Standard I (C) Professionalism - Misrepresentation

Members and Candidates must not knowingly misrepresent any information relating to investment analysis, recommendations, actions, or other professional activities.

Guidance

• Within the investment industry, there is a tendency to over promise, and provide false guarantees about how an investment product will perform. This standard is aimed at toning down and avoiding any misleading information about an investment product or a company.  The standard covers written material, advertisements, as well as electronic communication, such as email.
• The standard also covers the issue of plagiarism. It states that a CFA member/candidate should not copy the works of others and presents it as their own. For example, taking some other analyst’s report and presenting it as his own, or even taking a part of someone else’s report and including it in their report. To avoid plagiarism, the members should maintain records of material used to prepare research reports and quote sources except for well recognized sources such as Bloomberg, Standard and Poor’s, etc.
• The members should also not guarantee a certain return.