Finance

  • QST FE 200: Principles of Finance
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: QST SM132; and QST AC221. Open only to non-Questrom students
    Formerly SM104. Finance elective for Business minors. The course is designed to continue the student experiences from SM132 and AC221. The course will provide students with an overview of a broad range of financial topics including: personal financial decision making, corporate finance, firm valuation, portfolio management, risk and return, as well as a timely discussion of current events. Upon successful completion of the course students will understand how to navigate personal finances including car loans, student debt, mortgages, retirement planning, and stock and bond investments; become familiar with methods of firm valuation, including discounted cash flow and trading multiples; be introduced to portfolio management theories such as diversification, systematic risk and beta and how to understand the risk reward tradeoff.
  • QST FE 323: Introduction to Corporate Finance
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: QST AC221; MO221; QM221; QM222 or BA222; SM131; SM132; SM275
    Component of QST SM323, The Cross Functional Core. Introduces students to the themes of financial decision making: valuation and risk management. The focus is on the problems of forecasting, capital budgeting, working capital management, project risk management, and financing in a cross-functional context. A semester-long business-plan project explores the interaction between marketing, operations, management information systems, and finance decisions. The course compares the financial objectives of the manager and the investor. Introduction to the time value of money, securities valuation, portfolio diversification, and the cost of capital. 4 cr.
  • QST FE 342: Money, Financial Markets, and Economic Activity
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: QST SM132 and sophomore standing
    The financial system and its functions. The role of money and the importance of interest rates in determining economic activity; determinants of level of interest rates. Operation of central banks; the goals and instruments of monetary policy. The roles, activities, and risk management of financial institutions. Instruments traded in money and capital markets, and their valuation. Role of derivative securities; systemic risk and other contemporary issues in the financial system.
  • QST FE 427: International Financial Management
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: QST FE 445 or QST FE 449.
    Managing financial risk in the global environment. Introduction to foreign exchange markets, spot, forward, futures, options and swaps, and to the international bond and money markets. Discussion of market structure and participants, and main financial instruments. Analyzes and discusses tools of currency risk management. 4 cr.
  • QST FE 429: Futures, Options, and Financial Risk Management
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: QST FE 445.
    Covers the theory of futures pricing and option pricing, and applies the theory to develop a framework for analyzing hedging and investment decisions using futures and options. Attention is paid to practical considerations in the use of these instruments, especially in financial risk management. 4 cr.
  • QST FE 430: Entertainment Finance
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: QST FE 323.
    Examines financial structures and decisions in entertainment and media realms including feature film, television, music, live performance, sports, digital media, and related business endeavors. The course covers the various ways entertainment and media companies raise capital, budget capital, and manage return on investment to shareholders and other stakeholders. Students study business models within each segment to understand the financial, operational, and legal constraints and best practices under which media and entertainment firms operate. Offered in Los Angeles.
  • QST FE 433: ESG Investing
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: QST FE 323.
    The aim of this course is to analyze and illustrate what investors can do to grasp the environmental and social challenges (i) by redirecting financial flows towards projects supporting and strengthening sustainable development, as well as (ii) controlling and mitigating the ESG-related financial risks. This transformation of financial markets requires an understanding of (i) the assets available for financing sustainable development, (ii) the metrics currently used to estimate the ESG impact of investments, (iii) the practices adopted by the most sophisticated sustainable investors, and (iv) the supporting capacity of public institutions, such as central banks in particular.
  • QST FE 445: Investment Analysis and Portfolio Management
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: QST FE 323.
    Required for Finance concentrators. Introduction to the investment management process. Defining investment objectives and constraints. Introduction to Modern Portfolio Theory, CAPM, APT, Efficient Markets, stock and bond valuation models. Introduction to forwards and swaps and their applications within investment strategies. Active vs. passive investment strategies, fundamental vs. technical analysis, trading practices, and performance evaluation. Introduction to the role of futures and options in hedging and speculation. Students are expected to become familiar with current events in the financial news.
  • QST FE 449: Corporate Financial Management
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: QST FE 323.
    Required for Finance concentrators. Covers the financial manager's role in obtaining and allocating funds. Includes topics such as cash budgeting, working capital analysis, dividend policy, capital investment analysis and debt policy as well as their associated risks. Valuation of companies, mergers and acquisitions, and bankruptcy are covered. The course requires using financial models and spreadsheets. Applications are made to current events and everyday business finance problems.
  • QST FE 450: Private Equity: Leveraged Buyouts
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: QST FE 449.
    Exposes students to, and demystifies, the world of Private Equity (PE). The focus is centered on LBOs and their position in the "alternative asset" class. Students learn about the activities of a PE firm including formation, fund- raising, investing (including deal structure, terms, due diligence, and governance), and exiting. Also discussed are what other industry sectors serve or are affected by PE and who the players are. Case study and class participation will be the primary modes of learning.
  • QST FE 454: Investment Banking
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: QST FE 449.
