Paper 1—Fundamentals of Securities and Futures Regulation—has 60 MCQs in 90 minutes and a 70% pass mark. Its difficulty comes from breadth. An option becomes wrong when it swaps one actor, legal layer, threshold or exception.
The nine v3.5 topics
- 01
Regulatory overview
- 02
Hong Kong law and the Companies Ordinance
- 03
Securities and Futures Ordinance
- 04
Licensing, registration and subsidiary legislation
- 05
Business conduct and client relations
- 06
Business operations and practices
- 07
Participating in Hong Kong exchanges
- 08
Accessing public capital
- 09
Market misconduct and improper trading
Treat the topics as one chain: institutions and law lead to the SFO and licensing; licensed firms then face conduct and control duties; exchange participation and capital raising create the setting for market misconduct and enforcement.
Where to spend revision time
Topics 3, 4, 5, 8 and 9 are especially dense. Topic 4 invites rule-name swaps across client money, client securities, record keeping, contract notes and financial resources. Topic 5 uses client scenarios to test suitability, professional-investor treatment and conflicts.
The current scope also requires precise treatment of Type 13 and virtual assets. Schedule 5 specifies Types 1 to 13; Types 11 and 12 await commencement of the relevant regime, while Type 13 commenced on 2 October 2024. A non-security token is not thereby wholly outside SFC regulation because centralised platform business may still require AMLO licensing.
Four recurring traps
1. Actor swap
The SFC, SEHK, HKEX, clearing houses, Financial Secretary and Secretary for Justice do different jobs.
2. Legal-effect swap
An Ordinance, subsidiary Rule, code and guideline are not legally identical.
3. Correct number, wrong subject
A real threshold becomes a distractor when applied to the wrong client, product or licence.
4. General principle treated as absolute
Words such as “normally”, “unless” and “reasonable” often decide the item.
A repeatable question framework
Ask: who is doing what; which legal layer applies; what is the general duty; is there an exception; whose threshold is it? Log which question failed rather than copying the correct option.
The nine Paper 1 study chapters are distilled from the in-app course. The app connects them to 2,195 original questions, bilingual display and error review.
Official sources used
Use these primary sources to confirm any change after the article date.
