Finance Concentration

Introduces theory and empirical estimation of aggregate economic relationships, including the general price level, income, output, employment, and wages. Covers national income accounting and other economic data sources, consumption, investment, the banking system, and the supply of and demand for money, interest rates, prices, wages and employment, business fluctuations, and international economics.

Prerequisite: Managerial Economic Analysis (22:223:521 (FT) / 22:223:581 (PT))

This course is a prerequisite to all finance electives. However, students may take Aggregate Economic Analysis during the same term as their first finance elective. 

Provides a survey of the current practices of businesses in protecting themselves from chance events that threaten their assets or their operations. Options ranging from risk preparation to transfer of risk to others, such as suppliers, are considered.

Prerequisite: Aggregate Economic Analysis (22:223:520 (FT) / 22:223:591 (PT)), Financial Management (22:390:522 (FT) / 22:390:587 (PT))

Provides overview of the fields of security analysis and portfolio management. Introduces the analysis of individual investments with special reference to common stocks and bonds. Designed for the finance major who is interested in the security/investment area as a possible career.

Prerequisite: Aggregate Economic Analysis (22:223:520 (FT) / 22:223:591 (PT)), Financial Management (22:390:522 (FT) / 22:390:587 (PT))

Presents a detailed overview of the theory and institutional features of the U.S. financial system. Provides a comprehensive review of U.S. financial markets. Covers a survey of flow-of-funds data and U.S. financial markets and institutions, capital market theory, financial factors and economic activity, theory of the level and structure of interest rates.

Prerequisite: Aggregate Economic Analysis (22:223:520 (FT) / 22:223:591 (PT)), Financial Management (22:390:522 (FT) / 22:390:587 (PT))

Examines the problems faced by the corporate financial manager on the theoretical, analytical, and applied levels. The impact of the financing decision upon the value of the firm is analyzed. Theoretical and analytical aspects of the capital budgeting decision are examined in detail with emphasis on methods of incorporating risk into the capital budgeting decision. An analytical framework is presented to evaluate leasing, bond refunding, and mergers and acquisitions. Theories of corporate governance are discussed.

Prerequisite: Aggregate Economic Analysis (22:223:520 (FT) / 22:223:591 (PT)), Financial Management (22:390:522 (FT) / 22:390:587 (PT)) 

Comprehensive coverage of the theory and practice of money management as well as in-depth analysis of the theory and practice involved when securities are combined into portfolios. Like Investment Analysis and Management, the course is designed for finance majors interested in a career in money management.

Prerequisite: Aggregate Economic Analysis (22:223:520 (FT) / 22:223:591 (PT)), Financial Management (22:390:522 (FT) / 22:390:587 (PT)), Investment Analysis and Management (22:390:603)

The purpose of this course is to provide students with the necessary knowledge on how to use and not to use the models for derivatives. While the course will primarily focus on payoffs, usage, pricing, hedging, and institutional details of the most fundamental or vanilla versions of Options and Futures, it will also deal in some detail with more recent studies in the theory of derivative pricing. Students will acquire a robust conceptual knowledge of the fundamental issues that determine the valuation and behavior of these instruments. Though this course focuses on the intuitive economic insights of those models, some advanced math is required, including stochastic calculus. Be prepared for some necessarily non-trivial math if you take the course.

Prerequisite: Aggregate Economic Analysis (22:223:520 (FT) / 22:223:591 (PT)), Financial Management (22:390:522 (FT) / 22:390:587 (PT))

Explores the investment characteristics, pricing, and risk/reward potential of fixed-income securities. The securities covered include bonds---with and without embedded options; mortgages and mortgage-backed securities together with their derivatives such as collateralized mortgage obligations (CMO's), income-only (IO's) and principal-only (PO's) strips; interest rate swaps; and interest rate futures and option contracts. In addition, this course will explore the strategies for investing in portfolios of fixed-income securities.

Prerequisite: Aggregate Economic Analysis (22:223:520 (FT) / 22:223:591 (PT)), Financial Management (22:390:522 (FT) / 22:390:587 (PT)) 

Entrepreneurial Finance is a course designed for students who plan to get engaged in working with a high growth venture. The course focuses on financing of new ventures that are expected to grow and in which students may take a role of an entrepreneur, an advisor, an investor or an employee. Entrepreneurial Finance is created to expose students to the basic problems that are specific to financing new and growing ventures such as design of a business plan, contracting and valuation, choice of seed and follow-up financing and financing venture’s growth. The course also offers a basic coverage of venture capital and angel investors.

