Modules WS 2017/2018

  • Cost of capital and capital budgeting Discounted cash flow valuation and financial multiples Payout policy Equity and debt financing Applications of option pricing theory Corporate control and recapitalizationsEnterprise Risk Management
  • Overview on different Forms and Asset Classes of Alternative Investments
  • Chances and Risks of Alternative Investments
  • Alternative Investments in a Portfolio Context
  • Regulation of Alternative Investments
  • Socially Responsible Investments and Impact
  • Alternative Investments and Corporate Governance
Ethics Essentials:

  • Theory, Principles, and World-Views
  • The Ethical Leader: Self-Mastery and Ethics, Mind-Sets
  • Corporate Ethics: Shared Values, Professionalism (as part of Standards of Professional Conduct)
  • CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct
  • GARP Ethics and Code of Conduct


The course in Corporate Governance covers:

  • Role and Responsibility of Owners
  • Practice of Right of Control for Various Actors
  • The Problem of Free Riding
  • Major Investors
  • Conflicts of Interest Between Financiers
  • Conflicts of Interest Between Stakeholders
  • Financial Remuneration of Managers
  • Alternative Designs for Option-Based Remuneration Structures for Managers
  • Role and Responsibility of Institutions (Accounting, State)
  • Corporate Governance in Financial Services Undertakings
  • Optimal Design for Corporate Governance
  • Empirical Investigations of Corporate Governance
  • The role of Risk Management in Corporate Governance
Empirical Finance will cover:
  • Foundations of Modern Standard Capital Market Theory and Capital Asset Pricing Model
  • Market Anomalies
  • The Event Study Method
  • Empirical Asset Pricing Tests
  • Key concepts of experimental research approaches
  • Testability of market and trader behavior
  • Introduction to R (Syntax, program structure, programming concepts)
  • Introduction to Financial Markets
  • Interest rates and bond prices
  • The structure of interest rates
  • Market efficiency
  • Monetary policy
  • Money markets
  • Bond markets
  • Mortgage markets
  • Derivative markets
  • Introduction to Financial Economics
  • Expected utility, Mean-variance and Prospect theory
  • Ambiguity
  • Capital Asset Pricing Model
  • Behavioral CAPM
  • Basic two-period models
  • Arbitrage Pricing Theory
  • Global Financial Environment
  • International Parity Conditions
  • Foreign Exchange Rate Determination and Forecasting
  • The Foreign Exchange Market and the Use of Foreign Currency Derivatives
  • Foreign Exchange Exposure
  • Financing the Global Firm
  • Foreign Investment Decisions
  • International Trade Finance
  • Working Capital Management
Investment Strategies by Asset Class: Equitiy, Fixed Income, and Derivatives Strategies
Investment Strategies for Different Economic Environments
Asset Management in Practice
  • Recognising problems and analysing various topics in the area of financial services
  • Handling ambitious practical problems in financial services like consulting projects and
real portfolio management
  • Developing customer-specific solutions
  • Communicating with project client
  • Presenting the final project report
  • Working in a team in a project-oriented manner
  • Mastering a portfolio under the supervision of a portfolio manager
  • Working up all relevant information and data for portfolio management
  • Structuring the strategic and tactical asset allocation
  • Deciding on security selection
  • Identification of a research problem and development of a research question
  • Thematically formulating a problem and developing a solution through application of
scientific methods
  • Independence in handling a research problem determined in the course of an assessment.
  • Discussion with the advisor about methodological and content issues in solving a research
topic.
  • Completion of a comprehensive assignment where the students deal with a theoretical or
practice-oriented problem in their field of specialisation by drawing on scientific work
methods.
  • Completion of presentation documentation on a research problem within their specialised
field.
  • Defense of the elaborated research topic and in-depth discussion with the examination
board.
Life-Cycle View of Personal Finance
Defined Benefit vs. Defined Contribution Plans
Instruments Typically Used in Pension Finance
Models for Integrating Financial Risks with Other Risks like Longevity Risk
  • Fundamentals in Modern Banking;
  • Asset Liability Management;
  • Banking Regulation;
  • Services and Products in Private Banking;
  • Strategies in Private Banking.
Quantitative Finance will cover:
  • Classical linear regression model assumptions and diagnostic tests
  • Expansions of the simple linear regression model to multiple linear regressions
  • Long-run relationships in finance
  • Models of time series volatility and covariances
  • Simulational methods in finance
  • Introduction to ThomsonReuters Eikon
All aspects that have to be considered for writing a successful exposé and master thesis, like e.g. the fulfillment of formal requirements, the development of a research project and the correct choice of methodology for answering the research question.