Professional Documents
Culture Documents
CFA Level 1 LOS Changes Between 2011 and 2010
CFA Level 1 LOS Changes Between 2011 and 2010
www.cfainstitute.org
www.finance-grid.com
Jeremy Sanders
Finance Grid Limited, UK
1/1/2011
CFA® Level 1 Curriculum Changes
Updates for the June 2011 CFA® Level 1 Exam
CFA® is a Registered Trademark of the CFA Institute.
Finance Grid Ltd. U.K. is an independent Financial Training Provider.
Reading 1: No Change
Reading 2: No Change
Reading 3: No Change
Reading 4: Minor change, now there are 9 provisions of GIPS
Reading 5: No Change
Reading 6: No Change, except previous LOS a) has been split into two parts; a) and b)
Reading 7: No Change
Reading 8: No Change
Reading 9: Only 1 new LOS: relating to the definition, calculation and interpretation of tracking error
Reading 10: No Change
Reading 11: No Change
Reading 12: Technical Analysis Chapter has total new content with focus on actual use of Technical Analysis
Tools, Charts and Theories. Previous Reading and LOS statements are almost entirely to be
discarded. A new focus is on applications and real use of tools and techniques, chart patterns,
trend lines, study of cycles, wave theory and Fibonacci Numbers in market prediction. This goes
alongside with commonly used technical analysis indicators as well.
2|Page
Study Session 6 Monetary and Fiscal Economics:
Study Session 8 Financial Reporting and Analysis – Income Statement, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow
Statement:
Study Session 9 Financial Reporting and Analysis – Inventories, Long-Lived Assets, Income Taxes, and Non-
Current Liabilities
Important: Major reorganisation in the structure of the chapter
Reading 36: Major Reorganization in the structure of the chapter, and new LOS related to Periodic versus
Perpetual Inventory Valuation. Previous LOS on conversion between methods seems to be
absent (Check in Chapter Content)
Reading 37: Major Reorganization in the structure of the chapter
Reading 38: No Change
Reading 39: Major reorganisation in the structure of the chapter; defined contribution and defined benefit
pension plans have been included, as well as de-recognition of debt. Other LOS statements
have been simplified.
Study Session 10 Financial Reporting and Analysis – Applications and International Convergence
Reading 40: 2 LOS Statements have been removed; the specific accounting warning signs for Enron and
Sunbeam have been removed, and only the general accounting warning signs therefore
become the focus.
Reading 41: No Change
Reading 42: No Change
Reading 43: No Change
3|Page
Study Session 11 Corporate Finance
Important: 2 New Readings; Measures of Leverage, and Dividends and Share Repurchases Basics
Reading 44: No Change
Reading 45: No Change
Reading 46: This is a new reading on ‘Measures of Leverage’.
Reading 47: This is a new reading on ‘Dividends and Share Repurchases – Basics’.
Reading 48: No Change; This reading on ‘Working Capital’ was numbered ‘46’ in 2010
Reading 49: No Change; This reading on ‘Financial Statement Analysis’ was number ‘47’ in 2010
Reading 50: No Change; This reading on ‘Corporate Governance’ was number ‘48’ in 2010
Reading 61: No Change; this reading on ‘Features of Debt Securities’ was number ‘60’ previously
Reading 62: Minor Change. The last LOS (LOS ‘O’), requires an additional concept relating to the description
of ‘The origin of sovereign risk’. The reading otherwise exactly corresponds to previous reading
‘61’
Reading 63: No Change; this reading was previously number ‘62’ in 2010.
Reading 64: No Change; this reading was previously number ‘63’ in 2010
4|Page
Study Session 16 Fixed Income - Analysis and Valuation:
Reading 74: Very minor change; The LOS related to Hedge Funds is stated in terms of discuss rather than
define, as was previously stated for 2010, which implies a slightly broader focus in 2011 on this
LOS. Also in the same LOS, the candidate is required to describe the various classifications of
hedge funds. This reading was previously number ‘73’ in 2010.
Reading 75: No Change, was previously number ‘74’ in 2010
Summary: There are a total of 75 readings in the CFA Level 1 curriculum for 2011, whereas the total
number of readings was 74 in 2010, for the CFA Level 1 Exam
5|Page