1.1 Current CMT Level I Exam Facts

The Chartered Market Technician (CMT) credential is awarded by the CMT Association, the professional body for practitioners of technical analysis. This OpenExamPrep guide is independent study material for CMT Level I, the exam the Association titles Foundational Principles of Technical Analysis. Level I tests introductory concepts and definitions. It is not Level II application work, and it is not the Level III essay. Independent CMT Level I practice by OpenExamPrep is at /practice/cmt.

Why exam facts belong in your first study week

Candidates lose sittings on logistics as well as on Dow Theory. A Level I stem can ask whether ethics appears in the digital textbooks, whether domain colors decide pass or fail, how many items are scored, or which window you actually registered for. Those facts also set the clock: 132 multiple-choice questions in 2 hours is 120 minutes divided by 132 items, or about 55 seconds per question if you spend equally. That pace is enough for a one-line definition and tight for a two-step statistics item. Build a first-pass rule now: answer or flag in under a minute, then spend leftover time on flagged items.

Twelve of the 132 items are unscored pilot questions. Pilots exist so the Association can pretest items for later forms. You cannot see which stems are pilots, so you cannot skip "the fake ones." Your job is to treat every item as scored. The published scored count is 120, not 132. Do not convert that 120 into a local practice-set size and then study to the wrong exam length.

Keep later levels in their place. The Association publishes Level II as a 170-question exam and Level III as a single-date essay sitting (the published December 2026 Level III date is December 3). Those formats test different skills and different clocks. Use them only to confirm you registered for Level I. Do not study 170-item pacing or essay vignette strategy as if they were this exam.

Format, vendor, and the December 2026 window

Prometric is the testing vendor. A Prometric test center is a supervised facility. ProProctor is Prometric's remote-proctoring product: a live proctor still watches the sitting over a locked-down computer. Remote delivery is not an honor-system take-home. Choose the mode that matches a quiet room and a reliable machine well before the window. Last-minute venue changes are a registration problem, not a curriculum problem.

Windows open twice a year, in June and December. The next published Level I and Level II window is December 1–16, 2026 ET. That range is a set of appointment dates, not one mandatory day. You pick a slot inside the window. Fail in December and the next standard opportunity is the following June. That twice-yearly cadence is why this chapter treats registration and hours as a calendar project, not a quiz you can retake next weekend.

December 2026 fees and what the fee buys

The figures below are from the CMT Association register page (https://cmtassociation.org/cmt-program/register/), opened 2026-09-18. Local taxes are extra. The official digital curriculum is included with registration.

Calendar gates move the price. Missing the early cutoff on August 27, 2026 ET raises the fee from $875 to $1,075. Missing October 7 raises it from $1,075 to $1,475. Academic Partner Program pricing is for candidates whose school participates in that program. It is not a generic student discount you assert at the Prometric desk.

Membership is not required to sit. If you join, Affiliate or Professional dues are $325 per year. Dues are a membership cost, not an exam ticket. The official digital curriculum that comes with registration is the Association's assigned reading. Independent OpenExamPrep study material in this guide covers CMT Level I topics as extra teaching; it is not a claim of official approval, review, or partnership.

Domain weights: where the 120 scored items concentrate

Those item counts are study-planning tools. They are not a promise that your form uses the same mix. A candidate who spends most of the week on oscillators and almost none on history is still studying the wrong exam. Application of Technical Analysis is a later-level emphasis. Level I is foundational principles: definitions, construction rules, and introductory methods.

Ethics is 3%, but it is not optional. The CMT Association licensed the CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct. When those documents say "CFA Institute," "members," "candidates," or "CFA Program," read the CMT Association equivalents. Ethics content is not in the digital textbooks. Study the Code, the Standards, and the Standards of Practice Handbook. On a default 70% target, 84 of 120 scored items is the historical bar. Missing the ethics cluster is about four scored items — enough to turn a close pass into a fail if chart-pattern work was only average.

Scoring, the 70% target, and the results lag

Passing is decided by psychometric review after each administration. Historically the Association used a fixed 70% of possible points. 70% remains a default study target, but the actual cut score may vary. Do not treat 84 of 120 as a published guarantee. Do not invent a current pass rate; the Association does not publish one for you to quote as a fact.

Results are pass/fail. Domain performance colors on the score report are diagnostic. They tell you where to restudy if you retake. They do not determine pass or fail. You can pass with a weak-looking color in a small domain, and you can fail with mixed colors if the total sits below the cut score.

Results can take up to eight weeks after the window. Level I and Level II results are emailed by Prometric. Do not plan a job start, a membership filing, or a Level II registration on a same-day lobby printout. The lag is part of the exam fact set.

Exam-day scenario

You have 120 minutes and 132 items. Open with a complete first pass: every stem you can answer in under a minute, every slower statistics or ethics conflict flagged. Never spend five minutes hunting for pilots. A typical Level I form mixes definition stems (Dow tenets, chart types, indicator construction) with short applied reads (which price scale to use, what volume should do on a breakout). Finish with a sweep of flagged and unanswered items — a blank cannot be right.

If you want extra retrieval practice after you register and read the official curriculum, use independent CMT Level I practice by OpenExamPrep at /practice/cmt. Practice there covers theory and history, classical techniques, advanced techniques, and ethics as study topics. It is not the Association's exam, and it is not the size of the real sitting.