Heidi Halvorson, CFA, is the chief investment officer for Tukwila Investors, an asset management firm specializing in fixed-income investments. Tukwila is in danger of losing one of its largest clients, Quinault Jewelers, which accounts for nearly one-third of its revenues. Quinault recently told Halverson that Tukwila would be fired unless the performance of Quinault's portfolio improves significantly. Shortly after this conversation, Halvorson purchases two corporate bonds she believes are suitable for any of her clients based upon third-party research from a reliable and diligent source. Immediately after the purchase, one bond increases significantly in price while the other bond declines significantly. At the end of the day, Halvorson allocates the profitable bond trade to Quinault and the other bond to two of her largest institutional accounts. Halvorson most likely violated the CFA Institute Standards of Professional in regard to:
B is correct because the investment officer failed to deal fairly for her clients by allocating profitable trades to a favored client at the expense of others, a violation of Standard Ⅲ (B) Fair Dealing. The standard requires members and candidates to treat all clients fairly when taking investment action. Tukwila should have a systematic approach to allocating trades, such as pro rata, before or at the time of trade execution or as soon as possible after trades are executed.14. Kelly Amadon, CFA, an investment adviser, has two clients: Ryan Randolf,65 years old, and Keiko Kitagawa,45 years old. Both clients earn the same amount in salary. Randolf, however, has a large amount of assets, whereas Kitagawa has few assets outside her investment portfolio.