Deep Dive: CFA® Level I Prep 2026

Deep Dive Prep

Master the complete CFA® Level I curriculum—one learning module at a time. Each episode is a concise, high‑impact dialogue that explains core concepts in plain English, with zero fluff and no long intro/outro. Perfect for commuters, last‑minute crammers, and anyone who learns best by listening. Independently produced; not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by CFA Institute.

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105 episodes
Updated January 26

Episodes105

Newest first

May 19, 2025 · 30 min
CORP - Capital Structure
Debt or equity? Peek inside the Modigliani–Miller lab and the real-world frictionsthat bend theory. WACC, target weights, pecking-order & agency costs. MM props I & II—tax shields, distress costs, optimal leverage. Market timing & hybrid instruments (convertibles, prefs). Signals management sends when it sells stock or borrows big.
May 19, 2025 · 20 min
CORP - Capital Investment & Allocation
From factory floors to fintech apps—learn how issuers vet and fund projects. NPV vs. IRR vs. ROIC and why NPV rules. Expansion, compliance, new-line & option-embedded projects. Capital budgeting pitfalls and behavioral traps. Real options: delay, grow, abandon decisions that flex with uncertainty.
May 19, 2025 · 15 min
CORP - Working Capital & Liquidity Hacks
Cash is the fuel—learn to measure it, speed it and never run dry. Decode the cash-conversion cycle (DIO + DSO − DPO). Distinguish conservative vs. aggressive WC policies. Primary vs. secondary liquidity sources when crisis hits. Spot drags (bad A/R) and pulls (tight credit) before ratios scream.
May 19, 2025 · 23 min
CORP - Corporate Governance Essentials
Zoom in on boards, committees and incentives that make—or break—value creation. Principal–agent conflicts & classic agency costs. Audit, nom-gov & comp committees—what great ones do daily. Activism, poison pills, dual-class shares: protecting or harming owners? Governance failures (Theranos, Dieselgate) and the lessons analysts track.
May 19, 2025 · 25 min
CORP - Investors & Stakeholder Dynamics
Follow the cash—and the conflicts—between lenders, shareholders, boards, managersand the wider world. Debt vs. equity: priority claims, risk, return, agency costs. Stakeholder vs. shareholder governance—why ESG now drives value. Spot drags & pulls on liquidity that keep treasurers up at night.
May 19, 2025 · 20 min
CORP - Organizational Forms & Ownership
Kick off Season 3 by mapping how businesses are legally built—and why it matters toanalysts. Compare sole proprietorships, partnerships, and limited companies. See why limited liability and owner–manager separation fuel capital raising. Contrast publicly listed vs. privately held issuers and IPO/go-private paths. Meet the many shareholder types—from families to governments.
May 19, 2025 · 10 min
ECON – Exchange‑Rate Calculations
Practice cross‑rates, forwards, premiums‑discounts and covered‑interest parity so you can price multicurrency cash‑flows with confidence.
May 19, 2025 · 24 min
ECON – Capital Flows & FX Market
Identify FX players, quote conventions, currency regimes and the trade‑balance link; assess how capital controls tilt returns and risk.
May 19, 2025 · 15 min
ECON – International Trade
Weigh the gains, losses and welfare shifts from tariffs, quotas, subsidies and regional blocs; master comparative advantage and integration tiers.
May 19, 2025 · 23 min
ECON – Intro to Geopolitics
Map state and non‑state actors, globalization forces, trade institutions and risk signposts so you can price political shocks into investments.
May 11, 2025 · 25 min
ECON – Monetary Policy
Dive into central‑bank mandates, policy rates, open‑market ops, reserve requirements and transmission channels from money to growth and inflation.
May 11, 2025 · 27 min
ECON – Fiscal Policy
Unpack deficits, the debt burden, spending vs. tax levers and the fiscal multiplier so you can model how budgets shift aggregate demand.
May 11, 2025 · 16 min
ECON – Business Cycles
Track expansion, peak, contraction and trough; link credit cycles, indicators and now‑casting tools to corporate earnings and asset returns.
May 11, 2025 · 18 min
ECON – Firm & Market Structures
Compare perfect, monopolistic and oligopoly markets; find breakeven and shutdown points; see how pricing power changes with concentration and scale.
May 10, 2025 · 19 min
QUANT - Intro to Big‑Data Techniques
Unpack the 3 Vs (+ veracity) of Big Data, AI & ML toolkits, data pipelines,visualisation, and NLP—all tailored to quantitative investing.
May 10, 2025 · 22 min
QUANT - Simple Linear Regression
Estimate slopes and intercepts with OLS, check key assumptions, interpretANOVA, R², and transform data (log‑lin, lin‑log, log‑log) for better fits.
May 10, 2025 · 11 min
QUANT - Parametric & Non‑Parametric Independence Tests
Learn to verify co‑movement: t‑tests for Pearson correlation, Spearman rankfor monotonic links, and chi‑square for independence in contingency tables.
May 10, 2025 · 14 min
QUANT - Hypothesis Testing
Master the six‑step test framework, Type I/II errors, power, and the bread‑and‑buttert‑, χ²‑, F‑ and non‑parametric tests used throughout finance.
May 10, 2025 · 20 min
QUANT - Estimation & Inference
From sampling designs to the central‑limit theorem, nail standard errors andbootstrap confidence intervals so you can quantify parameter uncertainty likea pro.
May 10, 2025 · 15 min
QUANT - Simulation Methods
Discover lognormal price behaviour, Monte Carlo pricing and risk, andbootstrap resampling when history is all you have—key tools for modernquant finance.

Deep Dive: CFA® Level I Prep 2026

CORP - Capital Structure

CORP - Capital Investment & Allocation

CORP - Working Capital & Liquidity Hacks

CORP - Corporate Governance Essentials

CORP - Investors & Stakeholder Dynamics

CORP - Organizational Forms & Ownership

ECON – Exchange‑Rate Calculations

ECON – Capital Flows & FX Market

ECON – International Trade

ECON – Intro to Geopolitics

ECON – Monetary Policy

ECON – Fiscal Policy

ECON – Business Cycles

ECON – Firm & Market Structures

QUANT - Intro to Big‑Data Techniques

QUANT - Simple Linear Regression

QUANT - Parametric & Non‑Parametric Independence Tests

QUANT - Hypothesis Testing

QUANT - Estimation & Inference

QUANT - Simulation Methods

Deep Dive: CFA® Level I Prep 2026

ECON – Exchange‑Rate Calculations

ECON – Capital Flows & FX Market

ECON – International Trade

ECON – Intro to Geopolitics

ECON – Monetary Policy

ECON – Fiscal Policy

ECON – Business Cycles

ECON – Firm & Market Structures

QUANT - Parametric & Non‑Parametric Independence Tests

QUANT - Estimation & Inference