Use this syllabus as your coverage checklist for IMT Exam 1. Topic weightings and exam structure are from CSI’s official Exam & Credits page; chapter mapping follows the official Curriculum page.
What’s covered
Investment Policy and Understanding Risk Profile (10%)
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Chapter 1 - The Portfolio Management Process
- Outline the seven steps of the portfolio management process.
- Identify information required by regulation and law when onboarding and servicing clients (KYC, identity, disclosures, recordkeeping).
- Describe methods investment advisors use to learn about their clients (interviews, questionnaires, documents, and observation).
- Define investment objectives and common constraints (time horizon, liquidity, taxes, legal, and unique constraints).
- Explain how to translate objectives and constraints into clear, measurable Investment Policy Statement (IPS) language.
- Identify core components of an IPS (objectives, constraints, asset mix ranges, benchmarks, rebalancing, and monitoring).
- Differentiate risk tolerance, risk capacity, and required return as inputs to portfolio design.
- Recognize why documentation and periodic review are central to disciplined portfolio management.
- Describe communication skills needed to explain risk/return trade-offs and set expectations with retail clients.
- Identify common process failures that lead to poor outcomes (incomplete facts, weak constraints, and inconsistent follow-through).
Chapter 2 - Understanding a Client's Risk Profile
- Define behavioural finance and distinguish it from traditional finance assumptions.
- Explain why behavioural finance is relevant to investment advisors and suitability decisions.
- Identify limitations of risk profile questionnaires (context effects, self-report bias, and changing market conditions).
- Define common investor biases (e.g., loss aversion, overconfidence, anchoring, confirmation bias, and herding).
- Recognize investor personality types and how they can influence decisions under uncertainty.
- Describe how an advisor can diagnose biases from client behaviour, language, and decision patterns.
- Explain how bias diagnosis can influence asset allocation and implementation choices at a high level.
- Identify practical techniques to reduce behavioural errors (education, guardrails, rules-based rebalancing).
- Describe the role of robo-advisors and how automation can mitigate or amplify behavioural biases.
- Match communication approaches to client biases to improve long-term adherence to the plan.
Asset Allocation and Investment Management (8%)
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Chapter 3 - Asset Allocation and Investment Strategies
- Define an asset class and distinguish asset classes from investment vehicles.
- Explain the benefits of asset allocation and diversification in portfolio construction.
- Describe the asset allocation process from strategic policy to ongoing rebalancing.
- Differentiate strategic, tactical, and dynamic asset allocation strategies.
- Explain asset location and why tax characteristics can influence where assets are held.
- Describe common equity investment strategies at a high level (value, growth, dividend, index, and factor).
- Define correlation and explain how it affects diversification benefits across asset classes.
- Explain how objectives and constraints (liquidity, horizon, taxes) affect allocation choices.
- Differentiate policy allocation ranges from current (actual) allocation and drift.
- Calculate portfolio weights and simple rebalance trades using basic arithmetic.
Chapter 4 - Investment Management Today
- Describe the roles of key participants in investment management (client, advisor, manager, analyst, trader, custodian).
- Differentiate active and passive management and summarize common trade-offs (cost, tracking error, and style risk).
- Explain how fees, turnover, and taxes affect net (after-cost) investment results.
- Identify common benchmarks and explain why benchmark selection matters for evaluation.
- Describe high-level manager due diligence factors (mandate, process, people, risk controls, and consistency).
- Explain investment discipline and the concept of avoiding unintended style drift.
- Describe how liquidity and market structure can affect implementation quality at a high level.
- Identify the purpose of portfolio constraints (concentration limits, risk limits, and permitted instruments).
- Recognize professional and ethical considerations in portfolio management (fair dealing, conflicts, and suitability).
- Describe how technology supports monitoring, reporting, and risk analytics at a high level.
Equity Securities (19%)
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Chapter 5 - Equity Securities
- Describe key characteristics of equity securities (ownership, residual claim, voting, and dividends).
- Differentiate common shares and preferred shares and identify typical features of each.
- Identify major Canadian and U.S. equity markets at a high level and how listings/trading occur.
