Electives

You choose between six and eight electives from a profile of around 30 courses. You can choose from across the whole range of electives, or, you can specialise in a particular area of finance by choosing a cluster of electives related to a particular concentration. For each concentration, there is a practical module taught by a leading practitioner.

We offer concentrations in:

  • Investments
  • Quantitative finance
  • Corporate finance

The following elective courses are listed alphabetically by title and illustrate the number and range of electives offered, although the list may vary slightly from year to year.

Advanced Corporate Finance

A case-based course relating corporate finance theory to practice, and covering advanced topics in valuation and financing.

Advanced Financial Statement Analysis

This course covers the fundamentals of financial analysis, evaluating the quality of financial information and using the information to reveal the economics of firms.

Behavioural Finance

This course surveys recent developments in behavioural finance - the field that seeks to explain seemingly irrational financial phenomena in terms of individual behaviour, psychology, and cognitive errors.

Credit Risk

The course will provide an introduction as well as an in-depth understanding of issues in credit risk, its modelling and applications, as well as new developments.

Derivatives

This elective provides a rigorous conceptual framework for valuing and understanding the behaviour of derivative instruments and their use in risk management and speculation.

Emerging Markets

This course provides a detailed framework for understanding and evaluating the opportunities and pitfalls for businesses, markets, financial institutions and government policy in a wide variety of new and emerging markets.

Energy: Markets, Models and Strategies

This course provides an introduction to the basics of power system economics, a review of the structural and strategic changes facing the industry, investment issues and technology choice.

Equity Investment Management

This covers applications of modern portfolio theory to equity investment, strategic asset allocation, portfolio optimisation, traditional active management versus hedge funds, stock market anomalies and the implications of behavioural finance.

European Financial Markets

This course covers an extensive array of European financial issues. Topics include monetary policy, financial integration and associated regulatory frameworks, corporate restructuring and corporate governance as well as the Euro and the international financial system.

Financial Analysis of Mergers, Acquisitions and other Corporate Restructurings

This course covers the financial reporting and analysis of transactions and restructurings, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, dual listed companies, stock repurchases, spin-offs, carve-outs, leveraged buyouts and recaps.

Financial Engineering and Risk Management

An advanced course using continuous-time mathematics and cutting-edge methods to value, hedge, design and structure a wide variety of derivative contracts. It covers stochastic calculus, martingale methods, partial differential equations and numerical methods.

Financing the Entrepreneurial Business

A case-based course on financing (and valuing) entrepreneurial businesses with both loan finance and equity capital, covering start-ups, emerging growth companies, MBOs and buy-ins, and exiting.

Fixed Income Securities

A rigorous, quantitative course on the valuation of fixed income securities, the tools used in bond portfolio management and the management of interest rate risk.

Global Capital Markets and Currencies

This advanced macroeconomics course focuses on currencies and exchange rates and the linkages with interest rates and prices and financial globalisation.

Hedge Funds

This course reviews cutting edge research on the fast growing hedge fund industry to provide a unified framework encompassing the different hedge fund strategies, and the role of hedge funds.

International Finance

This course examines the workings of the international fixed income, international equity, foreign exchange and forex derivatives markets, and shows how these markets can be used to solve corporate problems such as managing exposure to exchange rates and country risk.

Mergers, MBOs and other Corporate Reorganisations

This elective examines corporate reorganisations, including mergers and acquisitions, reorganisation through workouts and bankruptcy, divisional spin-offs and divestitures, and leveraged buyouts.

Securities Analysis and Financial Modelling

This course focuses on the tools and techniques of securities analysis and the development of a framework for making investment decisions. It covers fundamental analysis and development of financial models for determining the intrinsic value of a firm's stock.

Strategy for MiFs

This course is designed to help finance professionals evaluate businesses and transactions from a strategic viewpoint. It covers business strategy issues such as competitive forces in the industry, strategic positioning, and the resources and capabilities needed to compete.

Sustainability: Implications of Environmental and Demographic Change

This course aims to provide a firm understanding of the nature of environmental and demographic change and the economic and commercial transformations.

Time Series Analysis, Market Models and Forecasting

An advanced statistical course on the analysis and forecasting of time series data, especially high frequency financial data. It covers nonstationarity, mean reversion, autocorrelation; cointegration, causality and contagion.

Topics in Asset Management

This elective covers the jobs of analysts, quantitative specialists, strategists, fund managers, consultants, real estate and hedge fund professionals, and investment advisers. There are numerous case studies (many of them live) and visiting speakers.

Trading and Financial Market Structure

This course covers alternative market and trading mechanisms; measurement of market quality and transaction costs; market making and proprietary trading; trading styles, tactics, and evaluation; the determinants of liquidity, volatility, price efficiency, and trading profits.

Understanding the International Macro-economy

The purpose of this course is to familiarise you with the workings of the global economy and the main factors that determine the financial health of corporations and nations including: what makes countries rich, how technology affects the economy.

Value Investing

This class aims to develop students' abilities to value companies and to find and appraise equity investment ideas. This is done through extensive real-world research and fundamental analysis to estimate the intrinsic value of prospective ideas as compared to market prices.

Venture Capital and Private Equity

This course covers the concepts, techniques, instruments and institutions involved in private equity investment, including new venture finance, corporate venture finance and buyouts.

World Economy: Problems and Prospects

This course studies the evolution of the global economy by focusing on current topical issues. Topics covered last year included: Why does African growth disappoint?; Has Japan really recovered and what are its long term prospects?

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