CSC Cheat Sheet 2026

The 30 highest-yield CSC facts, distilled from real exam questions. Print it, save it as a PDF, or study it here — free, no sign-up.

1. Which regulatory body is responsible for overseeing investment dealers and their registered representatives in Canada as of 2023? → CIRO (Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization)
2. A company uses straight-line depreciation for a $100,000 asset with a 10-year useful life and no residual value. What is the annual depreciation expense? → $10,000
3. An investor buys mutual fund units at a 5% front-end load. On a $10,000 investment, how much is actually invested in the fund? → $9,500
4. An investor has $8,000 in net capital losses in the current year and no capital gains. What can they do with these losses under Canadian tax rules? → Carry the losses back up to 3 years or forward indefinitely to offset future capital gains
5. Which type of account allows a retail client to borrow money from the dealer to purchase securities? → Margin account
6. The price-to-book (P/B) ratio compares a stock's market price to its: → Net asset value per share
7. What is the purpose of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund (CIPF)? → To protect client assets held at a member firm if that firm becomes insolvent
8. Which term describes the difference between the price an underwriter pays for a new issue and the price at which it is offered to the public? → Gross spread (underwriting discount)
9. Under Canadian securities regulation, mutual fund prospectuses must be renewed every: → 12 months
10. A client asks their advisor to keep a large cash transfer 'off the books.' What should the advisor do? → Refuse and report the request to the compliance department as a potential AML red flag
11. A company reports total assets of $500,000 and total liabilities of $320,000. What is shareholders' equity? → $180,000
12. A high Price-to-Earnings (P/E) ratio for a company, relative to its industry peers, could indicate which of the following? → Investors have high expectations for the company's future earnings growth.
13. Enterprise Value (EV) is defined as market capitalization plus net debt. Which multiple is commonly computed using EV? → EV/EBITDA
14. A company writes down inventory from $80,000 to its net realizable value of $60,000. How does this affect the financial statements? → Decreases assets and increases expenses
15. A bond's duration measures which of the following? → The weighted average time to receive the bond's cash flows
16. Which of the following best illustrates a 'time horizon' constraint in a portfolio? → A pension fund that must pay retirees monthly starting in 5 years
17. When Canada experiences a current account surplus, what does this generally indicate? → Canada's exports of goods, services, and investment income exceed its imports
18. When a bond's yield surpasses its coupon rate... → it is trading at a discount
19. What is the primary purpose of a bond sinking fund? → To gradually retire a portion of the bond issue before final maturity
20. When analyzing a bond's yield to maturity, which assumption is built into the calculation? → The bond will be held to maturity and all coupons reinvested at the YTM rate
21. The premium of an option is composed of its intrinsic value and its time value. If a put option is 'at-the-money,' what constitutes its entire premium? → Time value only
22. Under IFRS, which inventory costing method is explicitly prohibited? → LIFO (Last-In, First-Out)
23. A company with floating-rate debt enters a pay-fixed, receive-floating interest rate swap. What effective rate does the company pay? → A synthetic fixed rate combining its floating debt payments and the swap's net settlement
24. What does 'open interest' represent in futures markets? → The number of outstanding contracts not yet settled or closed
25. An analyst observes a stock's price repeatedly falling to a certain level and then bouncing back up. In technical analysis, what is this price level called? → A support level
26. Which Canadian body provides investor protection coverage if a CIRO member firm becomes insolvent? → CIPF
27. When a company reports comprehensive income, it includes: → Net income plus other comprehensive income items
28. What is 'earnings yield,' and how is it related to the P/E ratio? → Earnings yield = EPS ÷ Price; it is the reciprocal of the P/E ratio
29. How does a higher required rate of return affect the intrinsic value calculated by the Gordon Growth Model? → It decreases intrinsic value
30. Commodity investments are often included in a portfolio because they tend to: → Have low correlation with stocks and bonds and hedge against inflation