About the CAIA Curriculum
As the go-to credential for the responsible fiduciary seeking to safeguard the best interests of the investor and the industry, we’ve worked hard to ensure that our curriculum incorporates learning objectives most relevant to allocators building successful, future-focused portfolios.
The CAIA exam curriculum is updated annually, with revisions and updates resulting in roughly 10-20% change in exam content. This revision process ensures the curriculum will reflect the most relevant and up-to-date industry analysis, tools, and best practices.
The CAIA Association releases the revised curriculum at the start of the registration period for the following year. This updated curriculum then applies to the two exam cycles in that calendar year. For example, updated curriculum for 2023 exams was released in October 2022 and should be studied for the March 2023 exam and the September 2023 exam.
It is important to note that that exams are based exclusively on the curriculum
associated with that exam year. Use of prior editions is not recommended.
A Future-Focused Curriculum for the Informed Professional
The CAIA Curriculum spans two levels of readings, placing the candidate in the seat of an allocator and showcasing how to “Think Like an Allocator”. An “allocator” is not a job title or function—it’s a mental framework and we strongly believe that all investment professionals should possess the ability to think, manage, and operate seamlessly across the entire investment opportunity set and risk premia. The allocator’s role is not only to understand endogenous factors, such as the risk-return profile of a particular asset class or strategy, but also to anticipate exogenous factors, such as environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors, technological shifts, and regulatory regime changes. This is the perspective by which our curriculum is developed.
For Level I, the curriculum takes a bottom-up approach to the alternative investments industry. The readings offer detailed insights into the variety of institutional-quality strategies spanning the alternatives universe. Upon completing Level I, Candidates should have working knowledge of the relevant strategies available for investment, along with the basic tools to evaluate them.
The Level II curriculum takes a top-down approach and provides Candidates with the skills and tools to conduct due diligence, monitor investments, and appropriately construct an investment portfolio. In addition, the Level II curriculum contains Emerging Topic readings; articles written by academics and practitioners designed to further inform and provoke the Candidate’s investment management process.
For additional details about the Level I and Level II curriculum - including learning objectives and keywords to support your studies, please review the Level appropriate Study Guides.
What's new?
2023 marks a new beginning – from curriculum team management to structuring the accessibility of the CAIA Curriculum, we have been focused on bringing our Candidates relevant and practical industry developments.
2023 Highlights:
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Four new Emerging Topics for Level II Candidates
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Expanded team of authors and contributors to exam content
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Refreshed and renewed data points
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Bundled Access – the 2023 Curriculum in the digital format is now INCLUDED at no additional charge with new exam registrations