GIPS® and the Vignette Gauntlet: Ethics Season Finale

The Ethics season ends with two halves. The first is an introduction to the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS®) at the conceptual level the Level 1 exam works at: why the standards exist, why compliance is voluntary, why composites have to include the accounts that did badly as well as the ones that did well, why only a firm can claim compliance and only for the whole firm, and why verification is optional and covers the firm's processes rather than any single performance number. In a two host format, one host explains the material while the other plays a fictional exam candidate.

The second half is the gauntlet: 25 short, fully fictional vignettes drawn from all seven Standards of Professional Conduct in the CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct, read at exam pace. Some are violations and some are the allowed version that a distractor dresses up as one, such as a mosaic built from public and non-material information, a lawful client instruction, or an analyst who holds her rating under pressure. The episode closes with a three-step habit for reading any Ethics vignette: identify the actor and the duty, find the gap, then check whether the situation is actually allowed.

The vignettes are simplified for exam practice and are not compliance advice.

Part of a ten-part Ethics season walking through the Standards of Professional Conduct one at a time.

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