Course Catalog
FIN 501: Ethics in the Financial Marketplace (2 credits) This course provides an initial yet thorough exposure to the CFA Institute’s Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct. Exposure will also be provided to the Asset Manager Code of Conduct and Research Objectivity Guidelines, also developed by the CFA Institute. Case studies will provide a significant portion of the training, with the goal of preparing students to avoid unethical and unprofessional practices in financial markets. FIN 501 serves as a pre-requisite to FIN 502 – Infusing Ethics into Decision Making, which serves as the capstone course in the MSF program.
FIN 502: Ethics in Decision Making (1 credit capstone, to be taken in same term as FIN 501) This course serves as the capstone course in the MSF program. The fact that an ethics course was selected as the capstone should remind students that technical expertise in finance without the integrity of ethical conduct does not satisfy the needs of our institutions or society in general. In this course students will build on the ethics foundation they developed in FIN 501 to interpret and assess situations in which actions may not be easily discerned as being appropriate or inappropriate. Students will also be reminded that behavior can change as the environment changes. Advanced case studies – some of which will be developed by students in the course – will provide the bulk of the training
FIN 530: Equity Investments (3 credits) This course provides students a deeper understanding of the equity valuation process and how to derive the required rate of return. This course will also teach students how to apply multiple approaches to various valuation methods and conduct a fundamental analysis of a sector, industry, or company.
FIN 531: Alternative Investments (3 credits) This course provides an exposure to many of the asset classes identified in the alternative investment space. Categories include: hedge funds, private equity, commodities, real estate, and infrastructure. These asset classes provide the potential for diversification benefits as well as enhanced returns. Because of these attributes, an increasing number of institutional as well as private wealth managers are including meaningful allocations to one or more of these categories. A better understanding of the risks as well as the rewards attached to these investments is the focus of this course
FIN 532: Economics for Finance Professionals (3 credits) This course begins with the microeconomic topics of supply and demand analysis of the firm and consumer, types of market structure, and pricing strategies under different market structures. We then move to the macroeconomic theories of the business cycles, aggregate output, sources of economic growth, types of macroeconomic equilibria (e.g. long-run full employment and short-run recessionary and inflationary gap), monetary and fiscal policy, international trade and capital flows, and currency exchange rates.
FIN 533: Derivatives & Risk Management (3 credits) This course provides a deeper understanding of derivatives and their characteristics with a detailed examination of each market and its contracts. Students will learn to apply the tools used by financial analysts to estimate the value of futures, forwards, options, and swaps and use these derivative instruments in various strategies.
FIN 534: Fixed Income Analysis (3 credits) This course provides a deeper understanding of the fixed income asset class. We start with the characteristics of fixed-income instruments and a detailed examination of markets in which the instruments are traded. Students will learn to apply the tools used by financial analysts to estimate the value of bonds, as well as to assess their riskiness in various strategies.
FIN 536: Corporate Finance (3 credits) This course is designed to teach students the most important tools and concepts of Corporate Finance. Learning how managers apply techniques to maximize or increase shareholder value. Topics include dividend policy, share repurchases, business risk, and capital structure.
FIN 538: Financial Reporting and Analysis (3 credits) This course is an introduction to the principles of financial statement analysis. It emphasizes tools that are used to analyze a company’s financial statements such as how a manager might undertake to make decisions for his or her firm, how an analyst might make investment decisions regarding the company, and how a loan officer might decide whether or not to extend credit.
FIN 540: Portfolio Management and Wealth Planning (3 credits) This course provides a deeper understanding of Portfolio Management and Wealth Planning. Students will learn how to apply the steps of the portfolio management process including the investment policy statement, asset allocation, risk management, portfolio construction, and performance monitoring. Additionally, students will learn modern portfolio and behavioral finance concepts.
FIN 580: Quantitative Investment Analysis (3 credits) This course applies statistical and quantitative methods in a finance and investments context. The course provides a real-world introduction to quantitative methods and blends theory and practice using hands-on applications of topics such as probability and probability distributions, sampling and estimation, hypothesis testing, correlation and regression, time-series analysis and more.
