SIE PREP | FINANCIAL REGULATION COURSES
The Series Ten — formally titled the General Securities Sales Supervisor Examination, General Module — is the FINRA-administered general securities component of the two-part Series Nine and Ten supervisory qualification, testing a candidate's comprehensive knowledge of the supervisory framework applicable to general securities sales activities across primary and secondary markets at a broker-dealer branch office. The Series Ten is the larger and broader of the two examinations — covering the full range of sales supervision responsibilities that a branch manager must discharge on a daily basis, from reviewing customer account documentation and monitoring representative conduct to approving communications and managing customer complaints. Like the Series Nine, the Series Ten cannot stand alone as a qualification — it must be combined with the Series Nine to achieve the General Securities Sales Supervisor registration under FINRA Rule 1220(a). Together the two examinations qualify the holder to supervise the complete range of sales activities at a broker-dealer branch office across all general securities products within the Series Seven scope.
What the Series Ten Covers — The General Securities Sales Supervision Scope
The Series Ten addresses the supervisory obligations applicable to the full range of securities products and sales activities that registered representatives conduct with customers — everything that falls within the General Securities Representative scope of the Series Seven but is not specifically addressed by the options-focused Series Nine.
Supervision of the account opening process is among the most regularly exercised supervisory responsibilities of a General Securities Sales Supervisor. Every new account opened at the branch must be reviewed and approved by a registered principal — the supervisor must verify that all required customer information has been collected under FINRA Rule 4512, that the customer identification programme requirements of 31 CFR Part 1023 have been satisfied under the USA PATRIOT Act, that the account type is appropriate for the customer's stated objectives and financial profile, that margin account documentation is complete and the customer understands the risks of margin trading under Regulation T and FINRA Rule 4210, and that discretionary account authorisations are documented in writing before any discretionary trading occurs. The supervisor must maintain a record of each account approval — demonstrating that the required review occurred — and must update the account record when material changes in customer information are reported.
Supervision of registered representative conduct requires the Series Ten supervisor to monitor the ongoing activities of supervised representatives for patterns suggesting unsuitable recommendations, excessive trading frequency that may indicate churning under FINRA Rule 2111, unauthorised transactions executed without customer authorisation, misrepresentations made to customers in connection with securities recommendations, and any other conduct that violates FINRA's conduct rules or the firm's written supervisory procedures. Effective conduct supervision requires the supervisor to review account activity reports generated by the firm's compliance monitoring systems, to conduct periodic reviews of customer correspondence and account notes maintained by supervised representatives, and to respond promptly and appropriately when surveillance alerts or customer complaints suggest potential misconduct.
The suitability and Regulation Best Interest framework — codified in FINRA Rule 2111 and Regulation Best Interest at 17 CFR 240.15l-1 — imposes a supervisory layer above the individual representative's recommendation obligation. A General Securities Sales Supervisor reviewing a representative's customer recommendations must assess whether those recommendations are consistent with the customer's investment profile — financial situation, investment objectives, risk tolerance, time horizon, and liquidity needs — and whether the representative has adequately considered reasonably available alternatives when recommending products to retail customers. The supervisor who approves an unsuitable recommendation — or who fails to detect a pattern of unsuitable recommendations through inadequate supervisory review — may face FINRA disciplinary action for supervisory failure alongside the representative who made the unsuitable recommendations.
Supervision of communications with the public under FINRA Rule 2210 requires the Series Ten supervisor to review and approve all retail communications before their use — including advertising materials, sales literature, educational content, market commentary, and social media posts directed at retail customers — to ensure they are fair, balanced, accurate, and not misleading. The supervisor must ensure that required disclosures are present, that performance claims are accompanied by the appropriate standardised disclosures, that product risk is presented with appropriate prominence alongside benefit claims, and that no communication makes statements that overstate potential returns or understate potential losses. Communications approved by a Series Ten supervisor must be maintained in the firm's records under Exchange Act Rules 17a-3 and 17a-4.
