FINRA SERIES 9 EXAM PREP
Pass the Series 9
You've proven yourself and are now ready for your first principal-level FINRA license. The Series 9 is a challenging exam, and you need the best prep to pass your first time. Ace your Series 9 with Achievable.
Achievable exam prep includes our online textbook, review questions, and full-length practice exams.
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Advanced personalization
Achievable Series 9 exam prep uses adaptive learning techniques to create and update a personalized model of your memory, individually tracking your retention and mastery of each FINRA Series 9 exam learning objective. Our learning engine monitors your study progress and continually adjusts your quiz questions to ensure you're focusing on the topics that matter most for you, improving study effectiveness while reducing overall study time.
Full-length practice exams
With 2,000+ high-quality hand-crafted FINRA Series 9 practice exam questions, you can take 18+ full-length practice exams. Our Series 9 practice questions include all the types of questions you'll see on the exam, and they're weighted according to the official FINRA Series 9 exam rubric so you can have confidence in your scores.
Review quizzes
Continually reviewing the material you've learned while studying is essential, but you need more than simple Series 9 flashcards. In addition to our full-length practice exams, our Series 9 exam study materials include a separate quiz bank of 2,000+ review questions so you can quickly drill the key facts and regulations for any particular chapter.
Easy-to-understand online textbook
You'll see within minutes why our full online Series 9 exam prep book is the best Series 9 exam prep - it's easy to understand and written in plain English, filled with straightforward explanations and real-world examples. Our expert author has 15+ years of licensing experience, and it shows. Achievable Series 9 study materials are easy to read, mobile friendly, and include detailed walkthroughs of sample questions. Each of the FINRA Series 9 sections are covered in detail in our Series 9 online course.
Modern platform
Whether you're studying on the web or a smartphone, the Achievable FINRA Series 9 exam prep platform UX is clean and responsive. Progress charts highlight your journey through the Series 9 course content and your current strength in each section.
Proven success
With Achievable, you will pass. The effectiveness of our courses is empirically validated with 2,000,000+ hours studied and 50,000,000+ quiz questions answered.
Controlled experimental studies with our corporate customers demonstrate that using Achievable results in ~15% higher scores, translating into significantly higher pass rates and career success.
How to get your Series 9
The Series 9 exam is a co-requisite with the Series 10 exam, meaning that you must pass both exams to get your General Securities Sales Supervisor registration. In addition to passing the Series 9 and Series 10 exams, you will also need to have previously passed the FINRA Securities Industry Essentials (SIE) exam, and the General Securities Representative Exam (Series 7) exam.
Series 9 and 10 candidates must be associated with and sponsored by a FINRA member firm or other applicable self-regulatory organization (SRO) member firm to be eligible to sit for the exam.
What's covered on the Series 9?
The Series 9 exam and Series 10 exams - known together as the General Securities Sales Supervisor Qualification Exams - cover the laws, regulations, ethics, strategies, and various topics important to the role of an entry-level principal performing the role of a general securities sales supervisor. The Series 9 is very focused on options, specifically options strategies; supervising options sales practices, trade activities, accounts, and communications; rules & regulations with a heavy emphasis on options; and personnel management. The Series 10 covers many of the same topics but in general, and not specifically focused on options.
Topic
Test questions
Supervise the Opening and Maintenance of Customer Options Accounts
18 (33%)
Supervise Sales Practices and General Options Trading Activities
19 (34%)
Supervise Options Communications
5 (9%)
Supervise Associated Persons and Personnel Management Activities
13 (24%)
When you buy the Achievable Series 9 course, you'll get access to our extensive question bank of 2,000+ chapter quizzes and 18+ practice exams.
Our practice exams are carefully constructed to match what you'll see on the actual Series 9, based on over a decade of training experience. Furthermore, our math-based questions are templatized so that you see different numbers each time, ensuring that you're learning the underlying concept and not just the right answer.
What is the difference between the General Securities Sales Supervisor Exams (Series 9 and 10) and the General Securities Principal Exam (Series 24)?
Do I need to take the Series 9 or Series 10 in a particular order?
Do I have to take the Series 9 or Series 10 exams on the same day?
Series 9 exam details
The Series 9 exam and Series 10 exams are known together as the General Securities Sales Supervisor Qualification Exams. When you pass these exams and gain your General Securities Sales Supervisor registration, you will be managing the activities of other registered representatives - typically Series 7 licensees. Therefore, these exams cover the functions of a general securities sales supervisor that are most important for maintaining lawful conduct among you and your subordinates, including: the customer account creation, approval, and handling; sales and sales supervisory personnel training; trading and options activities; and the proper maintenance of records.
The Series 9 is all about options, and covers options strategies themselves, how to supervise the implementation of these strategies, suitability for different types of options trades for customer accounts, options rules and regulations, and training and personnel management related to options trading.
