ok, this one is from a CFAI test, so here we go: An analyst included in her firm’s marketing materials several plain-language descriptions of general investment concepts such as duration and standard deviation, which were copied from other sources without reference to the original author. According to the Standards of Practice Handbook, has the analyst violated the standard relating to misrepresentation: a) yes b) no, because these are well-known concepts c) no, because she did not misrepresent the descriptions d) no, because she did not personally take credit for the distributed material --------- We’ve beaten this to death and I’m 110% sure the answer is B, however, CFAI says it’s A. Any ideas?
A or B, and i go with A as I don’t think definitions for duration etc. can be public information as they cannot be found in the local newspaper.
A… If u read Misrepresentation, they have mentioned taht even if it is taken out of a book which is a well know concept, it has to be referenced.
I’d go with b. Referencing duration or standard deviation would just be weird.
smeet you sure about that? i think in some schweser ethics questions they said non-disclosure was ok if say the analyst used yesterday price for a stock from WSJ and didn’t cite it.
Check the handbook. It clearly states it. What you mentioned is a fact not a definition. If it is a fact, you can use it without referencing it. However if you use some terms, you need to reference them. Misrepresentation in the Handbook covers it.
perfect! thanks for clearing this up buddy, hopefully now i wont lose a point due to this on the real thing.
One more thing Niraj. I had seen that you had taken exam 3 schweser . HOw owuld u compare it to the other tests. I meant 3 PM exam
interesting question. my recollection is that the only thing that doesn’t have to be cited is market data that can be obtained from various sources. so, i checked the cfai book. not sure if you saw pg 33-34, but the below example kinda mirrors this question. ----- Example 10: Fernando Zubia would like to include in his firm’s marketing materials plain-language descriptions of various concepts, such as the price-to-earnings multiples and why standard deviation is used as a measure of risk, that are taken from other sources without reference to the original author. Comment: Copying verbatim any material without acknowldgement, including plain-language descriptions of P/E and standard deviation voilates Standard 1©. Even though these are general concepts, best practice would be to describe these terms in own words or cite the source from where the descriptions are quoted. -----
smeet, i would say that out of the book 6 exams, i found 2 PM and 3 AM the hardest, 3 PM i didn’t find all that bad. hope that helps. i’m probably gonna look over all of the book 6 exams tonight and buy a CFAI sample exam tomorrow. i’m really worried coz i went shopping this morning and dozed off a bit in the afternoon so I know it’s gonna be a long night for sure.
I wonder how many ways I could possibly define standard deviation… I’ve never seen a reference to standard deviation.
yea…seriously…do i have to reference my high school math teacher for teaching me STD?
my thoughts exactly…
LongOnCFA Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > yea…seriously…do i have to reference my high > school math teacher for teaching me STD? You…your high school math teacher…an STD…what?
although I’m studying on a saturday night, that comment just put a smile on my face…
I chose A, that’s make me a little bit more confident when dealing with such ethics questions…
depends how you interpret “descriptions”… if these are more opinion in nature rather than definition-like, then perhaps they should be cited if used.
JoeyDVivre Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > LongOnCFA Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > yea…seriously…do i have to reference my high > > school math teacher for teaching me STD? > > > You…your high school math teacher…an > STD…what? Why was your high school math teacher teaching you about sexually transmitted diseases?
a) because of this … “which were copied from other sources without reference to the original author.” as long as they were put in own words it would be fine, but i struggled with this one too…