FIN Special Courses

SPRING 2012-2013

Each quarter we offer several special topics courses. You can find descriptions of them here!

Undergraduate Special Courses 

 FIN 398-601
Special Topics: Financial Planning (Andrew Bateman)
Mondays, 1:30-4:45pm
The course objective is to understand the multifaceted task of financial planning, wealth accumulation and management, and estate planning.  Financial planning is a life-long process that assists families in taking control of their financial future.  Topics will include employee benefit programs, insurance policies, investments, estate planning, federal income tax, annuities and banking and borrowing.  The course will be focused on a case study provided by AYCO, a Goldman Sachs Company. The material learned will be utilized to create a financial plan for the family in the case study.

FIN 398-602
Special topics: Treasury Management (James Lenihan)
Treasury Management has evolved significantly since the mid-1970s. While the focus is still on cash, the world of finance has become far more complex. This course is designed to provide you with a clear understanding of treasury concepts for business and life that anyone doing business needs to appreciate as well as understand. You will learn about short term financial management, working capital tools, capital structure, electronic fund transfers, check processing, international cash management and relationships with financial institutions. The course consists of a blend of lectures, discussions and guest speakers. This course also prepares students for careers in Treasury at major companies and financial service providers such as banks and insurance companies. It is excellent preparation for those interested in pursuing the Certified Treasury Professional (CTP) designation as students who pass this course with a grade of “B” or better are qualified to sit for the examination.  Upon successful completion of the CTP exam, the student is authorized to utilize the CTP-A designation. DePaul is the only university in the Greater Chicagoland area approved to offer this opportunity to its students.

FIN 398
Special Topics: Equity Research Analysis Internship (Michael Iannaconne)
Tuesdays, 5:45-9:00
This course requires permission from the instructor.  Please contact the Finance Department for an application, or see the departmental website.
The course will cover a broad spectrum of topics critical to professionals who analyze or advise on corporate finance assignments.  We will cover general themes across several industries and focus on one or two. 

The agenda will allow you to build a fundamental analytical skill base, as well as develop work within the context of the changes taking place in the economy, certain sectors and government regulation. New regulatory constructs, shifts in investor focus, capital and liquidity challenges, and continued volatility in the markets will challenge the analysis of businesses.

Topics include:
• The fundamental earnings metrics, valuation multiples and accounting adjustments used in financial statement analysis
• Financial model building and sources for base models
• The effective use of valuation techniques and analytical tools
• Identifying and assessing the economic and competitive forces affecting the sectors
• Strategies for accessing capital markets and managing capital
• Writing styles and report formats that get your research report noticed

This course presumes familiarity with basic accounting and finance concepts, including financial ratios and discounted cash flow analysis. The learning environment will involve instruction from industry professionals and experienced practitioners in order to give you the benefit of multiple perspectives on the skills specific to evaluating banks.  Additionally, students will benefit from networking with the instructors' professional alliance of industry professionals. Internships are available from several sources within the professor’s network.

FIN 398
Special Topics: Behavioral Finance (Sonya Lim)
Wednesdays, 5:45-9:00
Recent studies in behavioral finance argue that many aspects of asset prices and investor behavior
are better understood when we consider some deviations from rationality. In this course we will
discuss market efficiency, limits to arbitrage, psychology of decision making, investor behavior, and
behavioral corporate finance.

FIN 398
Special Topics: Technical Analysis Trading Methodologies and Strategies (Daniel Gramza)
3 weekends (see below)
The vast majority of money that is managed in the US futures markets and increasingly in the US stock market is traded utilizing technical methodologies and strategies. This course is an examination and application of these technical techniques.
The course is divided into 5 sections: How to Build, Test, Evaluate and Implement Trading Strategies; Behavioral Japanese Candle Trading Strategies; Technical Analysis Principles and Techniques; Market Profile Trading Strategies and Techniques; Psychological Trading Challenges and Solutions.
The objective this course is to give the student a solid foundation in a variety of technical techniques plus proprietary trading approaches created by the instructor.
 
This broad mixture of tools will provide the student with the capabilities of creating and applying technical analysis techniques to stock, futures, cash and option markets.  Included in this course is analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of a technical approach as well as when and when not to use a particular approach.  The dynamic relationship between technical and fundamental methodologies will be examined.  The course perspective and applications will be from a traders point of view.   Also included will be the nuances, similarities and differences between multiple time frames to include scalping, arbitrage, daytrading, swing trading and position trading.

Elements of this course has been presented to professional traders, portfolio managers, institutional and proprietary trading desks, corporate treasury departments and brokers from over 450 institutions, over 35 exchanges and over 35 countries. 

*This course will have 10 sessions including the final exam.  The class will meet from 1pm – 4pm on Thursdays and Fridays and from 9am-1pm on Saturdays.  The exact dates of the course are as follows: 4/4, 4/5, 4/6, 4/11, 4/12, 4/13, 4/18, 4/19, 4/20, 4/25.

Graduate Special Courses

FIN 798
Special Topics: Applied International Portfolio Management (Jaimi Goodfriend)
Course meets Friday evenings: (4 credits earned over 2 continuous quarters)
All candidates enrolled in the Kellstadt GSB, regardless of concentration, who have completed FIN-555, are encouraged to apply.

