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John_Elder
| Instructor: John
Elder Phone/Office: 970-491-2952; Rockwell 309 E-mail: john.elder@colostate.edu Web: http://lamar.colostate.edu/~jelder/ |
Course:
FIN 355; 11213 Meeting: T R 11:00-12:15; Rock 207 Prereq: FIN 300 or 305 (ACCT, ECON, MATH) / FIN 310 Office Hr: M W 10:45-12:15; after class, by appt |
Investments - Description
Welcome to Investments! According to the course catalog, this course addresses "modern investment theory with applications in the debt and equity markets, with an introduction to portfolio management." More specifically, this courses focuses primarily on the trading and valuation of equities, the principle of diversification and the management of equity portfolios, while another course (Fin 311 Debt Securities Analysis) focuses exclusively on bonds and bond markets. With regard to careers, this course provides the foundation for the student to become a junior member of an investment company, such as a mutual fund, insurance, brokerage, or investment banking firm that typically intermediates between investors and investments. The concepts can be applied to personal investing, but the course is geared more toward institutional investing. Will you learn how to turn stone into gold? No. The best we can hope to do is to understand the investing process and the risks associated with various investments, so that we can construct portfolios that reflect the risks we are willing to take.
Course Objectives
Students completing this class will be able to define relevant terminology as well as do the following:
(1) describe the types of instruments traded in financial markets (primarily equities and equity based securities, such as mutual funds, ETFs and equity options) and the markets in which these trade, such as NASDAQ and the New York Stock Exchange.
(2) access firm level stock data via the web
(3) value equity and debt securities utilizing discounted cash flow models and comparable analysis;
(4) analyze of portfolios of financial assets for desirable properties, especially utilizing tools available via the web;
(5) describe the use of derivative securities for hedging and speculation (time permitting).
As a professional course, the curriculum is designed to provide sufficient foundation for graduates to pursue professional certification, such the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA®) program. This requires a moderate level of difficulty, so please be sure to keep up with the reading and learning exercises.
If you have any problems with this class, please see or e-mail me. I am available after class and during posted office hours, but feel welcome to e-mail or call me at the office anytime. (Please note that the worst time to drop by is usually the 30 minutes just prior to class.) I am at the office workday, unless I have another class, appointment or meeting. If I am not in, the best way to leave a message is via e-mail. You may also submit concerns and suggestions to me anonymously via a feedback form on RAMCT. You should know that I take seriously my obligation to provide students a classroom experience that promotes and facilitates learning. Finally, be sure to also read my secret tips for exams.
Course Requirements:
Continued enrollment indicates your acceptance of the following conditions:
1. If you do miss class, please be sure to retrieve notes and announcements from a classmate.
2. For assignments to be handed in, essays must be typed, multiple pages stapled, and late assignments cannot be accepted.
3. All work in this course must be completed in a manner consistent with CSU’s Policy on Academic Integrity at http://catalog.colostate.edu/front/policies.aspx and the Student Code of Conduct at http://www.conflictresolution.colostate.edu/conduct-code.aspx. Please note that the university's policies provides for a designation of “academic dishonesty” on a student’s transcript for a serious offense. If you are not familiar with these, you must read them carefully as a condition of remaining enrolled in this course.
4. Any students with disabilities or other special needs, who need special accommodations in this course are invited to share these concerns or requests with the instructor as soon as possible.
5. You must ensure that email sent to any of your CSU email addresses ("first.m.last00@business.colostate.edu" or RAMCT) is received. Both addresses can be forwarded to your preferred email address! If you are not familiar with this process, you must visit http://busnet/HelpDesk/FAQ/Pages/default.aspx! To forward your University email account, read the instructions at: http://www.acns.colostate.edu/?page=email
6. During exams all electronic communication devices and music players are strictly prohibited and must be stored out of sight. This means you cannot listen to your iPod during the exam or use your cell phone as a watch or calculator.
If you find these conditions unacceptable, you should contact me at the beginning of the semester to seek counsel.
Course materials
The materials you will need for this course are:
-Bodie, Kane and Marcus, Essentials of Investments, 8th ed, McGraw-Hill Irwin, ISBN: 007338240x.
-Subscription to McGraw-Hill's Connect course software, at http://connect.mcgraw-hill.com/class/jelder355f11
Students often ask if they can use an older edition of the textbook. My response is that you can, but you are responsible for the material in this edition. In practice, it is very difficult to sort out the new material from the old, as page numbers and chapter numbers change. There are a few options for purchasing the text and Connect. (1) You can purchase Connect and an ebook at the link above; or (2) you can purchase Connect and the printed textbook separately.
