Security Analysis and Portfolio Management (Honors)

Catalog description

Advanced valuation theory; fundamentals of security analysis; portfolio construction and management. FIN 406H - Security Analysis and Portfolio Management (Honors)(3) Finance 406 is about how to invest money in stocks, bonds and derivative securities. The course focus is on creating portfolios of assets rather than on picking individual assets for investment. To create a portfolio of assets, the portfolio manager must have knowledge of the assets available for purchase, the markets the assets are traded in, and the statistical and mathematical techniques needed to assign weights to the assets within the portfolio. The manager must also be able to predict changes in the economy that justify changes in the portfolio, as well as be able to evaluate the performance of the portfolio relative to standard benchmark portfolios such as the S&P500.The course begins with a review of the structure of the asset markets, basic pricing formulas, fundamental and technical analysis, and the tools from previous statistics, economics, and calculus classes needed. Different models relating risk and return such as the CAPM and arbitrage pricing model are covered. These models exemplify how investors are willing to trade-off the variance in returns from investments with the expected value of the investment. The students then learn how to choose the weights to assign to each asset available to maximize the expected return while minimizing risk of the portfolio using the portfolio theory of Markowitz. While the focus of this section of the class is on investing in equities, the portfolio theory learned is applicable to all types of assets. Because there are important differences between stocks and bonds, the next section of the class focuses on the unique characteristics of fixed income securities. Models explaining the different risk and return characteristics of bonds are examined. Because fixed income securities prices and returns are directly linked to changes in interest rates, theories of what determines interest rates are presented and applied to evaluating the performance of portfolios including fixed income securities. The course concludes with an overview of investment in options and futures contracts. The basic pricing models for these types of assets are reviewed as well as practical concepts of investing in derivatives such as margin accounts and creating synthetic returns using combinations of different types of options.As an Honors course, the level of research and academic investigation is enhanced with outside journal readings in topics such as portfolio theory, anomalies and market efficiency, overpricing, and current topics in Portfolio Management as material is published. This material is incorporated into class discussions and course exams beyond what is covered in the standard version of the class.