THE TEST · THE COPC QUALIFYING TEST
Find out where you actually stand.
Two parts. Four Steps. Free, with no commitment of any kind. The COPC Qualifying Test is the diagnostic that places you on the right entry point of the Chicago Options Protocol pathway — telling you, honestly, whether you can sit the credentialing exam directly, whether Level II is your next step, or whether you would get the most from starting at Level I. Pass Part I, and you unlock eligibility for the closed forum of the Chicago Options Protocol — the most exclusive and best-curated online options community available today.
THE TEST · THE COPC QUALIFYING TEST
Duration
10 minutes
Questions
10
Format
Multiple choice
Cost
Free
Result
Pathway recommendation
Forum eligibility unlocked (on Part I pass)
Forum eligibility unlocked (on Part I pass)
Commitment
None
The Test does not credential you. It calibrates where to begin.
The Test is built from the same competency framework as the COPC examination itself — the four domains a certified practitioner is expected to operate in fluently. It is not a marketing quiz. It is a structurally faithful sample of what the credentialing assessment evaluates, calibrated for ten minutes rather than the full examination duration.
That matters because it makes the result directly informative. Where you sit on The Test is a real signal of where you sit against the COPC standard. It is not a vanity score; it is a placement tool. You finish with one of three pathway recommendations — and a clear sense of which competency areas you already own and which you do not.
The Test is free, takes ten minutes, and carries no commitment of any kind. Take it before you spend a Euro on the Course or the Exam. Take it because the worst place to learn that you have over- or under-estimated your fluency is on the day of the credentialing exam. And take it because a Part I pass is all you need to unlock eligibility for the Chicago Options Protocol community — the most serious options practitioners' forum online.
Author of Buying and Selling Volatility and Pricing Convertible Bonds; former Director at Cresvale International.
WHAT IT IS
A short diagnostic, calibrated against the credentialing standard.
Most options-education platforms ask you to commit money or time before they tell you what you do not yet know. The COPC Qualifying Test reverses that order.
THREE OUTCOMES
One of three pathway recommendations. None of them wrong.
The COPC examination is the credentialing apex of the Chicago Options Protocol — an independently proctored, CPD-recognised assessment that yields the Chicago Options Protocol Certified designation, awarded individually and verifiably to practitioners who meet the standard. It is the credential that matters institutionally.
The Test is the on-ramp to that credential. It is free, it is short, and its only purpose is to recommend the right starting point on the pathway. You may take The Test, score in the top band, and proceed directly to the COPC examination without ever taking the Course. You may take The Test, score in the bottom band, and follow the full Level I and Level II curriculum before sitting the Exam. Both pathways lead to the same credential.
The reason The Test exists at all is that the credentialing exam is a serious commitment — financially, intellectually, and reputationally. Sitting it without the right preparation wastes your time and the proctor's time. Sitting unnecessary courses wastes your time and your budget. The Test is the ten-minute investment that prevents both of those wastes.
Pass Part I and the community door opens. Every outcome that includes a Part I pass unlocks eligibility for Practitioner membership in the Chicago Options Protocol community — a closed, knowledge-gated forum of certified COPC holders and serious aspiring practitioners, with direct access to Course Directors who have traded at institutional size for a combined 140+ years.
Pass Part I and the community door opens. Every outcome that includes a Part I pass unlocks eligibility for Practitioner membership in the Chicago Options Protocol community — a closed, knowledge-gated forum of certified COPC holders and serious aspiring practitioners, with direct access to Course Directors who have traded at institutional size for a combined 140+ years.
Every result on The Test maps to a specific entry point on the Chicago Options Protocol pathway. There is no "fail." There is only the placement that gives you the highest return on your time.
i.
Ready to Certify
You passed Part I of the Test and are eligible to join the Chicago Options Protocol online community forum.
You also passed Part II, and with that you have the foundational fluency and the structural understanding required to sit the COPC examination directly. Most experienced derivatives traders, market makers and senior risk professionals will land here. The recommended next step is the credentialing exam, not the curriculum.
You also passed Part II, and with that you have the foundational fluency and the structural understanding required to sit the COPC examination directly. Most experienced derivatives traders, market makers and senior risk professionals will land here. The recommended next step is the credentialing exam, not the curriculum.
Typical Profile
Floor or screen-based options traders, market-makers, structured-products desks, senior risk officers, derivatives-fluent allocators.
ii.
Ready for Level II
You passed Part I of the Test and are eligible to join the Chicago Options Protocol online community forum.
You demonstrated you have the Level I foundations — the four basic positions, vertical and ratio spreads, straddles, strangles, butterflies and condors — but would benefit from the volatility-surface and live-risk pedagogy of Level II before sitting the COPC exam. The recommended next step is Level II of the curriculum.
You demonstrated you have the Level I foundations — the four basic positions, vertical and ratio spreads, straddles, strangles, butterflies and condors — but would benefit from the volatility-surface and live-risk pedagogy of Level II before sitting the COPC exam. The recommended next step is Level II of the curriculum.
Typical Profile
Practitioners with working knowledge of options structures who want to formalise the pricing engine: the Greeks as a live risk vocabulary, the volatility surface, institutional-grade hedging.
iii.
Best Served by Level I
You will get the most out of the curriculum starting at the foundations and building from there. No shortcut, but no wasted time either. The recommended next step is Level I — the complete structural foundation of options as the Course Directors teach it.
Every Level I student receives 12 months COPC Annual Membership, including full community access
Every Level I student receives 12 months COPC Annual Membership, including full community access
Typical Profile
Fund managers, family-office principals, allocators and sophisticated private practitioners who deploy options strategically but want the institutional grounding underneath.
