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Courses - Spring 2023
BUFN
Finance Department Site
BUFN402
(Perm Req)
Portfolio Management
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg
Prerequisite: BUFN400.
The fundamentals of portfolio management, including asset allocation, investing strategies, and risk management. The class describes some of the main strategies used by hedge funds and provides methodologies to analyze them. The strategies are illustrated using real financial data, and students learn to apply tools for performance measurement, portfolio optimization (quadratic programming), factor models, predictive regression analysis, backtesting, and managing transaction costs.
For Computational Finance Notation students.
BUFN670
Financial Mathematics
Credits: 2
Grad Meth: Reg
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
Introduction to the mathematical models used in finance and economics with emphasis on pricing derivative instruments. Topics include elements from basic probability theory, distributions of stock returns, elementary stochastic calculus, Ito's Lemma, arbitrage pricing theory, and continuous time portfolio theory. Particular focus is on the financial applications of these mathematical concepts.
BUFN710
Financial Strategy for Corporations
Credits: 2
Grad Meth: Reg
Prerequisite: BUFN610; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
Restriction: Permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business; or must be in Business and Management (Master's) program.
Credit only granted for: BUFN751 or BUFN710.
Formerly: BUFN751.
An advanced course in corporate finance, focusing on the issues that firms face when they plan to raise external capital from financial markets. The focus is on the financing problems faced by mid-market to large firms and on capital raised from public markets. The forms of external finance vary from simple debt or equity to more complex securities that bundle with an element of risk management.
BUFN712
Financial Restructuring
Credits: 2
Grad Meth: Reg
Prerequisite: BUFN610.
Restriction: Permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business; or must be in Business and Management (Master's) program.
Credit only granted for: BUFN712 or BUFN752.
Formerly: BUFN752.
Focuses on identifying ways to increase firm value through corporate restructuring. Specific topics include: mergers and tender offers, spin-offs, carve-outs, divestitures, takeover defense strategies, leveraged buy-outs, and international acquisitions. Additionally, the theory, practice and empirical evidence related to each of these topics will be covered. Emphasis will be placed on valuation analysis and strategic considerations.
BUFN717
Entrepreneurial Finance and Private Equity
Credits: 2
Grad Meth: Reg
Prerequisite: BUFN610.
Restriction: Permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business; or must be in Business and Management (Master's) program.
Credit only granted for: BUFN755 or BUFN717.
Formerly: BUFN755.
An advanced topics course in Corporate Finance. The major emphasis is how financiers help growing firms - and in particular young start-ups - using different types of securities at different points in the industry's and firm's life. Financing arrangements and securities studied will include private equity funds and private financings placements, Venture Capital (VC) and preferred equity, Investment Banks through Initial Public Offerings (IPOs), Private equity finds, debt and leveraged buyouts. Students will learn additional techniques that will help them understand how financiers value firms and how to understand, plan and value different financing strategies.
BUFN726
Institutional Asset Management
Credits: 2
Grad Meth: Reg
Prerequisite: BUFN610.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
Credit only granted for: BUFN660, BUFN726, BUFN761 or BUFN773.
Formerly: BUFN773.
Examines how money is managed by organizations such as university endowments, pension funds, mutual funds, hedge funds, and private equity funds. Involves a mixture of finance and economics and emphasizes the incentives professional money managers face within the context of the organizational structure in which they operate. Particular attention is paid to compensation structures and monitoring mechanisms.
BUFN730
Advanced Financial Modeling and Equity Analysis
Credits: 2
Grad Meth: Reg
Prerequisite: BUFN610.
Restriction: Permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business; or must be in Business and Management (Master's) program.
Credit only granted for: BUFN760 or BUFN730.
Formerly: BUFN760.
Provides in-depth analysis of public equities, with a focus on financial statement analysis, financial forecasting and ultimately valuation. Students will apply the primary valuation techniques used in industry to estimate market values for equities. Additionally, students learn how to stress test their financial models and interpret outcomes.
BUFN732
Fixed Income Analysis
Credits: 2
Grad Meth: Reg
Prerequisite: BUFN610.
Restriction: Permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business; or must be in Business and Management (Master's) program.
Credit only granted for: BUFN732 or BUFN762.
Formerly: BUFN762.
Describes important financial instruments which have market values that are sensitive to interest rate movements. Develops tools to analyze interest rate sensitivity and value fixed income securities. Defines and explains the vocabulary of the bond management business.
BUFN736
Quantitative Investment Strategies
Credits: 2
Grad Meth: Reg
Prerequisite: BUFN610.
Restriction: Must be in a major in BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business; or must be in Business and Management (Master's) program.
Credit only granted for: BUFN764 or BUFN736.
Formerly: BUFN764.
Provides an introduction to quantitative techniques of selecting equities, as used commonly among long-short equity hedge funds and other quantitative equity asset management companies. Statistical factor models are developed to locate stocks with higher expected returns, based on the observable characteristics of the stocks. Implementation issues, including statistical estimation, backtesting and portfolio construction, are covered, as is performance evaluation.
BUFN744
Fixed Income Derivatives
Credits: 2
Grad Meth: Reg
Prerequisite: BUFN610; and BUFN732.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
Credit only granted for: BUFN765 or BUFN744.
Formerly: BUFN765.
Surveys fixed income assets and related securities such as Exchange-traded bond options; bonds with embedded options; floating rate notes; caps, collars, and floors; floating rate notes with embedded options. Also surveys advanced tools for interest-rate and fixed-income portfolio management, including the use of derivative securities, and the application of binomial trees for analysis of options, and a sound understanding of stochastic yield curves.
BUFN745
Financial Programming
Credits: 2
Grad Meth: Reg
Prerequisite: BUFN650.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
Credit only granted for: BUFN758E or BUFN745.
Formerly: BUFN758E.
This course introduces basic and innovative statistical modelling methods for financial markets, and equips students with analytical and programming tools for modelling and analyzing financial data. Examples of applications include portfolio management and risk management.
BUFN747
Asset-Liability and Nonfinancial Risk Management
Credits: 2
Grad Meth: Reg
Prerequisite: BUSI640; and BUFN740.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
This course surveys risks and techniques associated with asset-liability and nonfinancial risks including market and interest rate risk, liquidity risk, operational risk and model risk, among others. Techniques such as portfolio value-at-risk (VaR) are used in realistic empirical examples to illustrate the methods. Key rate duration, principal components analysis and analytical and simulation-based VaR techniques are used to estimate interest rate risk exposure for financial firms. Hedging these risks using various financial derivative products such as options, swaps and futures contracts is explored. Operational risk is estimated leveraging Poisson loss distributions and model risk and validation techniques are reviewed.
BUFN758M
Special Topics in Finance; Hedge Fund Management
Credits: 2
Grad Meth: Reg
BUFN758X
Special Topics in Finance; Market Microstructure
Credits: 2
Grad Meth: Reg
BUFN758Z
(Perm Req)
Special Topics in Finance; Global Equity Fund
Credits: 2
Grad Meth: Reg
BUFN759
(Perm Req)
Independent Study in Finance
Credits: 1 - 6
Grad Meth: Reg
By Department Permission Only.
Contact department for information to register for this course.