CAIA Exam Curriculum

Professional Standards and Ethics

• CFA Institute Standards of Practice

Introduction to Alternative Investments

• What Is an Alternative Investment?
• The Environment of Alternative Investments
• Quantitative Foundations
• Statistical Foundations
• Financial Economics Foundations
• Derivatives and Risk-Neutral Valuation
• Measures of Risk and Performance
• Alpha, Beta, and Hypothesis Testing

Real Assets

• Natural Resources and Land
• Commodities
• Other Real Assets
• Real Estate Assets and Debt
• Real Estate Equity

Private Securities

• Private Equity Assets
• Private Equity Funds
• Private Equity Fund of Funds
• Evolution of Investing in Private Equity
• Private Credit and Distressed Debt

Hedge Funds

• Structure of the Hedge Fund Industry
• Macro and Managed Futures Funds
• Event-Driven and Relative Value Hedge Funds
• Equity Hedge Funds
• Funds of Hedge Funds

Structured Products

• Introduction to Structuring
• Credit Risk and Credit Derivatives
• CDO Structuring of Credit Risk
• Equity-Linked Structured Products

Emerging Topics

Ethics Regulations and ESG

• Asset Manager Code
• Recommendations and Guidance
• Global Regulation
• ESG and Alternative Investments
• ESG Analysis and Application

Models

• Modeling Overview and Interest Rate Models
• Credit Risk Models
• Multi-Factor Equity Pricing Models
• Asset Allocation Processes and the Mean-Variance Model
• Other Asset Allocation Approaches

Institutional Asset Owners and Investment Policies

• Types of Asset Owners and the Investment Policy Statement
• Foundations, and The Endowment Model
• Pension Fund Portfolio Management
• Sovereign Wealth Funds
• Family Offices and the Family Office Model

Risk and Risk Management

• Cases in Tail Risk
• Benchmarking and Performance Attribution
• Liquidity and Funding Risks
• Hedging, Rebalancing, and Monitoring
• Risk Measurement, Risk Management, and Risk Systems

Accessing Alternative Investments

• Hedge Fund Replication
• Diversified Access to Hedge Funds
• Access to Real Estate and Commodities
• Access through Private Structures
• The Risk and Performance of Private and Listed Assets

Due Diligence & Selecting Managers

• Active Management and New Investments
• Selection of a Fund Manager
• Investment Process Due Diligence
• Operational Due Diligence
• Due Diligence of Terms and Business Activities

Volatility and Complex Strategies

• Volatility as a Factor Exposure
• Volatility, Correlation, and Dispersion Products and Strategies
• Complexity and Structured Products
• Insurance-Linked and Hybrid Securities
• Complexity and the Case of Cross-Border Real Estate Investing