Curriculum: NISM-Series-V-D: Mutual Fund-Specialized Investment Fund Distributors Certification Examination. - National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM)
(NISM)

The National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM) is a public trust established in 2006 by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the regulator of the securities markets in India. The institute carries out a wide range of capacity building activities at various levels aimed at enhancing the quality standards in securities markets.

Curriculum: NISM-Series-V-D: Mutual Fund-Specialized Investment Fund Distributors Certification Examination.

Module 1: Mutual Fund Distributors.

I. INVESTMENT LANDSCAPE

  • A. Investors and their Financial Goal.

  • B. Savings and Investment.

  • C. Different Asset Classes.

  • D. Investment Risks.

  • E. Risk Measure and Management Strategies.

  • F. Behavioral Biases in Investment Decision Making.

  • G. Risk Profiling.

  • H. Understanding Asset Allocation.

  • I. Do-it-yourself versus Taking Professional Help.

II. CONCEPT AND ROLE OF A MUTUAL FUND

  • A. Concept of a Mutual fund.

  • B. Classification of Mutual Funds.

  • C. Growth of the mutual fund industry in India.

III. LEGAL STRUCTURE OF MUTUAL FUNDS IN INDIA

  • A. Structure of Mutual Funds in India.

  • B. Key Constituents of a Mutual Fund.

  • C. Organization Structure of Asset Management Company.

  • D. Role and Support function of Service Providers.

  • E. Role and Function of AMFI.

IV. LEGAL AND REGULATORY FRAMEWORK

  • A. Role of Regulators in India.

  • B. Role of Securities and Exchange Board of India.

  • C. Due Diligence Process by AMCs for Distributors of Mutual Funds.

  • D. Investor Grievance Redressal Standards.

  • E. AMFI Code of Conduct for Intermediaries of Mutual Funds.

V. SCHEME RELATED INFORMATION

  • A. Mandatory Documents.

  • B. Non-Mandatory Disclosures.

VI. FUND DISTRIBUTION AND CHANNEL MANAGEMENT PRACTICES

  • A. The role and importance of mutual fund distributors.

  • B. Different kinds of mutual fund distributors.

  • C. Modes of distribution.

  • D. Pre-requisites to become Distributor of a Mutual Fund.

  • E. Revenue for a mutual fund distributor.

  • F. Commission Disclosure mandated by SEBI.

  • G. Due Diligence Process by AMCs for Distributors of Mutual Funds.

  • H. Difference between distributors and Investment Advisors.

  • I. Nomination facilities to Agents/Distributors and Payment of Commission to Nominee.

  • J. Change of distributor.

VII. NET ASSET VALUE, TOTAL EXPENSE RATIO AND PRICING OF UNITS

  • A. Fair Valuation Principles.

  • B. Computation of Net Assets of Mutual Fund Scheme and NAV.

  • C. Dividends & Distributable Reserves.

  • D. Concept of Entry and Exit Load and its impact on NAV.

  • E. Key Accounting and Reporting Requirements.

  • F. NAV, Total expense ratio and pricing of units for the Segregated Portfolio.

VIII. TAXATION

  • A. Applicability of taxes in respect of mutual funds.

  • B. Capital Gains.

  • C. Dividend income.

  • D. Stamp Duty on Mutual Fund Units.

  • E. Setting off of Capital Gains and Losses under Income Tax Act.

  • F. Securities Transaction Tax.

  • G. Tax benefit under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act.

  • H. Tax Deducted at Source.

  • I. Applicability of GST.

IX. INVESTOR SERVICES

  • A. The NFO process.

  • B. New Fund Offer Price/On-going Offer Price for subscription.

  • C. Investment Plans and Services.

  • D. Allotment of Units to the Investor.

  • E. Account statements for investments.

  • F. Mutual Fund Investors.

  • G. Filling the Application Form for Mutual Funds.

  • H. Financial Transactions with Mutual Funds.

  • I. Cut-off Time and Time Stamping.

  • J. KYC Requirements for Mutual Fund Investors.

  • K. Systematic Transactions.

  • L. Operational aspects of Systematic Transactions.

  • M. Non-Financial Transactions in Mutual Funds.

  • N. Change in Status of Special Investor Categories.

  • O. Investor transactions – turnaround times.

X. RISK, RETURN AND PERFORMANCE OF FUNDS

  • A. General and Specific Risk Factors.

  • B. Factors that affect mutual fund performance.

  • C. Drivers of Returns and Risk in a Scheme.

  • D. Measures of Returns.

  • E. SEBI Norms regarding Representation of Returns by Mutual Funds in India.

  • F. Risks in fund investing with a focus on investors.

  • G. Measures of Risk.

  • H. Certain Provisions with respect to Credit risk.

XI. MUTUAL FUND SCHEME PERFORMANCE

  • A. Benchmarks and Performance.

  • B. Price Return Index or Total Return Index.

  • C. Basis of Choosing an appropriate performance benchmark.

  • D. Benchmarks for equity schemes.

  • E. Benchmarks for Debt Schemes.

  • F. Benchmarks for Other Schemes.

  • G. Quantitative Measures of Fund Manager Performance.

  • H. Tracking Error.

  • I. Scheme Performance Disclosure.

XII. MUTUAL FUND SCHEME SELECTION

  • A. Scheme Selection based on Investor needs, preference and risk-profile.

  • B. Risk levels in mutual fund schemes.

