About the CAIA Curriculum
The global investment landscape has undergone a profound transformation since the inception of the CAIA Charter Program. And with it, a redefining of the very nature of institutional investing and reshaping the role of alternative investments within portfolio construction.
As a professional body dedicated to creating greater alignment, transparency, and knowledge for all investors, the CAIA Association has incorporated this evolution within the CAIA curriculum with revisions resulting in roughly 10–20% change in exam content annually.
Stay Current
Use the CAIA curriculum as your source of truth when pursuing the CAIA Charter. Whether you’re studying independently or using supplemental materials, the official CAIA curriculum and resources should remain your anchor for accuracy and exam alignment. Use of prior editions is not recommended.
CAIA Association publishes the curriculum for the next calendar year each October. The updated curriculum then applies to the two exam cycles in that calendar year.
For example, updated curriculum for 2026 exams is released in October 2025 and should be studied for the March 2026 exam and the September 2026 exam.
Exam Curriculum Overview
CAIA Level I Exam Topics 2026
CAIA Ethical Principles:
Ethics, Professionalism and Fiduciary Responsibilities
Introduction to Alternative Investments:
Alpha and Beta Estimations, Alpha, Beta, and Hypothesis Testing, Derivatives and Risk-Neutral Valuation, Financial Economics Foundations, Measures of Risk and Performance, Quantitative Foundations, Statistical Foundations, The Environment of Alternative Investments, What is An Alternative Investment?
Real Assets:
Commodities, Natural Resources and Land, Other Real Assets, Overview of Real Estate, Real Estate Assets, Real Estate Methods
Private Equity & Private Debt:
Buyout, Private Equity Investing, Venture Capital & Growth Equity, Credit Risk and Credit Derivatives, Insurance Linked Strategies, Introduction to Structuring, Private Credit and Asset Based Strategies, Private Credit and Cash Based Strategies
Hedge Funds:
Equity Hedge Funds, Event-Driven Hedge Funds, Macro and Managed Futures Funds, Relative Value Hedge Funds, The Hedge Fund Industry
Digital Assets:
Allocating to Cryptocurrencies, Distributed Ledger Technology
Funds of Funds:
Funds of Funds
CAIA Level II Exam Topics 2026
Emerging Topics:
Digital Assets: Bitcoin, Web 3.0, and DeFi, Private Equity: Value Creation in Private Equity, and Forecasting Returns, Portfolio Management: Rebalancing Illiquid Portfolios, Managing Liquidity for Capital Calls, and Assessing Long Term Performance.
(Registered Candidates receive free access to Emerging Topics by logging into their CAIA.org account.)
CAIA Ethical Principles:
Ethics, Professionalism and Fiduciary Responsibilities
Institutional Asset Owners:
Family Offices and the Family Office Model, Foundations and the Endowment Model, Pension Fund Portfolio Management, Sovereign Wealth Funds, Types of Asset Owners and the IPS
Asset Allocation:
Active Management, Asset Allocation Processes and MVO, Other Asset Allocation Approaches, Rebalancing Strategies, Total Portfolio Approach
Risk and Risk Management:
Applied Benchmarking, Benchmarking and Performance Attribution, Hedging Portfolios, Liquidity and Funding Risks, Risk Measurement, Risk Management, and Risk Systems
Methods and Models:
Directional Strategies and Methods, Modeling Overview and Fixed Income Models, Multi-Factor Equity Pricing Models, Multivariate Empirical Methods and Performance Persistence, Relative Value Methods, Valuation and Hedging Using Binomial Trees, Valuation Methods for Private Assets: The Case of Real Estate
Accessing Alternative Investments:
Access to Real Assets, Diversified Access to Hedge Funds, Hedge Fund Replication, The Risk and Performance of Private and Listed Assets
Due Diligence & Selecting Managers:
Cases in Tail Risk, Due Diligence of Terms and Business Activities, Investment Process Due Diligence, Operational Due Diligence, Selection of a Fund Manager
Volatility and Complex Strategies:
Complexity and Structured Products, Complexity and the Case of Cross-Border Real Estate Investing, Cryptocurrency Investing and Trading, Volatility as a Factor Exposure, Volatility, Correlation, and Dispersion Products and Strategies
Universal Investment Considerations:
Geopolitics, Global Regulation, Sustainability Analysis and Application, Sustainability and Alternative Investments
Behind the Curriculum
Guiding this process is the Global Curriculum Committee, a selected group of investment practitioners with deep expertise in alternative investments that informs each annual curriculum update to reflect what truly matters in today’s investment environment.
The CAIA curriculum is updated annually to reflect evolving market practices and industry expert insight. Review the latest updates below.