Master courses

Institutional Investors [Fall 2017, 2018]: The course focuses on the organization and investment process of institutional investors such as pension funds, mutual funds and insurance companies. The course covers the design of a pension system and the role of institutional investors in the pension sector. Moreover, it introduces concepts like asset liability management, strategic asset allocation, life-cycle theory, portfolio diversification using alternative asset classes, shareholder activism and responsible investing. The students always explore these different topics in finance from the perspective of an institutional investors, relying on highly influential academic articles, book chapters and real-life examples.

Bachelor courses

Options and Futures [Spring 2020]: This course covers derivatives such as options, forward, and futures contracts. Students learn basic theoretical considerations as well as practical applications of the theory. The theoretical part of the course covers pricing of forward and futures as well as pricing options relying on binomial trees and the Black-Scholes model. Students also investigate the used of derivative for hedging practicing static and dynamic hedging strategies, and hedging options with greeks. In the practical applications, students price via replication traded assets, test the validity of the put-call parity and retrieve implied information from real data. For example, implied dividends, implied volatilities and volatility smiles.

Investment Analysis and Portfolio Management [Fall 2018]: In the course students learn how institutional and individual investors build their portfolios. The course begins by investigating the properties of traditional asset classes like fixed income and listed equity. Then, the course introduces the added value of real estate, hedge funds and private equity within a diversified portfolios. Next, the course investigate the advantages and costs of mutual funds from an individual investor perspective, and the concept of return above and beyond the market is introduced. Students also learn how to analyze financial data and draw conclusions from empirical results. The main toolkit for financial analysis is represented by CAPM and regression analysis.

Finance [Spring 2017; 2018]: The course is structured in three parts. The first part begins with the definition of market, firm and stakeholders. Next, the course investigate the difference between investment and financing decisions, from the viewpoint of a financial manager. The second part of the course focuses on valuation. Students learn the concept of net present value of a project, zero net present value projects, valuation of stocks, valuation of bonds, and capital budgeting. The third part of the course is built around the risk-return trade-off and modern portfolio theory. The course introduce the concept of cost of capital and WACC. Next, the course analyzes risk-return models, such as the CAPM, to assess the required return of securities. In the end the topic of financial derivatives (options, forwards contracts) are also presented.

Corporate Governance [Spring 2017]: The course deals with the relationships between a company’s management, its board, shareholders and other stakeholders. This course examines various contemporary aspects of corporate governance, including social responsibility, accountability, transparency, fairness, oversight, risk, ethics and incentives. The course is multi-disciplinary, integrating concepts from accounting, finance, law, economics, politics, and ethics. This course focuses on large public corporations with diffuse ownership and analyzes examples from multiple countries and different legal frameworks.