Supervision of primary market activities requires the Series Ten supervisor to oversee the distribution of new issues to branch customers — including compliance with the restriction on the sale of hot issues under FINRA Rule 5130, the free-riding and withholding rule applicable to firm personnel and their immediate family members who receive allocations of new equity offerings, and the cooling off period restrictions on communications about registered offerings under the Securities Act of 1933 and the rules adopted under it. New issue supervision is a particularly sensitive area because the pressure to distribute new offerings to customers creates potential conflicts of interest that must be managed through careful supervisory oversight.
Customer complaint supervision requires the Series Ten supervisor to ensure that all customer complaints received at the branch — whether written or oral — are promptly and accurately recorded, reported to the firm's compliance department as required by FINRA Rule 4513, investigated appropriately, and resolved or escalated in accordance with the firm's written supervisory procedures. Complaints alleging forgery, theft, misappropriation, or customer harm must be escalated immediately without delay. The supervisor must maintain records of all complaints received and their resolution, and must report complaints to FINRA through Form U4 or Form U5 amendments when they trigger reporting thresholds.
Margin account supervision requires the Series Ten supervisor to oversee the proper administration of margin accounts within the branch — including the application of initial margin requirements under Regulation T, the monitoring of maintenance margin levels and the timely issuance of margin calls under FINRA Rule 4210, the review of margin account statements for excessive leverage or concentration, and the supervision of short sale activity in margin accounts including compliance with Regulation SHO's locate and close-out requirements.
Anti-money laundering supervision requires the branch supervisor to maintain awareness of the firm's AML programme under FINRA Rule 3310 and to ensure that supervised representatives are identifying and escalating suspicious customer activity through the firm's established SAR filing procedures under the Bank Secrecy Act. The supervisor must recognise patterns of activity that may indicate money laundering — including unusual cash movements, structured transactions designed to avoid Currency Transaction Report thresholds, and unusual trading patterns inconsistent with the customer's stated profile and investment objectives — and must escalate those patterns through the firm's compliance infrastructure for review and potential SAR filing.
The Examination Format
The Series Ten examination consists of one hundred and forty-five scored multiple-choice questions and fifteen unscored pretest questions — one hundred and sixty questions total — administered over four hours. The passing score is seventy percent — one hundred and two correct answers out of one hundred and forty-five scored questions. The examination is the longer of the two components of the Series Nine and Ten qualification — reflecting the broader scope of general securities sales supervision content that the Series Ten covers relative to the options-specific Series Nine. The examination is administered through Prometric testing centres.
Eligibility Requirements
To sit for the Series Ten examination, the candidate must be associated with and sponsored by a FINRA member firm or other applicable SRO member firm — the employing firm submits the Form U4 through the CRD system opening the testing window. The candidate must hold or simultaneously obtain an active General Securities Representative registration — meaning both the Securities Industry Essentials examination and the Series Seven examination must be passed. The Series Seven requirement ensures that the supervisory candidate has demonstrated baseline competency across the full range of general securities products before assuming responsibility for supervising others who transact in those products.
The Relationship to the Series Nine — The Combined Registration
The Series Ten alone confers no registration — a candidate who passes only the Series Ten but not the Series Nine cannot register as a General Securities Sales Supervisor. Both parts must be passed to achieve the registration. However, the two examinations may be taken in any order — a candidate who passes the Series Ten first may then sit for the Series Nine, or vice versa — and both results must be valid at the time registration is completed.
This paired structure ensures that every General Securities Sales Supervisor is qualified to supervise both the options-specific activities addressed by the Series Nine and the broader general securities sales activities addressed by the Series Ten. A branch manager whose responsibilities include supervising representatives who recommend and trade options cannot discharge those supervisory obligations with only the Series Ten — the specific options supervisory knowledge tested by the Series Nine is essential for the complete supervisory role.
The Series Ten Versus the Series 24 — The Most Important Distinction
The distinction between the Series Ten — as part of the combined Series Nine and Ten qualification — and the Series 24 General Securities Principal examination is the most directly tested comparison in the FINRA principal registration framework and is examined on the SIE and Series Seven.
The General Securities Sales Supervisor holding the Series Nine and Ten registration is qualified to supervise sales activities at the branch level — the day-to-day oversight of registered representative conduct in their customer-facing activities. This supervisory authority is real, comprehensive, and practically demanding — but it is bounded to the sales function.