  • C. Scheme Selection based on investment strategy of mutual funds.

  • D. Selection of Mutual Fund scheme offered by different AMCs or within the scheme category.

  • E. Selecting options in mutual fund schemes.

  • F. Do’s and Don’ts while selecting mutual fund schemes.

Module 2: Equity Derivatives

XIII: BASICS OF DERIVATIVES

  • A. Understanding Derivatives.

  • B. Financial derivatives and factors influencing the growth of derivatives markets globally.

  • C. Derivative Products in India.

  • D. Market participants and their roles.

  • E. OTC versus exchange traded markets.

  • F. Importance of derivatives and the key risks faced by market participants.

XIV: UNDERSTANDING INDEX

  • A. Index and its economic purpose.

  • B. Types of Indices and their computation.

  • C. Index Construction and Impact Cost.

  • D. Index Construction, Maintenance, and Revision.

  • E. Equity indices in India.

  • F. Applications of indices.

XV: INTRODUCTION TO EQUITY FUTURES AND FORWARDS

  • A. Forward Contracts: Features and Drawbacks.

  • B. Futures contract: Features and Drawbacks.

  • C. Contract specification of Exchange Traded Equity Futures.

  • D. Futures Contract Terminology.

  • E. Advantages and Disadvantages of forwards and futures.

  • F. Long–Short Futures Payoffs.

  • G. Cost-of-carry model and Expectations model for futures pricing.

  • H. Cash–Futures Price Convergence.

  • I. Uses/Applications of equity futures.

XVI: INTRODUCTION TO EQUITY OPTIONS

  • A. Option Contracts and Terminology.

  • B. Contract specifications of Exchange Traded Equity Options contracts.

  • C. Option Moneyness: ITM, ATM, OTM.

  • D. Intrinsic value and Time value of Options.

  • E. Payoff diagrams of call and put options.

  • F. Futures versus Options Contracts.

  • G. Option Pricing, Determinants and Greeks.

  • I. Option Pricing Models Overview.

  • J. Implied volatility and its significance.

  • K. Call and Put Option Profitability.

XVII: STRATEGIES USING EQUITY FUTURES AND EQUITY OPTIONS

  • A. Strategies for hedging, trading and arbitrage using equity futures.

  • B. Option Trading Strategies.

  • C. Put-Call Parity and Synthetic Option Strategies.

  • D. Delta-hedging.

  • E. Trading Strategies Using Open Interest, Volume, Futures Price and Put-Call Ratio.

Module 3: Interest Rate Derivatives.

XVIII: INTRODUCTION TO INTEREST RATE, INTEREST RATE INSTRUMENTS AND FIXED INCOME MARKET

  • A. Interest Rate.

  • B. Understanding Fixed Income Securities.

  • C. Bond Classification by Criteria.

  • D. Equity versus Debt securities.

  • E. Risk-free Interest Rate.

  • F. Term Structure of Interest Rates.

  • G. Interest Rate Conversion Methods.

  • H. Accrued Interest.

  • I. Spot Rate (or zero rate) and Holding Period Return.

  • J. Coupon, Current yield, Yield-to-maturity.

  • K. Cash flow, Yield and Price of Bonds.

  • L. Macaulay Duration, Modified Duration, Rupee Duration, Price value of a basis point (PVBP) and Convexity.

  • M. Debt Markets: Role and Economic Development.

  • N. Primary and Secondary Markets for Debt Securities in India.

XIX: INTEREST RATE DERIVATIVES

  • A. Derivatives and Its Economic Role.

  • B. Forwards, Futures, Options and Swaps.

  • C. Factors driving the growth of financial derivatives.

  • D. Interest Rate Derivatives Market Players.

  • E. Interest Rate Derivatives and Bond Derivatives.

  • F. Over-The-Counter (OTC) versus Exchange Traded Derivatives.

XX: EXCHANGE TRADED INTEREST RATE FUTURES

  • A. Interest Rate Futures (IRF).

  • B. Pay-Off Diagram of Futures.

  • C. Interest Rate Futures Contract Specifications.

  • D. Tick size and its relation to the minimum change in the contract value.

  • E. Rationale for Interest Rate Derivatives.

  • F. Advantages and Limitations of Futures Contracts.

  • G. Interest Rate Futures Price.

XXI: EXCHANGE TRADED INTEREST RATE OPTIONS

  • A. Options Contracts.

  • B. Futures versus Options Contracts.

  • C. European versus American options.

  • D. Option Moneyness: ITM, ATM, OTM.

  • E. Option Pricing Factors and Greeks.

  • F. Models for Options Pricing.

  • G. Implied Volatility.

  • H. Payoff Diagrams of Put Options and Call Options.

  • I. Contract Specifications for Interest Rate Options Contracts.

  • J. Advantages and Limitations of Exchange Traded Options Contracts.

XXII: STRATEGIES USING EXCHANGE TRADED INTEREST RATE FUTURES AND OPTIONS

  • A. Hedgers, Speculators and Arbitrageurs in Interest Rate Derivatives Markets.

  • B. Interest Rate Derivatives for Hedging.

  • C. Option Trading Strategies and their Payoff Diagrams.

  • D. Interest Rate Derivatives for speculative transactions (trading).

  • E. Interest Rate Derivatives Arbitrage Trades.

  • F. Spread and Spread Trading.

  • G. Limitations of Interest Rate Derivatives for Hedgers.

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