The Series 9 exam is hosted by FINRA and costs $130 to register. Participants have 1 hour 30 minutes to answer 55 multiple-choice questions. The passing score is 70% (39/55).
Eligibility and sponsorship
The Series 9 exam has two prerequisites: you must have an active and in-good-standing FINRA Securities Industry Essentials (SIE) license and General Securities Representative (Series 7) license. Additionally, in order to earn your General Securities Sales Supervisor registration, you must also pass the Series 10 exam, which is considered part of an exam pair with the Series 9 by FINRA.
You must be sponsored by a FINRA member firm in order to register for and take the Series 9 exam. You will need to work with your company's compliance department to fill out and submit a Form U4 in order to register for the exam.
Administration of the exam
The Series 9 exam is administered via computer. A tutorial on how to take the exam is provided prior to taking the exam.
Each candidate's exam includes 5 additional, unidentified pretest items that do not contribute toward the candidate's score. The pretest items are randomly distributed throughout the exam. Therefore, each candidate's exam consists of a total of 60 items (55 scored and 5 unscored).
There is no penalty for guessing. Therefore, candidates should attempt to answer all items.
Candidates will be allowed 90 minutes to complete the Series 9 exam.
Candidates are not permitted to bring reference materials to their testing session. Severe penalties are imposed on candidates who cheat or attempt to cheat on FINRA-administered exams.
Scoring of the exam
All candidate test scores are placed on a common scale using a statistical adjustment process known as equating. Equating scores to a common scale accounts for the slight variations in difficulty that may exist among the different sets of exam items that candidates receive. This allows for a fair comparison of scores and ensures that every candidate is held to the same passing standard regardless of which set of exam items they received.
FINRA's Series 9 exam summary
Supervise the Opening and Maintenance of Customer Options Accounts
33%
18 questions
The creation and management of customer options accounts by your sales subordinates. Topics include types of customers and customer accounts; reviewing customer options trading activities to determine if they meet applicable standards; margin account handling; CBOE, FINRA, and NYSE rules related to options accounts and their requirements; and other rules and regulations.
Supervise Sales Practices and General Options Trading Activities
34%
19 questions
Supervising options trading activities and handling any issues. Topics include reviewing and handling customer complaints; overseeing the correction of options trading errors; reviewing daily trading activity for completeness and accuracy; and managing general options trading operations.
Supervise Options Communications
9%
5 questions
Supervising communications to customers and the public related to options trading. Topics include options retail communication (such as social media or public appearances); reviewing options correspondence from your subordinates to customers; and reviewing institutional options communications.
Supervise Associated Persons and Personnel Management Activities
24%
13 questions
Personnel management related to your team and options, including training. Topics include knowing the terms, definitions, rules, regulations, economics, and taxation of sophisticated options products and strategies, and training your team on them.
Achievable Series 9 content outline
1
Introduction
Introduction to the Series 9 exam.
2
Strategies
The fundamentals of options contracts, including their issuance, structure, and specifications. Basic and advanced options strategies are covered, including single-leg, hedging, income, synthetic, ratio, straddles, combinations, spreads, and iron condors. Non-equity options such as index, VIX, foreign currency, and yield-based options are also covered. Additionally, this chapter discusses the suitability of the various strategies.
3
Customer accounts
The process of opening brokerage cash and margin accounts, particularly focusing on accounts eligible for options trading. Customer and intra-industry disputes involving arbitration and litigation claims are also discussed.
4
Rules & regulations
The various rules and regulations that apply to the securities markets and participants, particularly related to options activity. Topics such as registration, reporting, market dynamics, contract adjustments, taxation, public communications, fiduciary standards, anti-money laundering, and record retention are covered.
FINRA Series 9 resources
Check out our free Series 9 resources to help you prepare for the FINRA Series 9 exam.
Achievable Series 9 - $249
Pass the FINRA Series 9 on your first try with Achievable's interactive online exam preparation course. Includes everything you need: easy-to-understand online textbook, 2,000+ review quizzes, and 18+ full-length practice exams.
Easy-to-understand online textbook
2k+ chapter quizzes
18+ practice exams
Learn from the best
Our content was written exclusively for Achievable by Basic Wisdom's acclaimed FINRA instructor Brandon Rith. With 15 years of finance-related experience and 10 years of licensing expertise, Brandon has helped thousands of learners successfully pass FINRA/NASAA exams while working for Fidelity Investments, where his programs posted pass rates that always exceeded company goals.
Pass the FINRA Series 9. Guaranteed.
Achievable is the best Series 9 exam prep course: effective, personalized, and convenient. With Achievable, you'll spend less time studying and pass your exam the first time, or your money back.