- Differentiate primary market issuance from secondary market trading conceptually.
- Explain factors to consider when choosing individual equities versus managed products for a client.
- Identify key equity risks (market, business, financial, liquidity, currency, and concentration).
- Describe how corporate actions can affect equity holders (splits, dividends, and mergers) conceptually.
- Explain the role of equity indices and why index construction matters conceptually.
- Calculate a simple holding period return for an equity investment (price change plus dividends).
- Match common investor objectives to equity exposures (growth, income, and inflation sensitivity).
Chapter 6 - Analysis of Equity Securities I: Economic and Industry Analysis
- Explain the purpose of economic analysis in equity investment decisions.
- Identify major economic indicators and describe their conceptual link to markets (growth, inflation, rates, currency).
- Describe business cycle phases and how they can influence sectors and styles at a high level.
- Explain how monetary and fiscal policy can affect economic conditions and risk assets conceptually.
- Describe how economic forecasts are formed and identify limits and uncertainty in forecasting.
- Explain how economic analysis can support investment strategy development at a high level.
- Identify key metrics used in macro analysis (yield curve, spreads, and leading indicators) conceptually.
- Describe the purpose and components of industry analysis (structure, competition, and regulation).
- Recognize common frameworks for industry competitiveness (e.g., barriers to entry and pricing power) at a high level.
- Differentiate secular trends from cyclical movements when evaluating industries conceptually.
Chapter 7 - Analysis of Equity Securities II: Company Analysis and Valuation
- Differentiate IFRS and GAAP at a high level and recognize implications for comparing firms.
- Describe core components of company analysis (business model, strategy, management quality, and financial condition).
- Interpret basic relationships among the financial statements at a conceptual level.
- Calculate and interpret common equity ratios (P/E, P/B, ROE, margins, and leverage) at a basic level.
- Describe major valuation approaches (DCF, dividend discount, and multiples/comparables) conceptually.
- Explain intrinsic value versus market price and the role of assumptions in valuation.
- Identify special considerations for analyzing resource companies at a high level (commodity sensitivity and reserves).
- Recognize limits of accounting data (estimates, one-time items, accruals) and why adjustments may be needed.
- Describe how key assumptions (growth and discount rate) drive valuation sensitivity.
- Identify common red flags in company analysis (earnings quality, governance issues, and unsustainable distributions).
Chapter 8 - Technical Analysis
- Define technical analysis and describe its core assumptions at a high level.
- Explain chart analysis concepts (trends, support/resistance, and pattern recognition) conceptually.
- Identify common technical indicators (moving averages, RSI, MACD, and volume) and what they signal conceptually.
- Describe statistical approaches in technical analysis (momentum and mean reversion) at a high level.
- Explain sentiment indicators and what they attempt to measure conceptually.
- Describe intermarket analysis and how asset classes can influence each other conceptually.
- Identify typical uses of technical analysis (timing, risk management) and common limitations (false signals, regime shifts).
- Explain how technical and fundamental analysis can be combined coherently (confirmation and risk controls).
- Recognize how to express technical views in communications without implying certainty or guarantees.
- Identify common behavioural pitfalls that technical rules aim to reduce (chasing, anchoring, and overtrading).
Debt Securities (17%)
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Chapter 9 - Debt Securities
- Explain common reasons investors hold debt securities (income, diversification, and liability matching).
- Identify key characteristics of debt securities (coupon, maturity, yield, issuer, and seniority).
- Differentiate government, corporate, and other debt types at a high level.
- Identify major fixed-income risks (interest rate, credit, inflation, liquidity, and reinvestment).
- Explain yield measures conceptually (current yield and yield to maturity) and what they represent.
- Describe mechanics of debt market trading at a high level (OTC structure, dealer role, and quotations).
- Explain accrued interest and settlement concepts for bond transactions at a high level.
- Describe the inverse relationship between yields and bond prices conceptually.
- Use intuition to estimate direction of bond price changes when yields change.
- Explain how embedded features (call, put, convertibility) can affect bond risk and pricing conceptually.
Chapter 10 - Analysis of Debt Securities I: Valuation, Term Structure and Pricing
- Apply present value concepts to fixed-income cash flows at a high level.
