FINANCE
350 - Global Financial Management
Course Description
The objective of this course
is to provide a rigorous introduction to the fundamental principles of asset
valuation and financing in competitive global financial markets. The course
is designed to provide an outline of modern finance for those who wish to specialize
in finance as well as those who intend to pursue other disciplines. The course
is organized around the three main ideas in finance:
- The time value of money:
Here you will learn to value financial assets such as bonds, stocks, futures,
and options, and to appraise investment projects and corporate strategies
using a rigorous framework.
- Diversification and risk:
These classes provide a thorough grounding in the trade-off between risk and
return given by modern portfolio theory. The tools enable you to assess financial
risks as well as business risks.
- Arbitrage and hedging.
We demonstrate how to hedge stock and commodity market risk, interest rate
risk, and foreign exchange risk using futures and options.
The learning experience
takes a number of different forms. Each method of learning is meant to complement
the other methods.
- Attending lectures, reading
lecture notes and Power Point slides.
- Working on problem sets
and comparing your answers with the set of fully worked solutions.
- Deepening your understanding
through reading lecture notes and assigned chapters in the textbooks.
- Participating in the
discussions on the class bulletin board.
- Consistently monitoring
your own progress and making sure your questions are answered in tutorials
or discussions with the instructors or TA's.
- Using any of the additional
learning materials that have been developed and are available on the course
web site.
The
topics covered in this
course overlap in contents
and are intended to
appeal to different
learning styles. Ultimately
the student has to decide
which materials work
best for her/her and
use those resources
appropriate for the
particular learning
style. Students are
assessed on the basis
of a set of weekly quizzes,
and a final exam that
test skills and command
of the course topics.
Course Textbook
Required: Corporate Finance, Berk and Demarzo.