Series 7

To be licensed to sell securities to individual investors, brokers must pass the Series 7 exam, also called the General Securities Registered Representative Examination.

The six-hour test requires knowledge of specific securities, the concept of suitability, the securities markets, and various aspects of maintaining customer accounts, stocks, bonds, options, mutual funds, direct participation programs, and variable annuities, but not commodities or futures contracts.

Anyone taking the exam must be sponsored by an NASD member firm or an industry self-regulatory organization (SRO).