The information below is for those students entering the program in Fall 2017.
View/search courses and descriptions.
The course covers sophisticated approaches to investing and it has an introduction and three main parts. The introduction covers measures of performance and risk and methods to calculate them in closed form or from historical data. The first part of the course covers investment strategies across several asset classes, from traditional ones such as value or growth investing to strategies employed by hedge funds, such as arbitrage, option trading and other quant strategies. The second part of the course addresses portfolio construction, from assessing a utility function to the investor to constructing an optimal portfolio maximizing that utility. Investor types covered are individuals saving for retirement, speculators, university endowments or foundations, or pension funds. Finally, the last part of the course addresses the topic of risk measurement and management, with an emphasis of risks faced by decentralized organizations, such as funds of funds, foundations, or pension funds.
Credits: 3
Semesters offered:
Co-Requisite: MGF 633.
STEM or Non-STEM Elective (select two)
Capstone Course (select one):
Students will learn to conduct empirical research on fixed-income securities. The initial learning process involves a limited number of lectures on fixed-income pricing theory, followed by formal training on how to access data from fixed-income database(s). Using the above resources students will also build an investment portfolio for a given risk level. Students will then develop testable hypotheses that employ mathematical modeling, and develop and apply statistical analyses to data to test the hypotheses. Finally, students will develop and present a professional research report based on the empirical findings.
Credits: 3
Semesters offered:
Students will learn to conduct empirical research on equities. The initial learning process involves a limited number of lectures on asset-pricing pricing theory, followed by formal training on how to access data from equity-related database(s). Students with then develop testable hypotheses that employ mathematical modeling, and develop and apply statistical analyses to data to test the hypotheses. Finally, students will develop and present a professional research report based on the empirical findings.
Credits: 3
Semesters offered:
Objectives of this technical course include providing students with knowledge of specific trading mechanics, basic economic concepts and technical asset valuation tools to successfully employ a wide variety of derivative securities into a risk management context; as well as to understand risk-return tradeoffs associated with specialized speculative strategies in derivatives markets. A broad survey of rapidly-changing forward, futures, options, swaps (and other related derivative types) is followed by emphasis upon asset pricing models of complex financial instruments using both classical economic theory and advanced mathematical techniques. Basic knowledge of differential calculus is expected. Basics of stochastic calculus will be covered. Students will be prepared to employ material learned into a corporate (or smaller firm) environment for management of business-related risk from fluctuating commodity prices, interest rates changes, foreign exchange fluctuations and construction of stock/bond investment fund 'portfolio insurance'.
Credits: 3
Semesters offered:
Co-Requisite: MGF 633 or MS Accounting Majors.
STEM or Non-STEM Elective (select two)
Capstone Course:
Students will learn to conduct empirical research on fixed-income securities. The initial learning process involves a limited number of lectures on fixed-income pricing theory, followed by formal training on how to access data from fixed-income database(s). Using the above resources students will also build an investment portfolio for a given risk level. Students will then develop testable hypotheses that employ mathematical modeling, and develop and apply statistical analyses to data to test the hypotheses. Finally, students will develop and present a professional research report based on the empirical findings.
Credits: 3
Semesters offered:
Students will learn to conduct empirical research on equities. The initial learning process involves a limited number of lectures on asset-pricing pricing theory, followed by formal training on how to access data from equity-related database(s). Students with then develop testable hypotheses that employ mathematical modeling, and develop and apply statistical analyses to data to test the hypotheses. Finally, students will develop and present a professional research report based on the empirical findings.
Credits: 3
Semesters offered:
View/search courses and descriptions.
The course covers sophisticated approaches to investing and it has an introduction and three main parts. The introduction covers measures of performance and risk and methods to calculate them in closed form or from historical data. The first part of the course covers investment strategies across several asset classes, from traditional ones such as value or growth investing to strategies employed by hedge funds, such as arbitrage, option trading and other quant strategies. The second part of the course addresses portfolio construction, from assessing a utility function to the investor to constructing an optimal portfolio maximizing that utility. Investor types covered are individuals saving for retirement, speculators, university endowments or foundations, or pension funds. Finally, the last part of the course addresses the topic of risk measurement and management, with an emphasis of risks faced by decentralized organizations, such as funds of funds, foundations, or pension funds.
Credits: 3
Semesters offered:
Co-Requisite: MGF 633.
Elective (select two)
Capstone Course (select one):
Students will learn to conduct empirical research on fixed-income securities. The initial learning process involves a limited number of lectures on fixed-income pricing theory, followed by formal training on how to access data from fixed-income database(s). Using the above resources students will also build an investment portfolio for a given risk level. Students will then develop testable hypotheses that employ mathematical modeling, and develop and apply statistical analyses to data to test the hypotheses. Finally, students will develop and present a professional research report based on the empirical findings.
Credits: 3
Semesters offered:
Students will learn to conduct empirical research on equities. The initial learning process involves a limited number of lectures on asset-pricing pricing theory, followed by formal training on how to access data from equity-related database(s). Students with then develop testable hypotheses that employ mathematical modeling, and develop and apply statistical analyses to data to test the hypotheses. Finally, students will develop and present a professional research report based on the empirical findings.
Credits: 3
Semesters offered:
Students taking this course should expect to learn about financial derivatives. Among others, students will learn about how to price financial derivatives and how to incorporate various real-world frictions into binomial trees and stochastic processes (such as underlying the commonly used Black & Scholes model). In a case-study we will use R programming to replicate the risk-neutral price of a variance swap (underlying the so called Volatility Index or VIX). The course will be of particular interest for students who contemplate pursuing a career in the financial industry, e.g. as a Quantitative Analyst. The required prior courses depend on your trajectory (e.g., MGF 633 "Investment Management" or MGF 634 "Quantitative Methods in Finance"). Please consult your study guide for details. In general, students are expected to possess good knowledge of mathematics and statistics. Students should also feel comfortable with Excel and some basic programming knowledge will be helpful. Mathematical, statistical, and Excel skills required for this course will be reviewed during the course.
Credits: 3
Semesters offered:
Elective (select two)
Capstone Course:
Students will learn to conduct empirical research on fixed-income securities. The initial learning process involves a limited number of lectures on fixed-income pricing theory, followed by formal training on how to access data from fixed-income database(s). Using the above resources students will also build an investment portfolio for a given risk level. Students will then develop testable hypotheses that employ mathematical modeling, and develop and apply statistical analyses to data to test the hypotheses. Finally, students will develop and present a professional research report based on the empirical findings.
Credits: 3
Semesters offered:
Students will learn to conduct empirical research on equities. The initial learning process involves a limited number of lectures on asset-pricing pricing theory, followed by formal training on how to access data from equity-related database(s). Students with then develop testable hypotheses that employ mathematical modeling, and develop and apply statistical analyses to data to test the hypotheses. Finally, students will develop and present a professional research report based on the empirical findings.
Credits: 3
Semesters offered:
