GRA 6540 Applied Finance
GRA 6540 Applied Finance
Applied Finance is available for all MSc in Business students, except finance majors. Note that this course does not qualify as a prerequisite for advanced specialization courses in finance.
The goal of the course is to make students familiar with and able to apply the fundamental concepts in investments and corporate finance. To this end, students will be required to use the analytical tools learned in class in real world applications. The methods addressed in this course are at the very core of finance and are an essential part of the toolkit of financial managers. To better connect theory and practice, a crucial part of the course consists of projects using real data and cases.
By the end of the course, students will have the financial background and the analytical tools necessary for making good investment decisions, understanding how assets should be priced, analyzing the impact of financing choices on the value of firms, and being able to read and understand financial news.
- Apply optimal investment decision rules
- Value bonds and stocks
- Optimally choose portfolios
- Detect various market failures
- Value companies
- Recognize the pros and cons of different capital structure choices
- Analyse firms' payout policies
- Ability to understand and analyze investment decisions for different types of investors and in different periods of time
- Appreciation of the complexity of investment decisions and having a framework to help understanding the whole picture
- Ability to distinguish different types of risks in each investment decision
- Understanding of the link between firm value and capital structure of a firm
- Optimal investment decision rules
- Valuing Bonds
- Valuing Stocks
- Optimal portfolio choice and the CAPM
- Behavioural finance
- Capital budgeting and valuation
- Capital structure in a perfect market
- Capital structure in imperfect markets
- Payout policy
The course consists of combination of lectures, in-class and in-group problem solving. Students are expected to have read the materials before each class.
This course requires students to hand in problem-sets which can be solved using Excel or a programming language like R or Python. Students are expected to spend a considerable amount of time doing these exercises throughout the semester.
Students are expected to participate in class discussions.
This course is not for students doing MSc in Business, major in Finance or students in the MSc in Finance programme.
Please note that it is the student’s own responsibility to obtain any information provided in class.
This is a course with continuous assessment (several exam components) and one final exam code. Each exam component is graded by using points on a scale from 0-100. The components will be weighted together according to the information in the course description in order to calculate the final letter grade for the examination code (course). Students who fail to participate in one/some/all exam elements will get a lower grade or may fail the course. You will find detailed information about the point system and the cut off points with reference to the letter grades when the course starts.
At resit, all exam components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course.
All courses in the Masters programme will assume that students have fulfilled the admission requirements for the programme. In addition, courses in second, third and/or fourth semester can have specific prerequisites and will assume that students have followed normal study progression. For double degree and exchange students, please note that equivalent courses are accepted.
Disclaimer
Deviations in teaching and exams may occur if external conditions or unforeseen events call for this.
| Assessments |
|---|
Exam category: Submission Form of assessment: Written submission Weight: 10 Grouping: Group (2 - 4) Duration: 1 Week(s) Comment: Assignment 1 Exam code: GRA 65401 Grading scale: Point scale leading to ECTS letter grade Resit: All components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course |
Exam category: Submission Form of assessment: Written submission Weight: 10 Grouping: Group (2 - 4) Duration: 1 Week(s) Comment: Assignment 2 Exam code: GRA 65401 Grading scale: Point scale leading to ECTS letter grade Resit: All components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course |
Exam category: Submission Form of assessment: Written submission Weight: 10 Grouping: Group (2 - 4) Duration: 1 Week(s) Comment: Assignment 3 Exam code: GRA 65401 Grading scale: Point scale leading to ECTS letter grade Resit: All components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course |
Exam category: Submission Form of assessment: Written submission Invigilation Weight: 70 Grouping: Individual Support materials:
Duration: 3 Hour(s) Comment: Written examination under supervision. Exam code: GRA 65401 Grading scale: Point scale leading to ECTS letter grade Resit: All components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course |
| Activity | Duration | Comment |
|---|---|---|
Student's own work with learning resources | 91 Hour(s) | |
Teaching | 36 Hour(s) | |
Group work / Assignments | 30 Hour(s) | |
Examination | 3 Hour(s) |
A course of 1 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of 26-30 hours. Therefore a course of 6 ECTS credits corresponds to a workload of at least 160 hours.