CFA® L1 — Economics
Micro and macro foundations, exchange rates, monetary and fiscal policy, business cycles — the global lens through which CFA candidates think about markets.
Quick info
- Layer
- Professional Certifications
- Track
- CFA® Level 1
- Estimated hours
- 30 hrs
- Chapters
- 7
- Exam body
- CFA Institute
- Cost on Trustner
- Free
The full chapter-by-chapter syllabus is published below so you know exactly what you're committing to. Individual lesson pages are being authored progressively over the coming weeks. Bookmark this page or browse all courses.
About this course
Micro and macro foundations, exchange rates, monetary and fiscal policy, business cycles — the global lens through which CFA candidates think about markets.
Who this is for
- CFA L1 candidates with limited prior economics exposure.
- Business school graduates needing a finance-flavoured refresher.
What you'll learn
- Demand and supply, elasticity, market structures
- Macro aggregates — GDP, inflation, employment
- Business cycles and where to be in each phase
- Exchange-rate regimes and currency-pair dynamics
- Monetary and fiscal policy interactions
Full syllabus — 7 chapters
- 1Reading 1
Topics in demand and supply
- Elasticity
- Consumer and producer surplus
- 2Reading 2
Firm and market structures
- Perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, monopoly
- Pricing under each
- 3Reading 3
Aggregate output, prices, and growth
- GDP measurement
- Long-run growth determinants
- 4Reading 4
Business cycles
- Phases and indicators
- Asset performance across phases
- 5Reading 5
Monetary and fiscal policy
- Central-bank tools
- Government budget and the multipliers
- 6Reading 6
International trade and capital flows
- Balance of payments
- Trade restrictions and currency effects
- 7Reading 7
Currency exchange rates
- Spot and forward rates
- Interest-rate parity, PPP
About the exam
- Provider
- CFA Institute
Note: ~8-12% of CFA L1 weight.
The exam is administered by CFA Institute. Trustner Academy is not affiliated with CFA Institute; we provide independent preparatory educational material. See our disclaimer.
More from CFA® Level 1
CFA® L1 — Quantitative Methods
Time-value of money, statistics, probability, hypothesis testing, regression. The mathematical scaffolding under everything else in the curriculum.
CFA® L1 — Financial Statement Analysis
Reading balance sheets, income statements, and cash flows the way analysts do. The most exam-weighted topic in Level 1.
CFA® L1 — Corporate Issuers
Capital structure, working capital, dividend policy, ESG, and the corporate-finance fundamentals every analyst is expected to know cold.
CFA® L1 — Equity Investments
Markets, indices, equity valuation, industry analysis. The introduction to equity investing that L2 builds heavily on.