential investors need to evaluate, and potential risks and rewards before investing
Annual Report
Provided to shareholders annually to summarize the issuer’s financial operations