This class manages a $100,000, real-dollar investment portfolio that focuses on three regions: Europe, Latin America/Middle East/Africa, and Asia/Australia.  The goal is to manage a diversified portfolio that generates superior risk-adjusted returns and funds endowed scholarships for the College of Commerce and the School of Music. The course will culminate in a presentation to an endowment oversight board that includes the Treasurer of the University, the Chair of the Finance Department, and the Deans of the Schools of Music and Commerce. Students will gain direct exposure to the management of a long-term, institutional portfolio with a stated hurdle rate and cash flow objective.   

The course is a real world, collaborative, interactive environment that reflects the decision making process of an institutional portfolio team.  In their first quarter, students start as Junior Analysts and are provided with an analytical framework and professional level tools to conduct equity research.  Junior Analysts value, recommend and defend their investment analysis and make equity recommendations to their peers. In their second quarter, students are promoted to Portfolio Managers and take an active role in the allocation and risk analysis of the fund.  They also serve as mentors to the new Junior Analysts, guiding and facilitating the overall research.  The course applies many of the analytical frameworks and valuation methodologies found in the CFA Institute’s exam curriculum.

This course relies heavily on Bloomberg Information Services terminals for professional level portfolio analysis and equity research tools. Students will be provided with guidance in learning the Bloomberg system. No previous terminal experience is necessary.

Students wishing to apply for admission to the course should send their inquiries Jaimi Goodfriend

FIN 798
Special Topics: Hedge Fund Investments (Jaimi Goodfriend)
Wednesdays, 5:45-9:00
This is an experiential course focusing on investment analysis in the context of the hedge fund industry. The goal of this class is to give students working knowledge of the hedge fund industry by drawing upon the experience of simulated investment presentations to portfolio managers (in the classroom setting). It is designed to give students rigorous exposure to long/short equity strategies as a gateway to explore other fund strategies. Topics will include securities analysis, research strategies, short selling and portfolio management. The course will help students generate superior investment ideas by conducting creative, value-added research. Students will act as hedge fund analysts by working through the investment process: idea generation, analysis, and presentation, and should walk away with a working knowledge of the hedge fund industry.

FIN 798
Special Topics IPOs and Venture Capital (Ann Sherman)
Mondays, 5:45-9:00
In IPOs and Venture Capital, we will explore equity financing alternatives for private companies, including their final funding step as a private company, their initial public offering or IPO, when they go public.  Unlike many finance classes, this is not primarily a quantitative course. While there are some quantitative elements, the focus will typically be on the analytics on contract design, optimal regulation, balancing various risks and objectives, and structuring a deal to minimize conflicts of interest and optimize incentives.  Our focus will be largely on the U.S., but we will also cover fund-raising methods and options in other countries.  We will work in part from Harvard Business School Case Studies which you will have to purchase (but you will not have to buy a textbook).<>  This course should be useful for those interested in investment banking, venture capital, private equity, or securities law, or those that hope to have a start-up of their own someday.

FIN 798
Special Topics: Managed Futures (Mark Shore)
Tuesdays, 5:45-9:00

This course is designed from a practitioner’s perspective to give students exposure to the managed futures industry within alternative investments by discussing various aspects and terminology of this asset class. Managed Futures includes the trading of commodities, financial futures and foreign exchange (also falls into the global macro category) and is one of the fastest growing asset classes and yet the investment management community is just beginning to understand it. There is a growing demand by the investment industry for practitioners who understand this product as the need for non-correlation and reduction of tail risk grows.
Portions of the course will introduce various metrics used for evaluating trading models and evaluating investment managers known as Commodity Trading Advisors (CTA).  The course will also discuss some trading strategies utilized and current topics/ macroeconomics as they relate to the lessons of the course. The students will learn to express their positive or negative views of fund managers and trading models to senior management, an investment committee or investors, thus utilizing the concepts of asset allocation and due diligence.

The grading is derived from heavy emphasis on class participation/ discussion, short papers, team presentations students deliver to the class and a paper due at the end of the course. Students should have a basic understanding of statistics and be familiar with futures.
The structure of the course is to relate to the student’s career. The tools and concepts of this course will find relevance to other asset classes and offer a stronger foundation in asset allocation. If your career interests focus on market analysis, portfolio management, investment consulting, institutional investment, wealth management, family offices, risk management, fund of funds or asset allocation the information and tools learned in this class will be very helpful.
Class Meets:  Wednesday evenings 5:45-9:00 with Professor Shore in the Loop

FIN 798
Special Topics: Corporate Governance
Corporate governance deals with how the suppliers of capital—both debt and equity—ensure that corporate managers make efficient use of that capital and provide investors with a return commensurate with the risk of the investment. In this class, we will learn how the value of a firm depends on corporate governance practices, and how these practices differ around the world. Better governance lowers the cost of capital and leads to greater financial development and higher economic growth. Consequently, countries are searching for the set of governance practices, rules and regulations that will most effectively promote private-sector development.

In the U.S., U.K. and Japan, the governance debate has focused on the ability of corporate managers to expropriate wealth from dispersed shareholders—the principal-agent conflict between owners and managers. Outside of these countries, ownership is much more concentrated so that the governance debate focuses on the ability of controlling shareholders to expropriate wealth from minority shareholders.
This course will provide students with an understanding of how corporate governance practices differ across countries by examining the key mechanisms that influence a country’s corporate governance structure, including legal protection, regulatory protection and enforcement, the market for corporate control, large block holders of both debt and equity capital, executive compensation policies, the board of directors and financial disclosure/transparency.