SYLLABUS
Finance 322 – Investments
Summer 2002
Instructor: Alexander Kurov
Office: AA 223
Office phone: (607) 777-5199
E-mail: akurov@binghamton.edu
Office hours: Monday-Friday 3:00-4:30pm, or by appointment.
Class meetings: Monday-Friday, 12:00-1:40pm, AAG 23
Prerequisites: FIN 311, ACCT 211, ECON 160 and QMMG 111 (or equivalents).
Course Description: This course is an introduction to financial markets, investment analysis, and portfolio management. It will discuss general principles of asset pricing with application to specific types of securities. Two computer projects are assigned to reinforce the material discussed in class.
Materials
Required text: Essentials of Investments, Z. Bodie, A. Kane, and A. J. Marcus, 4th Edition with solutions manual.
Financial calculator. Programmable calculators are not allowed on exams.
Wall Street Journal or other financial newspapers.
Financial
sites on the web. For example: http://cnnfn.com/,
http://finance.yahoo.com/, http://www.cnbc.com/.
Class Website: All the course materials including the syllabus, chapter notes, solutions for homework problems, etc. can be found at the class website: http://bingweb.binghamton.edu/~akurov/FIN322.
Grading: Grading will be based on a curve and will depend on overall performance of the class. The following assignments and exams will constitute your grade for the course:
Mid-Term Exam 25/35%
Final Exam 25/35%
Quizzes 10%
Project 1 15%
Project 2 15%
The mid-term and final exams will constitute 60% of your grade. I will give 35% weight to the higher of your exams and 25% weight to the lower of your exams. The final will be cumulative.
Extra credit: You will have an opportunity to earn up to 6 bonus percentage points by completing both extra credit assignments of projects 1 and 2.
No make-up exams will be given except in extraordinary circumstances (suitable documentation will be required).
Changes in the sequencing of material, assignments, or grading policy may be made as the course progresses. Such changes will be announced in class and students are responsible for learning about these changes.
Attendance and Participation: This course moves quickly and it builds, so it is very important that you keep up with the material from the start. Regular attendance is important. You are expected to come to the class prepared for active participation. Attendance and participation may improve or worsen your grade in borderline cases.
Homework: Homework will not be collected and is meant as preparation for the exams. Solutions to homework problems will be provided on the class website.
Quizzes: Short quizzes will be given in the beginning of the classes.
Project 1 - Portfolio Selection (Spreadsheet): You will track an equally-weighted portfolio of 5 stocks throughout the class. You must e-mail your trades to me before the market close on the day of the trade. You will calculate your returns using closing prices and keep track of your trades and returns on a spreadsheet. This is an individual assignment. More details will be provided on the class website.
Project 2 - Efficient Frontier: In this project you will apply the material from Chapters 6 (Risk and Return) and 7 (Efficient Diversification). You may work individually or in a group of two. More details will be provided on the class website.
Exams and Project Deadlines
| Mid-Term Exam | Tuesday, July 23, 2002 |
| Final Exam | Friday, August 9, 2002 |
| Project 1 (Spreadsheet) | Thursday, August 8, 2002 |
| Project 2 (Efficient frontier) | Final: Thursday, August
1,
2002 Intermediate: Friday, July 26, 2002 |
Course Outline (tentative)
To enhance your understanding in class, you should read the relevant chapters and review the assigned end-of-chapter problems before coming to class.
|
Chapter |
Topic |
|
1 |
Investments: Background and Issues |
|
2 |
Financial Markets and Instruments |
|
3 |
How Securities are Traded |
|
4 |
Mutual Funds and Other Investment Companies |
|
5 |
Investors and the Investment Process |
|
6 |
Risk and Return |
|
7 |
Portfolio Selection, Efficient Frontier |
|
8 |
CAPM, APT |
|
9 |
Efficient Market Hypothesis |
|
10,11 |
Fixed Income Securities |
|
16,17 |
Options |
|
18 |
Futures and Forwards |
|
19-20 |
Active Investment Management |