A breakdown of the nuts and bolts of the Series 56 Exam.

If you already have an active Series 7 license you will be waived from having to take the Series 56 Exam. You will need to fill out the following link below, however you must first be registered with a FINRA or CBOE-CBSX broker-dealer as it asks for your CRD#. Your compliance officer will be able to provide you with this number once you are registered with the firm.

If your Series 7 license expired chances your going to have to take the Series 56 exam. Some traders were lucky enough to have their 7 reinstated when the 56 first came out, but this no longer seems to be the case as the CBOE/FINRA has become very strict with this. 

https://www.cboe.org/examwaiver/


Proprietary Traders Qualification Examination Content Outline
Price: $200
Proprietary Trader Examination - (Series 56) (CBOE) - 100 multiple choice questions; 2 ½ hours testing time. This examination qualifies an individual to conduct business as a proprietary trader with certain exchanges. These exchanges include the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), C2, The International Stock Exchange (ISE), and the National Stock Exchange (NSX).FINRA does not recognize this exam under its registration rules.
    
https://www.cboe.org/examwaiver/Series56ContentOutline.pdf


Current Series 56 Study Material Available

CBOE: Stock Exchange
Price: $99  
The Options Institute has prepared a Study Guide for the Series 56 exam. This Study Guide is now available by contacting Laura Johnson at 312-786-7818 or johnsonl@cboe.com. The cost of the material is $99 per person and includes the Study Guide and access to sample exam questions available through The Options Institute's online exam system. Discounts will be given based on the number of individuals for which a Firm is requesting the materials.

TheSeries56.com
Manual: $149  Exams: $49 
STUDY MANUAL This 170 page study manual produced by our market educators takes you step by step through the 5 essential sections covered by the Series 56 Exam. Purchase of this product includes a soft cover and web version as well as the 160 question practice test.TEST QUESTIONS 160 question practice test with explanations available only in web access.

PassPerfect 
Manual and Practice Exams: $150
The Self Study program covers: Equity Securities, Options, Strategies, Trading Markets, Trading Practices, Trading Systems, Five simulated Final Exams with detailed explanations complete the program. (over 400 pages, with over 600 simulated examination questions with detailed explanations)  

Good luck and any questions feel free to reach out. 

Hey Mike, thanks for the info I just ordered the pass perfect material. Maybe if traders who already have taken the exam can post any questions they can remember on here that would be great to help everyone out.

For everyone asking me about questions on the Series 56 exam I am putting together a list of notes I have gathered which should give you an extra edge on the exam. Will be posting this week!

Hey Everyone, I am interested to know for those who took and passed the Series 56 exam what material did you use? 

I failed a few weeks ago with a 59% using the TheSeries56.com material. There was literally no questions on the exam that were in the book or practice tests it came with. I have now started reading the pass-perfect book and seems to be the best out there from what I heard so far. Does anyone know of any better study material or practice tests?

Thanks! 

Hey Kristen,

I been meaning to post some notes on the Series 56 I wrote down. As of right now most traders I spoke with are using the Pass perfect material. However, many said the book is good but the practice tests are nothing like the exam. Some traders are also using the practices tests the CBOE supplies. Will update soon!

Hey Mike,

I'm taking the exam on Feb 2. Could you let us know how soon can you post those question/answers you told us about. I would appreciate it a lot.
thanks

I reached out to several traders over the past week who took the Series 56 exam recently and passed to get their insight on what exactly to study. Below I posted in a round about way their thoughts.


TheSeries56.com <- Horrible, barely anything in the book was on the actual exam. TheSeries56.com seemed more like questions for the Series 7 exam and was poorly put together. You could probably actually pass the 7 with this material as it looks like copy/paste from a Series 7 book, but not the 56.

CBOE Book & Online Exams <-Ok! The book has good content that is relative to the exam to establish a basic foundation of what to expect. The Online practice exams are also Ok, they are the basics and traders said they didn't receive any of the same questions on the actual exam but gave a good foundation.

PassPerfect <- Good! The pass perfect book seems to be the best so far given the way everything is broken down in easy content to understand and is the most comparable to what is on the actual exam. Traders felt pass perfect "Over did it" on the Option sections as many have said they only received between 3-7 questions on options. The pass perfect practice exams are good, actually way harder then the real 56 exam, so if your able to score a 70 on their practice exams you are well on your way to passing.

My personal opinion after studying a majority of this material, if you have basic securities industry experience I would jump right to the Pass Perfect practice tests and keep going over them until your scoring in the 70-80's then take the test asap! Don't waste your time reading an entire book as the actual questions on the exam are very short and to the point.

Members, feel free to post with any additional info you come across.

Passed Friday with a 72% they really throw some curve balls in that exam..woo thank goodness that's done.

The CBOE has a 36-Page packet that comes with the Book and Question exams. I found this packet to be the most reliable as the book/questions were good but the packet they have was the most reliable as it was very close to the actual questions on the exam.

Hi Jared,

I don't live in NY but if you are willing to ship the Pass-perfect book/exams let me know. Thanks

Many traders on our desk after failing the first time they decided to take their Series 7 instead which they thought was easier then the 56.