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CSI DFC Guide

CSI Derivatives Fundamentals Course (DFC) study guide with topic weighting, derivatives review, and matching web practice.

Use this page as the main guide home for the CSI Derivatives Fundamentals Course on SecuritiesMastery.com. DFC is the broad derivatives-foundation lane: futures, options, swaps, basic structured-product use, and derivatives logic from both risk-management and trading perspectives.

Use matching web practice when you want timed mixed review, current progress tracking on Web, and a cleaner handoff from reading into exam-mode repetition.

Exam snapshot

ItemValue
ProviderCSI
Official course nameDerivatives Fundamentals Course (DFC)
Current official exam structureProctored multiple-choice exam, 65 questions, 2 hours, 60% passing grade, 3 attempts
Highest-weight areasExchange-Traded Options at 42%, then Futures Contracts at 40%
Practice statusfull exam-specific web practice is live
Current CSI course noteCSI positions DFC as a broad foundation in derivatives and as part of the route toward the Certificate in Derivatives Market Strategies

Where DFC fits

If the candidate mainly needs…Better first instinct
broad derivatives foundations across futures, options, and swapsDFC
heavier listed-options workflow, option accounts, and strategy infrastructureDFOL
broader wealth or portfolio development without a derivatives-first focusWME Exam 1 or IMT Exam 1

How to use this guide well

  • Spend most of your time on futures and exchange-traded options because they dominate the weighting and control the core vocabulary for the rest of the exam.
  • Use the review pages for payoff direction, contract purpose, and pricing intuition, then use matching practice to train speed on the 65-question clock.
  • Keep the lane distinction clear: DFC is the broad derivatives foundation, while DFOL is the deeper listed-options and account-infrastructure paper.

What stronger DFC answers usually do

  • identify the contract type before touching the payoff or formula
  • distinguish hedging intent from speculation intent before choosing a position
  • keep futures, options, and swaps structurally separate instead of mixing their risk language
  • treat operational and control questions as low-weight but easy-win marks, not as background noise

Practice this exam

Use this free guide for review, then Start DFC Practice on Finance Prep for timed questions, topic drills, and detailed explanations.

In this section

Revised on Friday, May 29, 2026