Finance, Investment and Risk with Industrial Placement - MSc

This module covers key concepts related to financial risk management, especially market risk in financial institutions. It broadly addresses the rationale for practising risk management, followed by approaches to measuring and managing risk.

The course will cover the following indicative topics:

• Taxonomy of Risks

• Essential Financial Products

• Introduction to Regulation

• Modelling Portfolio Risk

• Market Risk and VAR

• Credit Risk

• Risk-Adjusted Performance Measures.

Global derivative markets have exhibited spectacular growth in terms of volume of trading and use by both financial and non-financial institutions. Some of the world’s large institutions-Orange County, Baring, Metallgesellschaft, Negara, AIG, and Lehman Brothers have lost billions of dollars in the financial markets. Whilst national and international authorities have agonised over the regulation of derivative markets, it generated tremendous interest on the nature, operation, working mechanism and true significance of derivative products and markets in the financial system and the economy.

Main topics:

• Forwards: No arbitrage principle

• Futures: Marking-to-market, margins call and liquidity

• Swaps: Interest rate risk and measures for risk management

• Options: Arbitrage versus speculation, options trading strategies

• Credit Default Swaps: Selling protection or printing money

• Path Dependent Products

• Exotic Options

• Real-Estate and Subprime Loans: The bubbles that always burst

• Securitization Process and Asset-Backed Securities: Derivatives as weapons from mass destruction.

This module provides a general introduction to the quantitative methods used in financial applications and topics may include:

Statistical concepts Probability distributions Statistical inference, estimation and hypothesis testing Correlation, spurious correlation and general dependence measures Linear regression Multiple linear regression Logistic regression Monte Carlo simulation Modelling in Excel.

Indicative topics include:

• Overview of the Investment Industry

• Characteristics of debt securities and bond investment strategies

• Equity analysis 

• Macroeconomic and industry analysis

• Equity valuation methods

• Equity portfolio management

• Hedge Funds

• Performance measurement.

• Introduction of default risk concept and credit risk-related securities.

• Credit rankings (internal and external rating) and the role of credit rating agencies, credit migration.

• Default prediction and credit scoring models.

• Default dependencies.

• Credit risk portfolio models (risk-adjusted performance, stress-testing portfolio losses).

• Corporate bonds and yield spreads. Default risk pricing models (structural models and reduced-form models).

• Market default models: (CreditRisk+, Credit Metrics™, KMV model).

• Credit derivatives and credit risks of derivatives.

This module assumes basic knowledge and understanding of risk-return relationship, portfolio theory, and CAPM. It considers the investment and portfolio management decision in more detail by first examining the asset allocation decision and investments in a global context. It then attempts to evaluate different types of securities (bonds and stocks) in which investments can be made using a three-step top-down approach consisting of macro- and micro-market analysis, industry analysis and finally, company analysis. It then critically examines different equity portfolio management and performance evaluation strategies.

The module provides the knowledge required to understand issues in corporate governance and business ethics. Indicative topics are as follows; Corporate governance, Shareholder versus stakeholder view of the firm, Board of directors, Role of institutional investors, Performance and renumeration, Corporate purpose and corporate communications, Ethics and corporate social responsibility, Key ethical theories and practical ethical reflections.

Employers are in search for individuals who possess logical thinking, analytical capability, leadership, communication and the ability to work under pressure. This module develops the necessary research knowledge and skills for students to be able to successfully complete a piece of research in industry or consultancy contexts or academia.

More information to follow.

Students will spend a period of time working in an industrial or organisational setting, applying and enhancing the skills and techniques they have learned on the programme. Work will be carried out under the direction of a placement supervisor. This support will include ensuring that the work they are expected to do within the placement company/organisation meets the learning outcomes of the module.

Students will spend a period of time working in an industrial or organisational setting, applying and enhancing the skills and techniques they have learned on the MSc in Business Analytics programme. Work will be carried out under the direction of an industrial supervisor and supported by a dedicated Placement Support Officer within the School. This support will include ensuring that the work they are expected to do within the placement company/organisation meets the learning outcomes of the module.

Students will spend a period of time working in an industrial or organisational setting, applying and enhancing the skills and techniques they have learned on the MSc in Business Analytics programme. Work will be carried out under the direction of an industrial supervisor and supported by a dedicated Placement Support Officer within the School. This support will include ensuring that the work they are expected to do within the placement company/organisation meets the learning outcomes of the module.

Students will spend a period of time working in an industrial or organisational setting, applying and enhancing the skills and techniques they have learned on the MSc in Business Analytics programme. Work will be carried out under the direction of an industrial supervisor and supported by a dedicated Placement Support Officer within the School. This support will include ensuring that the work they are expected to do within the placement company/organisation meets the learning outcomes of the module.

Students will spend a period of time working in an industrial or organisational setting, applying and enhancing the skills and techniques they have learned on the MSc in Business Analytics programme. Work will be carried out under the direction of an industrial supervisor and supported by a dedicated Placement Support Officer within the School. This support will include ensuring that the work they are expected to do within the placement company/organisation meets the learning outcomes of the module.