FISD Data Licensing Specialist Sample Questions

Give your brain a workout with these FISD DLS sample questions. This exam isn't for the faint of heart!

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* 1. Bank B licenses data from Vendor V via a data feed, internally distributed. Six traders and three research analysts each have a device displaying market data from Exchange E. Two identical trading application instances each receive the same maker data from the datafeed. Exchange E counts every terminal and every application instance as a chargeable unit but does not differentiate on business usage or application type. Assuming each user is active in a given month, what usage should B report?

A. 6 end-users, 2 applications

B. 6 end-users, 1 application type

C. 6 end-users, 1 datafeed

D. 9 end-users, 2 applications

E. 9 end-users, 1 application type

F. 9 end-users, 1 datafeed

G. 11 chargeable units

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* 2. An exchange policy states that "Fees are payable for each user with display access. However, no information fees are payable in respect of (a) slave devices or (b) remote access devices, provided that the slave or remote user cannot control the display simultaneously with any other user." A firm arranges access so that seven users can each access any of three displays remotely. However, such access blocks all other accesses from controlling the display accessed (i.e. contended access.) For how many users are fees payable?

Cannot be determined from the information given

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* 3. Exchange E's policy states: "Clause 8 -- Licensee should report to E each calendar month the number of Units permissioned for access to the Data for any days during that month. A Unit is defined as a natural user/person. Reports should be submitted no later than 5 days following the end of each calendar month." Bank B has a strictly enforced policy that end-users only have data access entitlements enabled when they are in the office. One of the end-users was out of the office from June 3, returning on August 6. For which (if any) of the months June, July, and August should the user be reported? Why?

A. June and August - reporting is based on entitlement and the end-user was entitled for at least one day in each of those months.

B. June, July, and August - the Exchange must be notified in advance to avoid reporting absent users.

C. June only - there was no usage at all in July and no usage in August after the reporting deadline.

D. None of these months - the trader was out of the office on the 5th of each month.

E. June only - the 1st, not the 5th, is the significant date.

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* 4. Which of the following would you associate with an original data source or information provider?

A. A party on one or the other side of a deal during which market data is created by the agreement of a deal price

B. Collection of data in the course of operations (which may be solely to collect that data) for distribution under license to consumers (who may be contributors of the original data)

C. Algorithmic creation of licensed original works, based on data from other licensed sources and published together with the algorithm to enable recipients to work back to the source data values.

D. Assertion of intellectual property rights over data it distributes under license to customers.

E. Creation, based on licensed data, of original works that can be readily used in place of the licensor's data.

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* 5. What can be the advantages to a vendor of using a service facilitator for data redistribution?

A. Fewer licenses need to be in place, reducing the complexity of management.

B. A service facilitator may already have connectivity in place, reducing costs and lead time for source data ingestion or client connectivity.

C. Outsourcing to a competent specialist can be cheaper and/or more reliable than using in-house resources.

D. Accountability for errors in license reporting is passed to the service facilitator.

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* 6. Why do subscribers such as investment banks and asset managers license data originating from trading venues such as exchanges and MTFs?

A. Venue rules do not allow a firm to trade unless a market data license agreement is in place with that venue.

B. Trading charges are cheaper for data subscribers.

C. The data provides the visibility of the market which is hard or impossible to obtain elsewhere and is valuable to them in their business activities.

D. Firms that subscribe get preferential access (usually faster) to add data and are able to offset charges against co-location charges.

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* 7. Which types of data might you expect to be able to license on a PAYG "Companies/Securities of Interest" based model where you upload a file of the companies/securities for which you require information and receive back the required results usually in file format?

A. Portfolio price evaluation

B. Company fundamentals

C. News

D. Coupon rates for interest bearing instruments

E. Real-time intraday prices

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* 8. Which of the following would you expect to obtain from the EOD file(s) for an index?

A. The closing price for each of the index constituents

B. The history of the index price movements during the trading day

C. A summary of the day's news and events that have affected the index level

D. A full breakdown of the constituents and weightings plus changes to be applied to track the index, for example if passively managing a fund based on the index

E. The value of the index based on the closing price of each of its constituents

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* 9. Which of the following would you NOT expect to be fee liable?

A. Issuance license

B. Display

C. Non-display

D. Trademark usage

E. Index calculation

F. Pricing data

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* 10. Choose the best definition of netting as it relates to display data.

A. Netting allows a firm to deduct the fees it pays to one provider of data from the amount that it pays another provider for the same data.

B. Netting allows reporting of a single "unit of count" for a user when that user controls use of that data in both display and non-display applications, regardless of source.

C. Netting allows reporting of a lower number of display units than the actual number in that user's control.

D. Netting allows "actual usage" reporting, where only the net number of users in a particular reporting period is reported.

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* 11. Which of the following best describes settlement licensing?

A. It is used (typically for proximity hosting) when a firm needs a license to occupy land granted under a land grant settlement agreement.

B. It can be required when one venue licenses data from another vendor to settle trades.

C. It relates to mortgage-backed securities and sub-prime lending. It operates as part of a credit derivatives swap (CDS) to insure against settlement damage.

D. It is required by regulatory authorities before a trading venue or clearing house can offer settlement services.

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* 12. What is the FISD best practice recommendation for the delay period after which delayed data should become non-chargeable?

A. 20 minutes or less in a whole number of minutes

B. 20 minutes or less as a multiple of 5 minutes

C. 20 minutes

D. 15 minutes or less in a whole number of minutes

E. 15 minutes

F. 10 minutes

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* 13. In which of these scenarios might license fees be payable?

A. A software firm uses data from one supplier to develop or maintain a system to be used with data from another supplier.

B. your license waives fees for educational use, but some of your students are studying for professional certifications.

C. No official trial period has been negotiated and undeclared use continues beyond a significant day of the month for reporting.

D. You have used an allowed excerpt of information but combined it with free of charge data from a different source to create original works which you published on your website.

E. You have enabled and correctly configured an on-demand entitlements system which is acceptable to the licensor but no entitlements have been activated in the reporting month.

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* 14. Which of these are examples of different charging methods which may be applied for a monthly direct reporting period by various trading venues assuming that the subscriber has the necessary access and reporting controls in place?

A. A monthly charge is made for each device enabled for access during the period.

B. A monthly charge is made for each device that accessed data during that period.

C. A pro-rated fee is charged for the number of days for which a device was enabled for access during the period.

D. A fee is charged based on the average monthly usage over a quarterly period.

E. A fee is charged based on the maximum number od devices connected to the data network.

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* 15. Which of the following is not allowed with respect to contended access systems?

A. Implementing a system to control access and choosing your own ratio or potential users to contended accesses

B. Automatically log off an inactive user

C. Automatically log off one user in favor of a different user of higher fee data

D. Programmatically rotate accesses so that more users than the contention limit receive near real-time data

E. Exceed the maximum number of agreed contended accesses in exceptional circumstances.