The General Securities Principal holding the Series 24 registration is qualified to supervise all areas of the member's securities business — including investment banking and underwriting, trading and market making, firm-wide advertising and marketing, and overall compliance with the firm's financial responsibilities. The Series 24 holder's supervisory authority extends beyond the sales function into the full operational and compliance infrastructure of the broker-dealer.
FINRA states the distinction directly in its examination guidance — the Series Nine and Ten qualify an individual to supervise sales activities of a broker-dealer, while the Series 24 qualifies a candidate as a general securities principal able to supervise all areas of the member's investment banking and securities business. A branch manager who supervises only a retail sales force and its customer interactions appropriately holds the Series Nine and Ten. A principal responsible for supervising investment banking transactions, proprietary trading operations, or firm-wide compliance functions requires the Series 24.
Many broker-dealer firms require senior branch managers and regional managers to hold both the Series Nine and Ten and the Series 24 — the Series Nine and Ten covering their branch sales supervision responsibilities and the Series 24 covering any additional firm-wide functions they perform. Some firms accept the Series Nine and Ten as sufficient for branch management positions and reserve the Series 24 requirement for compliance officers, chief executive officers, and other senior firm-level supervisory personnel.
Written Supervisory Procedures — The Operational Core
The Series Ten examination's practical orientation centres on FINRA Rule 3110 — the Supervision rule — and the written supervisory procedures that Rule 3110 requires every member firm to establish and maintain. The examination tests whether candidates understand what an adequate supervisory system looks like in operational practice — what records must be reviewed, at what frequency, by whom, and what escalation responses are required when supervisory review identifies potential violations.
The written supervisory procedures applicable to the activities supervised by a General Securities Sales Supervisor must specify the supervisor's review obligations for each category of sales activity — including new account documentation review, account activity surveillance, communications review, complaint handling, and margin account oversight. Each written supervisory procedure must be specific enough to guide the supervisor's actual conduct — general statements that supervision will be conducted as appropriate are insufficient to satisfy Rule 3110's requirements. Firms that operate with inadequate written supervisory procedures face FINRA disciplinary action for supervisory system deficiencies even when no underlying misconduct by supervised representatives has occurred.
Examination Relevance and Key Takeaways
The Series Ten is tested on the SIE and Series Seven examinations in the context of the FINRA principal registration framework, the scope of General Securities Sales Supervisor authority, and the distinction from the broader Series 24 General Securities Principal registration.
The key points to retain are these.
The Series Ten — General Securities Sales Supervisor Examination, General Module — is the general securities sales supervision component of the paired Series Nine and Ten qualification under FINRA Rule 1220(a). It covers supervision of account opening under FINRA Rule 4512 and the USA PATRIOT Act CIP requirements of 31 CFR Part 1023, supervision of registered representative conduct for suitability compliance under FINRA Rule 2111 and Regulation Best Interest at 17 CFR 240.15l-1, review and approval of retail communications under FINRA Rule 2210, supervision of primary market distribution including hot issue restrictions under FINRA Rule 5130, customer complaint recordkeeping and escalation under FINRA Rule 4513, margin account supervision under Regulation T and FINRA Rule 4210, short sale supervision under Regulation SHO, and AML programme oversight under FINRA Rule 3310 and the Bank Secrecy Act.
The examination consists of one hundred and forty-five scored questions and fifteen unscored pretest questions over four hours — passing score seventy percent, one hundred and two correct answers required. Eligibility requires firm sponsorship, an active Series Seven registration, and passage of the SIE. The Series Ten confers no standalone registration — it must be combined with a passing Series Nine result to achieve the General Securities Sales Supervisor registration. The critical distinction from the Series 24 is that the Series Nine and Ten qualify the holder to supervise sales activities only — the Series 24 qualifies the holder to supervise all areas of the member's securities business including investment banking, trading, market making, and firm-wide financial responsibility compliance. Written supervisory procedures under FINRA Rule 3110 must be specific enough to guide each supervisory function covered by the Series Ten — general statements of supervisory intent do not satisfy the rule's requirements.
