Course Offerings

Futures, options and other derivative securities have become increasingly important in the world of financial management. This course investigates how these markets operate and the use of these instruments in corporate risk management.

This course will focus on valuation of both mid-size and large firms. In the context of valuation, discussions will include mergers and acquisitions, financing and capital structure, corporate restructuring through bankruptcy and capital restructuring, and corporate governance. In order to prepare students to assume effective roles as a manager or advisor in a corporate finance function, MF663 is designed to facilitate the development of the following:

• Understand the various valuation methodology, their uses, advantages and disadvantages.
• Understand the various issues associated with mergers and acquisitions and how the various valuation methodologies can be used to value these transactions.
• Understand the various issues associated with the capital structure decision, and their implications on the firm value.
• Understand the various issues associated with bankruptcy and corporate restructuring, and their implication on the firm value.
• Understand the various issues associated with corporate governance decisions, and their implication on the firm value.

This course is designed to help students understand the investment opportunities in the financial markets and the risk-return relations among securities included in investment portfolios. Securities analysis, portfolio management, and modem portfolio theories are the focus of this course.

This course focusses on the concepts, methods and uses of financial accounting information primarily from a security valuation perspective. The course is designed to improve the familiarity and comfort level with financial statements. While the focus is on understanding and using financial information for valuation purposes, the course will consider how financial statements are prepared and the rules that govern such preparation. It is by understanding the basis of preparation that students understand how to use and interpret the information and any limitations that may be inherent in the information provided. 

The fixed income course covers the analysis of all fixed income securities including bonds, money market instruments, and mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities. Risk and return relationship of fixed income securities as well as the yield curve and interest rate risk management will be covered. The course will extend the analysis to cover the tools and techniques such as duration and convexity which are used to manage bond portfolio.

This course covers the quantitative methods and economics theories and techniques required for financial analysis. The class covers all the topics included in the CFA Institute’s Level I Quantitative Methods and Economics exam. However the class is not restricted to these topics and will include additional applications that will involve the use of computer software such as Excel, Stata or Python.

The course covers the microeconomic and macroeconomic theory and methods required for financial analysis. Topics include consumer and producer theory, market structure, economic growth, monetary and fiscal policy, and international finance. 

This course is a follow-up to the first (introductory) investments elective (BU673): the prerequisite course which provides introduction to different types of capital markets and financial securities thereof, investment opportunities in these capital markets, and the risk-return relations for these securities. The objectives of this advanced course are twofold:

1. Extend the basic concepts towards the understanding of multifarious investment opportunities in more intricate financial securities in the context of representative dynamic markets; and
2. Develop skills and tools to act as comprehensive professional investment managers on behalf of either individual or corporate investors.

The course will introduce students to Excel functions, VBA, and Python to build financial models for financial analysis, valuation of bond and equity, portfolio optimization and portfolio performance analysis. Students are also introduced to various databases for financial research analysis.

This course discusses several issues in the field of International finance. Five key topics will be discussed:

• Economics of the forex markets;
• International capital (debt and equity) markets;
• International corporate finance;
• Financing International trade; and
• Forex derivatives.

The course will feature several cases in International capital markets and risk management. Bloomberg training will be part of the course. The students will be required to use data and analytical tools from Bloomberg to conduct regression and statistical analysis using Python.

This covers all aspects of security analysis. Students take on the role of either equity analyst or portfolio manager. Their work will be reviewed and overseen by industry professionals and faculty members. Analysts will learn:

1. How to conduct in-depth research on an equity security;
2. How to develop, defend and present an investment thesis; and
3. How to prepare detailed financial forecasts and valuation models.

The course allows students to manage real money for the Laurier Graduate Students Investment Fund (LGSIF).

This course introduces students to diverse methods of machine learning (ML) and their practical implementation in Finance. The aim of this course is to provide students with an understanding of how some common problems in the financial industry can be tackled with machine learning tools.

The course is composed of different modules that take the student through the end-to-end process associated with the deployment of ML solutions. By overviewing key concepts in applied mathematics underlying ML and implementing ML solutions for selected financial problems, students will acquire the skills required to conduct financial analyses using machine learning. Throughout the lectures, illustrative exercises are carried out using a programming language like Python.

The primary focus is on the financial challenges confronting small and medium sized businesses that are growing rapidly or aspire to rapid growth. Particular concentration is on understanding the nature of the financing problems that confront firms at critical junctions in their development; becoming familiar with sources of funds for these firms with particular emphasis on angel investments, bank loans, institutional venture capital and public issue of equity; becoming familiar with the tax and regulatory environment within which such financing is obtained; and, learning the key elements that enter into the structuring of the "deal" between entrepreneurs, outside investors and debt financiers. A secondary focus of the course is on the special financing concerns related to management and ownership succession within family firms.

A study of the major financial institutions in Canada and the competitive and regulatory environment in which they operate. Emphasis is placed on the practical implications of recent innovations in financial theory to the management of interest rates, liquidity and credit risk. The course examines management decisions in financial institutions in Canada: chartered banks, insurance companies, trust and mortgage loan companies, investment banks, credit unions and pension funds.

The Laurier Start-up Fund course is a practicum that provides graduate students a hands-on education in early stage investing. The course allows students to conduct due diligence on early stage companies that are growing rapidly or aspiring to rapid growth. In particular, students will learn how to assess the company's (1) product development and testing (2) commercialization potential including size of addressable market and competitive position (3) sales strategy and planned steps to take market share (4) founders and key employees and their ability to plan and execute (5) financial prospects and (6) financing options. Students are required to write a report and make a formal recommendation to an investment committee comprised on seasoned angel investors. The course involves students in the management of $1.5 million provided by community donors.

The course compares traditional finance to the expanding influence of behavioral finance. It examines both proof and anomalies of efficient markets. The evolution of various behavioral finance theories; types of investor biases; methods for identifying and correcting biases will be studied. Investor psychology relating to age; culture; and other factors will be discussed.

This course provides students with an intensive exposure to Environment (E), Social (S) and Governance (G) finance. The emphasis is on the major financial implications associated with climate change and the transition to a low-carbon economy. The course will focus on understanding various elements of impact investing related to ESG metrics, and the relevant ESG analytics. The course delves into corporate finance, portfolio allocation, credit risks, banking, and accounting disclosure aspects of ESG, with a particular focus on climate risk. 

This is a review course that helps students prepare for the CFA level I exam in June. All topic areas will be covered.

Students use research techniques and tools learned in previous courses to conduct empirical tests of a finance problem using some of the finance databases. The Research Paper is not a thesis but requires more detailed and analytical work than an independent study.

This course provides an overview of Business Analytics tools applied to finance. We explore analytical tools such as time series analysis applied to financial markets. In particular, we broadly focus on financial decisions involving portfolio selection, risk measurement, risk management, hedging, and other financial modeling decisions involving equity, fixed income and derivative markets. Topics include CAPM and Fama-French 5-factor asset pricing models, portfolio theory, liquidity risks and measurement, options and futures, credit analytics, VaR (Value at Risk), and Monte Carlo Simulation. We focus on R programing to download and process financial and economic data from various sources, such as WRDS, Bloomberg and also publicly available sources such as Yahoo! Finance, Google Finance, FRED (Federal Reserve Bank’s Economic Data Library), and SEC.