Foundations of Finance, Graduate, COR1-GB.2311.12, Fall 2024 Section 12

Prof. Joel Hasbrouck

email: jh4@stern.nyu.edu
web: http://people.stern.nyu.edu/jh4/

This page last updated: Wednesday September 11, 2024 11:27 AM.

Topics and schedule (Subject to revision)

Class notes, announcements, and supplementary material will be posted to the NYU Brightspace site (under development)

Overview

This course is an introduction to the world's financial system: securities and institutions that create, trade, hold, manage and regulate them. In this course we mostly take the viewpoint of a long-term investor, someone who is going into the financial markets to maximize gain and minimize risk. In the follow-on course (corporate finance), we take the perspective of financial manager, someone who is making firm-specific business decisions to maximize the value of the firm. By the end of this course, you should be able to comprehend most of the Markets section of the Wall Street Journal.

Prerequisites

Finance, even at the introductory level, is a rigorously quantitative discipline that builds on prior knowledge. Prior to starting Foundations, you should have successfully completed a calculus-based microeconomics course and a statistics course (such as Statistics for Business Control & Regression/Forecasting Models). If you have not taken these classes (or if you are planning to take one or both concurrently) please email me and we can discuss things.

Standard Stern/NYU policies

Grading policy

The departmental policy states:

Materials

The "books" that we'll be using are

We'll be accessing the BKM text using the McGraw-Hill Education Connect platform. Connect is required for this section. it is an electronic access platform. It is purchased through Follet via the NYU books store. It will appear on your bursars bill; the charge will be refunded if you drop the course within the indicated time window. We'll access the RWJ chapters as an eBook through another McGraw app. See the Brightspace class webpage for further information.

Financial calculator

You'll need a financial calculator to work problems and exams. The best calculator for this course is the HP 10bII+. (Most of the examples and problems in the notes will be worked using HP 10bII+ keystrokes.) The TI BA II Plus is a good alternative, but the keystrokes are slightly different. Older versions of these calculators should also be okay: anything in HP 10B or TI BA series should suffice. I don't recommend top-of-the line financial calculators such as the HP 17 or similar: the extra power comes with extra complexity. Smartphone calculator apps are not permitted in exams. See the Brightspace page for more information.

Deliverables (planned, but subject to change)

Class notes and recordings

I generally make class notes available online prior to class. I usually make class videos available after class. (This is on a "best efforts" basis. Technical problems sometimes arise. I can't guarantee availability.) Class notes will be posted to Brightspace in the lessons tabs, under "Topics and Classes"; Video recordings will be posted in the Mediasite tab.