    Provides an overview of the economic functions provided by investment banks including a history of the industry, current events, and the difference between large, full service investment banks and smaller, boutique firms. Heavy emphasis on pro forma analysis and Initial Public Offering and M&A valuation techniques. Topics include: What do investment bankers do? What are the different types of analyses performed by investment bankers? What are the various types of financial securities? What is the underwriting process and how are securities priced? How are companies valued? How are potential synergies valued? The course will focus on the issuing process and pricing for equity, fixed income, and equity-linked securities. The course will also focus on the role of investment banks in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and other restructurings. Additional topics include equity research, capital markets industry regulations, as well as typical career paths and opportunities.
  • QST FE 455: Financing New Ventures
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: QST FE 323.
    Students will be expected to have mastered key finance concepts including financial statement analysis, NPV, IRR and basic option pricing theory prior to entering the course. Introduction to financing sources for start-up firms, including angel funding, venture capital financing, boot-strapping, debt and other sources. Focus on capital structure analysis, capitalization tables, payoff diagrams, term sheets, equity incentives, cash flow projections and negotiating with investors. Students are expected to prepare case studies for class discussion and become familiar with current events in the financial news about start-up company financings.
  • QST FE 456: Fixed Income Analysis
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: QST FE 445.
    Covers the analytic techniques used in fixed-income markets to value and measure risk on traditional fixed-rate bonds, floating-rate notes, bonds having embedded options (callable and putable bonds), structured notes, and interest rate derivatives used to manage bond portfolios (primarily interest rate swaps, caps, and floors). Extensive use is made of Excel spreadsheet analysis, including the development of a binomial term structure model to value securities. Focus is on the impact of counterparty and issuer credit risk in fixed-income valuation.
  • QST FE 458: Equities and Securities Analysis
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: QST FE 323.
    Students will be taught the fundamental skills in how to analyze a company and determine its suitability for investment. This course will teach the value-based approach to company analysis, which focuses on assessing a company's competitive advantage and its return profile. Key topics include competitive advantage, return on invested capital, financial modeling and financial statement analysis, and valuation.
  • QST FE 459: Computational Techniques for Finance
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: CAS CS108 or CS111; QST FE445
    The course will teach students how to use computational techniques to implement financial algorithms for security pricing and risk analysis including, bonds, stocks, and options. This will be a rigorous, hands-on programming course to prepare students for quantitative jobs in finance. The overall objective of the course is to enhance the students' understanding of the well-known financial models used to price securities including bonds and options and to evaluate the risk and return characteristics of stocks and portfolios. After the course, students will have a deeper understanding of investment portfolios, risk management techniques that use derivatives, and arbitrage strategies. Additionally, students will become comfortable with a modern programming language based on functional and object-oriented programming which will enhance their job opportunities in a variety of fields beyond finance.
  • QST FE 460: Equity Analysis for Strategic Decision Making
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: QST FE 323.
    This course is specifically designed to appeal to students who have a strong interest in both strategy and financial analysis. The focus of the class will be to bring financial analysis to the study of a company's strategy and learn how to analyze a company's financial statements to help evaluate the sustainability of a company's competitive advantage. This course utilizes that case-based approach in its teaching method and encourages active class participation.
  • QST FE 469: Real Estate Finance
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: QST FE 323.
    Provides an introduction to and an understanding of real estate finance. Draws together and considers major functional areas including: structuring, ownership, finance, taxation, property valuation and analysis. The course provides a framework for decision making in the real estate investment and finance fields. The course is specifically designed to offer students interested in real estate careers a foundation from which to build. 4 cr.
  • QST FE 498: Directed Study: Finance
    Directed study in Finance. 2 or 4 cr. Application available on Undergraduate Program website.
  • QST FE 711: Finance 1
    This course begins by briefly introducing students to some fundamental concepts in financial theory, including the separation of investment, cash flow and consumption decisions for firms; the time-value of money, net present value, and the associated impetus towards value-based decision making; as well as arbitrage and the law of one price, and the idea of efficient markets. Students will then dig deeper into the mechanics of discounting, compounding, and calculating free cash flows, giving them tools to make value-based decisions about whether to undertake or cancel a project within a firm; value a share, or acquire a company, using a given discount rate.
  • QST FE 712: Finance 2
    Graduate Prerequisites: QST FE 711.
    The course begins with a brief introduction to some basic financial securities (stocks and bonds) and how to calculate their risks, returns, and correlations. We will then study the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) of asset pricing model, a theory setting out the required returns on financial assets, and its implications for how to invest in financial markets. We will use the CAPM to derive a required return on investment, which we will then use as to calculate a weighted average cost of capital (WACC), which will be the discount rate used to assess the net present value of business investments. The WACC can be used to find the present discounted value of a firm, or of a potential acquisition, as well as to determine the net present value (NPV) of a project under consideration for investment by a firm. The course will finish with a case study valuation of one such project or acquisition, using knowledge on the calculation of free cash flows from FE711 and of the calculation of the discount rate from FE712.