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Free CFA Asset Allocation Practice Questions & Answers

500 exam-style Asset Allocation questions. Pick your answer, hit Check answer, and see the worked solution — free to start, no signup.

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Question 211
An investment committee proposes combining 'domestic large-cap equities' and 'domestic small-cap equities' into a single asset class labeled 'domestic equities.' What criterion for proper asset class specification does this MOST likely violate?
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Question 212
A portfolio manager notices that her domestic equity and domestic fixed income allocations both have significant exposure to changes in domestic currency value. She considers this when setting asset allocation weights. What concept is she applying?
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Question 213
Which of the following investments best illustrates a 'store-of-value' super asset class?
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Question 214
A pension fund's investment consultant recommends treating private equity, domestic equity, and global equity as three separate asset classes in the SAA. A board member argues they are too similar and should be combined. What is the BEST argument for keeping them separate?
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Question 215
Factor-based asset allocation identifies risk factors such as market beta, value, momentum, and size. What is one key LIMITATION of this approach compared to traditional asset class-based allocation?
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Question 216
The global market portfolio represents all investable risky assets weighted by their total market values. In the context of capital market theory, what property makes it the theoretically ideal starting point for asset allocation?
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Question 217
A large institutional investor wants to implement the global market portfolio but finds it impractical to hold private equity, farmland, and private real estate directly. What is the most practical solution?
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Question 218
A portfolio manager uses long-term capital market expectations to set a 60% equity / 40% bond target allocation for a client. A separate analyst on the same team uses relative-value models to identify that domestic equities appear 15% overvalued based on current P/E ratios and temporarily shifts the allocation to 50% equity / 50% bonds. What are these two approaches called, respectively?
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Question 219
What is the key tradeoff associated with implementing tactical asset allocation (TAA) on top of a strategic asset allocation?
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Question 220
An investor believes that asset prices will mean-revert to their historical averages over time. How should this belief affect the width of rebalancing corridors for her portfolio?
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Question 221
A taxable investor and a tax-exempt pension fund both have the same 50% equity target with a ±5% corridor. Should these investors use the same corridor, and why?
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Question 222
A portfolio's equity allocation has drifted from its 40% target to 47% due to strong equity performance. The rebalancing corridor is 40% ± 6%. What should the portfolio manager do?
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Question 223
Why are derivatives sometimes used to implement portfolio rebalancing instead of selling underlying assets?
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Question 224
Higher correlations between asset classes in a portfolio argue for which rebalancing corridor adjustment, and why?
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Question 225
A portfolio manager decides to use a calendar-based rebalancing approach, reviewing and rebalancing the portfolio at the start of each quarter regardless of how much the allocations have drifted. What is the PRIMARY advantage and disadvantage of this approach?
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Question 226
The nine-step strategic asset allocation process begins with 'Determine investor objectives' and ends with 'Repeat Step 7 until the optimal allocation is discovered.' What does Step 8 (Simulate results) add to the process?
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Question 227
Under a goals-based approach, an investor's overall portfolio is built by summing individual subportfolios designed for specific goals. What risk measure is most appropriate for each individual subportfolio?
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Question 228
An investor with a very low risk tolerance needs her rebalancing corridor to be narrow. What characteristic of her portfolio justifies a narrow corridor independent of her risk preferences?
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Question 229
What does the 'surplus' measure in a liability-relative asset allocation framework, and what does it mean if the surplus is negative?
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Question 230
In a liability-relative context, why is the standard deviation of the SURPLUS (not just the standard deviation of assets) the appropriate risk measure?
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Question 231
A pension fund has a funding ratio of 1.15. What does this mean, and what is the implication for investment strategy?
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Question 232
Which of the following BEST describes the difference between calendar-based and range-based rebalancing approaches?
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Question 233
The risk concept in a goals-based framework is described as the 'probability of not achieving the stated financial goal.' How does this differ from the risk concept in the asset-only framework?
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Question 234
An investor who holds mostly equities in her financial portfolio has a highly volatile income stream from being a self-employed consultant — sometimes earning very high fees, sometimes earning very little. How should this affect how her human capital is modeled in the economic balance sheet?
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Question 235
A pension fund wants to ensure it can always pay its retirees. It splits its investment portfolio into two parts: one portion exactly matched to meet the pension cash flows with certainty, and the rest managed aggressively for growth. Which liability-relative approach is this?
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Question 236
What is the primary advantage of using Monte Carlo simulation to complement mean-variance optimization in asset allocation?
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Question 237
A portfolio has target weights: 55% equity, 30% bonds, 15% alternatives. Equity corridor: ±7%. After a market rally, equity weight rises to 63%. Has the corridor been breached?
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Question 238
A pension fund has assets of $850 million and a present value of liabilities of $800 million. What is the surplus and the funding ratio?
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Question 239
A portfolio uses range-based rebalancing. Target allocation: 40% equity, 60% bonds. Corridor: ±5%. After a market sell-off, equity falls to 34%. What action is required?
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Question 240
A pension fund has assets of $1.2 billion and liabilities with a present value of $1.5 billion. What is the funding ratio and what does this imply?
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