-Current periodical, such as the Wall Street Journal (sign up on-line here).
-Trading Account in OTIS, shared with at least 3 others.
Sign up at http://wharton.pearsoncmg.com/otis with course ID otis-elde472534.
You will need to click the link that says "purchase access to this Website online", not the button that says "Register"!
-Financial Calculator - either a Texas Instruments BA II+ or Hewlett Packard 10BII.
The Bodie, Kane and Marcus text is one of the most popular and state-of-the-art investments texts available. There is also a link to student resources (including more practice problems) here. You will find this text to be an excellent resource. The Wall Street Journal is also available at the library at no charge. The trading account at OTIS will provide the resources necessary for you to maintain and mock trading account, which will be used in a sequence of assignments throughout the semester. For the OTIS assignments, please form groups of 3 or 4 students.
If you are interested in learning more about practical finance and the recent history and culture of Wall Street, there are a number of very entertaining bestsellers you should consider reading. A few are listed on this web page.
RAMCT - Most class notes will be distributed my web page at the URL above listed on the top of the page. RAMCT will be used for some minor record keeping and an anonymous feedback form. To contact me, please use the email address john.elder@colostate.edu. Please DO NOT use the RAMCT mail.
Exams (graded exams on which you may not collaborate with your colleagues)
There will be two midterm exams, and one cumulative final exam and several assignments and quizzes. Exams are not collaborative and must be completed on your own. Excuses to the exams are very rare, but would include a College sponsored excursion or extreme illness documented by a physician's note. If you are excused from an exam for such a purpose, your final exam will be reweighted to account for the missing score.
Learning Exercises (uncollected exercises on which you are encouraged to collaborate) Being prepared for each class requires that you keep up with the readings and assignments on a timely basis. To encourage you to do so, there will be several "learning exercises," typically associated with each chapter in the text. Learning exercises are similar to homework, but they are typically not collected, unless indicated so in advance. The learning exercises are designed for your benefit: to help create and reinforce your learning and hence enhance your performance on exams. (I call them learning exercises, because if you do not work through them, you are less likely learn.) You should try to work through the exercises prior to looking at the solutions.
Short Quizzes and Assignments (graded assessments on which you may not collaborate)
There will be several quizzes and short assignments throughout the term. The quizzes will be either announced or unannounced (typically announced) and they are typically very closely related to the specific "learning exercises" that have been suggested after each chapter. There will also be several assignments explicitly utilizing spreadsheet software -- in particular Microsoft Excel.
One assignment will be to prepare a short, one or two paragraph summary of a news article related to finance or economics (e.g,. from Business Week or the WSJ), that you should be prepared to discuss in class. Your discussion should be no more than 2 minutes (practice to be sure you finish within that limit) and your summary must be typed, include the reference to the original article and turned in to RAMCT on the day you present it. Be careful -- your summary must be in your own words.
Assignments and quizzes will be graded on a scale from 1 to 5. All assignment and quiz grades will be averaged to compute an average grade for "assignments and quizzes". Your lowest quiz grade will be dropped.
Grades
Letter grades will be determined by computing an average according to the weighting scheme below, where an average of 90+ is an "A"; 80-89 is a "B"; 70-79 is a "C"; 65-69 is a "D"; and below 65 is an "F". It is possible that a curve on the final average will be implemented, if appropriate. I reserve the rarely used right to administer plus and minus grades at my own judgement. In the rare event that you have questions regarding the grading of a midterm exam or assignment, you must see me before the final exam is administered. The weighting scheme is as follows:
Assignments & Quizzes 20%; Midterm I 25%; Midterm II 25% Final 30%.
Course Outline (See "Schedule" on the web for weekly topics and updates.)
* Market Organization and Instruments - BKM 1, 2, 3, 4.
* Portfolio Construction and Analysis - BKM 22, 5, 6 (skip 6.6), 7, 8, 9.
* Bond and Equity Valuation and Analysis - BKM 10,11,13.
* Portfolio Management - BKM 18 (skip 18.6 and 18.7).
* Introduction to Options - BKM 15, 16 (time permitting).
Special Dates: on April 3, Chris Gardner (portrayed in the movie "The Pursuit of Happyness") will be speaking at the College from about 9:30-11:30.
Exams (Please mark these days in your calendar now):
Midterm I: February 16, 2012 Midterm II: Mar 29, 2012 Final: May 7, 2012 9:40am-11:40am in class