- Describe the term structure of interest rates and common yield curve shapes (normal, flat, inverted).
- Explain spot rates and forward rates conceptually and their role in valuation.
- Describe discounting bond cash flows using appropriate rates across maturities conceptually.
- Explain credit spreads conceptually and what they imply about perceived issuer risk.
- Calculate a simple bond price given coupon, yield, and maturity using simplified examples.
- Describe how changes in yield curve level, slope, and curvature affect bond prices across maturities conceptually.
- Explain nonlinearity in the price-yield relationship at a high level (convexity intuition).
- Differentiate clean price and dirty price (including accrued interest) conceptually.
- Interpret how coupon structure influences price sensitivity and expected cash flows conceptually.
Chapter 11 - Analysis of Debt Securities II: Price Volatility and Investment Strategies
- Define duration and explain what it measures (interest rate sensitivity) conceptually.
- Differentiate Macaulay duration and modified duration at a high level.
- Define convexity and explain how it refines duration-based price change estimates conceptually.
- Explain how maturity and coupon level affect bond price volatility conceptually.
- Describe how embedded options can create negative convexity and alter price behaviour conceptually.
- Identify common fixed-income strategies (ladder, barbell, bullet) and the interest-rate views behind them conceptually.
- Describe immunization and duration matching concepts at a high level.
- Explain why longer-duration portfolios are more sensitive to yield changes conceptually.
- Calculate approximate bond price change using modified duration and a yield change (simple approximation).
- Identify reinvestment risk and explain its interaction with duration for total return.
Managed Products (19%)
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Chapter 12 - Analyzing Conventionally Managed Products
- Define conventionally managed products and distinguish them from direct security portfolios conceptually.
- Explain the role of conventionally managed products in investment management and retail portfolios.
- Describe mutual fund features at a high level (NAV pricing, diversification, and professional management).
- Differentiate mutual funds and closed-end funds at a high level (liquidity, pricing, and premiums/discounts).
- Describe wrap products and managed account structures at a high level.
- Define overlay management and describe common overlays (currency hedging and risk controls) conceptually.
- Identify how fees and turnover can affect net returns of managed products over time.
- Explain the relationship between taxes and returns on managed products conceptually (distributions and after-tax return).
- Identify key due diligence questions for managed products (mandate, risk, fees, liquidity, and performance consistency).
- Recognize common selection pitfalls (performance chasing, ignoring style drift, and overlooking structural risks).
Chapter 13 - Analyzing Non-Conventional Asset Classes and Their Structures
- Define alternative investments and explain why investors may allocate to them (diversification and inflation sensitivity) conceptually.
- Describe hedge fund strategies at a high level and identify associated risks (leverage, liquidity, and model risk).
- Describe commodities as an asset class at a high level and identify key drivers of returns and risks conceptually.
- Describe real estate as an asset class and common structures used to access it (REITs, funds, direct) at a high level.
- Describe infrastructure and private markets at a high level and identify typical constraints (illiquidity and valuation).
- Explain collectibles and digital assets as alternative exposures and identify unique risks (custody and valuation) conceptually.
- Identify common ways to invest in alternatives and trade-offs (fees, liquidity, transparency, and governance).
- Explain how commodity producers manage financial risk conceptually, including the role of derivatives.
- Identify key due diligence items for alternatives (structure, leverage, liquidity terms, valuation, and conflicts).
- Recognize suitability and disclosure considerations when recommending non-conventional assets to retail clients.
International Investing and Taxation (7%)
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Chapter 14 - International Investing
- Explain the theoretical basis for international diversification and potential portfolio benefits conceptually.
- Describe the size of the global equity market and major regional exposures at a high level.
- Identify major international equity benchmarks and what they represent at a high level.
- Explain primary advantages of international investing (broader opportunity set and diversification) conceptually.
- Identify primary disadvantages and risks of international investing (currency, political, regulatory, and settlement).
- Describe foreign investment vehicles available to investors at a high level (funds, ETFs, and depositary receipts).
- Identify skills necessary for effective international investing (country analysis, currency awareness, governance differences).