HOW IT WORKS
Four steps. Four Steps from start to result.
— Step 01 —
Begin The Test
One field: your email address. No payment, no profile, no extended sign-up. We need the email only to send the result and the pathway recommendation.
— Step 02 —
Answer Ten Questions
Multiple choice, drawn from the four COPC competency domains. Untimed in the sense that you will not be rushed, but most candidates complete the set in seven to ten minutes
— Step 03 —
Receive Your Placement
The result delivered on-screen and to your inbox: one of the three pathway recommendations, with a competency-area breakdown showing what you already own and what you do not.
— Step 04 —
Take The Next Step
The result links directly to the recommended next step — the Course, the Exam, the Community, or Level II — with no further commitment. You can return to The Test at any time.
Every Part I pass opens one more door.
Every outcome that
includes a Part I pass allows you to join the Chicago
Options Protocol community, a closed, knowledge-gated
forum of certified COPC holders and serious aspiring
practitioners, with direct access to Course Directors who have
traded at institutional size for a combined 140+ years.
WHAT IT COVERS
The four domains of structural options fluency.
The Test samples lightly across the same four competency domains the full COPC examination assesses in depth. Coverage is breadth-first, not depth-first — the intent is to find your floor, not to exhaust the syllabus.
The Test is not a syllabus quiz. It is a structural diagnostic. The questions are written to surface whether you operate fluently with the core mechanics of options — the structures, the pricing engine, the live-risk vocabulary — or whether you operate with retail-level approximations that work in calm markets and fail in skewed ones.
You do not need to revise. Revising for a diagnostic defeats the purpose. The recommendation it returns is only useful if it reflects how you actually think about options on a working day, not how you think about them after a study session.
The result is delivered with a per-domain breakdown — not just a single score. You will see which of the four domains you scored strongest in, which you scored weakest in, and which Course modules address each gap.
The Four Domains
-
i. Structures and Payoff Geometry
The four basic positions, vertical and ratio spreads, straddles, strangles, butterflies and condors. Break-evens, max-loss and max-gain mechanics. -
ii. The Pricing Engine
The determinants of option value, the role of volatility, the relationship between price, strike and time. American vs European exercise. -
iii. The Greeks and the Volatility Surface
Delta, Gamma, Theta, Vega and Rho as a working risk vocabulary. Implied volatility, skew, and the term structure. -
iv. Structural Risk ManagementHedging architecture, the difference between a static and a dynamic hedge, regime shifts and the discipline of an institutional book.
RELATION TO THE COPC
The Test is not the credential. The Exam is.
It is important to be clear about what The Test does and does not do. It places you. It does not certify you.
The COPC examination is the credentialing apex of the Chicago Options Protocol — an independently proctored, CPD-recognised assessment that yields the Chicago Options Protocol Certified designation, awarded individually and verifiably to practitioners who meet the standard. It is the credential that matters institutionally.
The Test is the on-ramp to that credential. It is free, it is short, and its only purpose is to recommend the right starting point on the pathway. You may take The Test, score in the top band, and proceed directly to the COPC examination without ever taking the Course. You may take The Test, score in the bottom band, and follow the full Level I and Level II curriculum before sitting the Exam. Both pathways lead to the same credential.
The reason The Test exists at all is that the credentialing exam is a serious commitment — financially, intellectually, and reputationally. Sitting it without the right preparation wastes your time and the proctor's time. Sitting unnecessary courses wastes your time and your budget. The Test is the ten-minute investment that prevents both of those wastes.
FREQUENTLY ASKED
Honest answers before you begin.
Is The Test really free?
Yes, entirely. There is no payment, no trial period, and no upsell built into the result. We ask only for an email address so we can send the placement and the per-domain breakdown. Your email is not sold or shared.
What does my result actually mean?
The result is a pathway recommendation, not a score on a scale. You will be placed into one of three outcomes — Ready to Certify, Ready for Level II, or Best Served by Level I — based on your performance across the four competency domains. The result is genuinely diagnostic: it reflects what The Test measured, calibrated against the same standard the COPC examination uses.
Can I take The Test more than once?
Yes. The Test is a placement tool, not a credentialing assessment, so there is no retake restriction. Practitioners who take the Course often retake The Test after completing it to confirm their improved standing before sitting the COPC examination.
Will The Test prepare me for the COPC examination?
No. The Test is structurally faithful to the COPC examination, but it samples lightly across the four domains rather than examining them in depth. It tells you where you stand; it does not raise where you stand. The Course is what prepares you for the COPC examination.
I am very experienced. Do I need to take The Test before sitting the COPC examination?
No. Experienced derivatives professionals can register for the COPC examination directly without taking The Test. We recommend it nonetheless — even for senior practitioners — because the per-domain breakdown surfaces blind spots that a long career can mask. The Test takes ten minutes. The COPC examination is a more serious commitment.
I have never traded options. Should I still take The Test?
Yes, but expect to land in the "Best Served by Level I" outcome — which is the right outcome for anyone without prior options experience. The Test is calibrated for practitioners; if you are entering the field, the result will simply confirm that Level I is the right starting point.
How long does The Test take?
Ten minutes for most candidates. The Test is not timed in the sense that a clock counts you down, but the design intent is a ten-minute completion window. Spending longer rarely changes the outcome.
What if my result is not what I expected?
Take that as the most valuable possible signal. A surprise in either direction — under or over — is exactly the information The Test exists to surface. If the placement does not match your self-assessment, the per-domain breakdown will tell you why. You can then decide whether to proceed on the recommended pathway or to challenge the result by sitting the COPC examination directly.
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