Presents techniques for analyzing a firm's current and projected financial statements for the purposes of credit analysis, security analysis, and internal financial analysis. Topics covered include financial distress prediction, evaluation of short-term and long-term loan requests, the impact of accounting information on security returns, determinants of bond ratings and yields, and the reliability of historical and forecasted accounting data. A working knowledge of spreadsheet analysis is expected. Special emphasis is placed on acquiring data from printed and computer databases and an introduction to specialized online databases and the Internet.

Prerequisite: Aggregate Economic Analysis (22:223:520 (FT) / 22:223:591 (PT)), Financial Management (22:390:522 (FT) / 22:390:587 (PT)), Accounting for Managers (22:010:502 (FT) / 22:010:577 (PT))

Interpretation and in-depth analysis of reported financial data. The role of taxes and tax disclosures will be included in the class discussions. Some aspects of valuation will be discussed. Issues include reported numbers making sense; reporting choices made by the preparer/firm when other choices under GAAP are available; strategy of firms in their choice of financial information disclosures; comparison of financial information within and across industries; projection of key information variables like earnings or cash flows into the future; financial reporting information used to gauge the riskiness of firms; prediction of the probability of bankruptcy using financial data.

Prerequisite: Aggregate Economic Analysis (22:223:520 (FT) / 22:223:591 (PT)), Financial Management (22:390:522 (FT) / 22:390:587 (PT))

This course enables students to manage a small part of the Rutgers University's endowment under the direction of professional fund managers. Students will learn to become experts in a sector / industry, understanding its drivers and impact on stock prices. Students will be required to write two comprehensive stock reports (one Long and one Short Sale recommendation) and present their findings in front of the class. The course will follow a Graham & Dodd / Buffett philosophy, viewing stock as ownership in a business. Class will meet approximately every other Saturday afternoon in New Brunswick, to better accommodate the guest speakers that are an integral part of the course. Two class sessions will take place in Manhattan. The course has been featured in The Star Ledger, Bergen Record, Rutgers Magazine, Rutgers Focus and other media. A scholarship of $1,000 (The Brick-Whitcomb Prize) will be awarded to the student who submits the best stock report in the class.

Prerequisite: Aggregate Economic Analysis (22:223:520 (FT) / 22:223:591 (PT)), Financial Management (22:390:522 (FT) / 22:390:587 (PT))

This is an advanced, modern finance course with the objective of studying indices and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) and their application in investment management. The course is divided into two major segments. The first provides a comprehensive overview of the theories and practical experience that are the foundations for indexing. This includes a review of Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT) and its influence on the evolution and role of indexing in investment management, a deep dive into best practices in index (portfolio) construction necessary to fully understanding ETFs, and a thorough overview of the latest in index products across all asset classes. The second segment provides a thorough examination of ETFs, including their anatomy, mechanics, application in investment strategy, and eco-system of industry participants.

This course will provide students with a solid and working understanding of hedge funds.  The course will not only cover an overview of the hedge fund industry, but also provide students with a strong understanding of more than a dozen hedge fund strategies, including equity long / short, global macro, statistical arbitrage, merger arbitrage, convertible arbitrage, and fixed income arbitrage. The course will make extensive use of Excel spreadsheets to model specific hedge funds strategies and will also include live instruction on using cutting-edge Internet resources. In my view, often the best way to learn is by doing, so students will also manage a simulated $1 million hedge fund portfolio and design and present a hedge fund investment strategy group project.

Prerequisite: Aggregate Economic Analysis (22:223:520 (FT) / 22:223:591 (PT)), Financial Management (22:390:522 (FT) / 22:390:587 (PT))

This elective course introduces how a Corporate Treasurer manages the finances of a business along with supporting the supply chain component of a business through various supply chain finance concepts. The course will take an in-depth look at the working capital of a business with a focus on the management of the cash conversion cycle. There will be case studies reviewed in the class that discuss the use of derivatives to manage the debt structure of a business, the use of international treasury management techniques to increase the opportunity cost of a firm, and how to determine the appropriate line of credit based upon cash flow projections and pricing. 

The central objective of this course is to provide you with the background and tools necessary to analyze value, risk, and return in property markets.The initial emphasis of the course is on mortgage finance and applications and is dedicated to providing an understanding of mortgage structure and mechanics in both residential and commercial markets. The focus then shifts to the evaluation of investment in property markets from the perspective of an institutional investor. This is accomplished by developing projections of future cash flows from a given property and using them to construct measures of value, risk and return and consider their sensitivity to changes in base assumptions. Extensions include tax issues, the relationship between value, returns and leverage, structuring the distribution of cash flows in partnership agreements and/or real options. The course also provides extensive training and certification in ARGUS, a real estate industry-standard software package used for entering and compiling lease information.

Special Topics will vary.