- Explain how assumptions can affect whether asset allocation models correctly assess international opportunities conceptually.
- Describe currency exposure and currency hedging as concepts and when they may be considered.
- Differentiate developed and emerging markets at a high level and identify typical risk factors.
Chapter 15 - International Taxation
- Define international tax conflicts and explain how double taxation can arise in cross-border investing.
- Describe sources of international tax law and how they interrelate (domestic law and treaties) conceptually.
- Explain jurisdiction to tax at a high level (residence and source) and why it matters for investors.
- Describe source country taxation concepts (withholding taxes) and the role of treaties conceptually.
- Describe residence country taxation concepts and how foreign tax credits may reduce double taxation conceptually.
- Recognize how tax considerations can influence investment vehicle selection and account choice at a high level.
- Identify common cross-border tax frictions that can reduce after-tax return (withholding and reporting complexity).
- Explain why international tax rules change and must be verified using current sources.
- Calculate simple after-withholding income examples using basic arithmetic.
- Identify when to escalate tax questions to qualified professionals or firm resources rather than guessing.
Managing Your Client's Investment Risk (5%)
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Chapter 16 - Managing Your Client's Investment Risk
- Identify common investment risks and classify them at a high level (market, credit, liquidity, currency, inflation).
- Describe methods of measuring investment risk conceptually (volatility, beta, and value-at-risk).
- Explain how diversification can reduce portfolio risk and the role of correlation conceptually.
- Explain how asset allocation contributes to risk management across market regimes conceptually.
- Describe how options can be used to reduce investment risk conceptually (protective puts and collars).
- Describe how futures contracts can be used to reduce investment risk conceptually (hedging equity or rate exposure).
- Describe contracts for difference (CFDs) at a high level and identify key risks (leverage and counterparty).
- Recognize trade-offs of risk reduction strategies (hedge cost, basis risk, and foregone upside).
- Identify suitability and disclosure considerations when using derivatives for risk management in retail accounts.
- Calculate basic exposure and hedge-size intuition using simplified examples.
Impediments to Wealth Accumulation (8%)
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Chapter 17 - Impediments to Wealth Accumulation
- Identify key impediments to wealth accumulation conceptually (taxes, inflation, fees, and behavioural errors).
- Explain why after-tax, after-fee compounding is the relevant metric for long-term wealth accumulation.
- Describe tax-minimization portfolio management strategies at a high level (deferral, asset location, and loss realization).
- Identify characteristics of tax-efficient investments at a high level (lower turnover and favourable income types).
- Explain inflation risk and identify inflation-sensitive assets conceptually.
- Describe cost-efficient investing principles and how small fee differences compound over time.
- Recognize behavioural impediments that damage wealth (panic selling and return chasing) conceptually.
- Explain the role of disciplined rebalancing in managing risk and maintaining alignment with objectives.
- Calculate the impact of fees and taxes on ending wealth using simplified compounding examples.
- Describe why leverage can both accelerate wealth accumulation and increase the probability of large losses.
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- Describe portfolio monitoring objectives (risk control, drift detection, suitability, and communication).
- Identify key portfolio items to monitor (allocation, concentration, liquidity, quality, duration, and exposures).
- Explain rebalancing triggers and methods conceptually (calendar versus threshold rebalancing).
- Differentiate time-weighted return and money-weighted return conceptually and when each is appropriate.
- Explain why benchmark selection matters for performance evaluation and client reporting.
- Describe risk-adjusted performance concepts at a high level (Sharpe ratio and information ratio).
- Identify common performance evaluation pitfalls (short horizons, inappropriate benchmarks, and survivorship bias).
- Describe how to present performance and risk to clients in a clear, fair, and balanced way.
- Calculate simple holding period return and compare to a benchmark using basic arithmetic.
- Identify when monitoring should trigger updates to risk profile, constraints, or the IPS.
Tip: If you can (1) restate the client constraint, (2) choose the right tool/formula, and (3) explain the trade-off, you’ll score well on IMT.
Sources: https://www.csi.ca/en/learning/courses/imt/curriculum and https://www.csi.ca/en/learning/courses/imt/exam-credits