Core courses

The three core (compulsory) courses will provide you with in-depth coverage of the key concepts and topics with which every finance professional should be familiar. They also serve as a firm foundation for the following elective courses and team project that make up the Masters in Finance. Full-time students take all the core courses in their first (ie, Autumn) term, and part-time students undertake them in their first academic year.   The core courses cover the following areas:

• Investments
• Corporate Finance
• Accounting
  

• present value
• valuation of fixed income securities
• basic statistics with a focus on stock returns
• portfolio theory
• state-price approach to valuation
• the Capital Asset Pricing Model and regressions to estimate betas
• the valuation of stocks
• hedging and multi-factor models
• efficient markets, rational expectations, anomalies and behavioural finance
• active portfolio management
• performance evaluation
• forwards, futures and options
• derivatives usage and risk management.
  

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• overview of corporate finance
• performance measurement and financial forecasting
• sustainable growth
• capital structure
• financial distress
• pecking order and market timing
• dividends
• net present value
• company valuation
• valuation methods (multiples, FCF, WACC, APV, comparables).
  

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• introduction to financial analysis
• pro forma financial statements
• financial ratios
• capital structure and asset structure ratios
• common size statements
• the analysis of cash flow
• revenue and expense recognition
• earnings management
• accounting fraud
• accounting and economic income
• implications for GAAP
• recognition and valuation of tangible assets
• recognition and valuation of intangible assets
• asset impairments
• accounting for inventory
• accounting return on capital, economic return and IRR
• cash flow and financial modelling
• EVA and economic profit
• EP versus DCF valuation
• accounting for bonds
• leases and off-balance sheet accounting
• pensions and post-retirement benefits
• taxation of corporate income, and deferred taxes
• accounting for shareholders' equity
• accounting for employee stock options
• investments in marketable securities, fair valuation
• consolidation and equity accounting.
  

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