Registry

Module Specifications

Current Academic Year 2012 - 2013
Please note that this information is subject to change.

Module Title	Financial Economics I
Module Code	MS427
School	School of Mathematics
Online Module Resources
Module Co-ordinator	Semester 1: Colm Fitzgerald Semester 2: Colm Fitzgerald Autumn: Colm Fitzgerald
Module Teacher	Colm Fitzgerald
NFQ level	8	Credit Rating	7.5
Pre-requisite	None
Co-requisite	None
Compatibles	None
Incompatibles	None

Description

Students will learn how to use standard financial economic methods for investment decisions and option pricing in a discrete time setting. The methods include mean-variance portfolio theory, capital asset pricing model, arbitrage pricing theory, and pricing derivatives with binomial tree models.These topics will also be discussed from a real-world financial markets perspectiveStudents will participate in the following learning activities:Lectures: Students will attend a series of lectures designed to cover the syllabus objectives of subject CT8 of the Institute of Actuaries (along with MS428).Tutorials: Tutorials will cover working through past exam papers and will also cover Excel skills

Learning Outcomes

1. Be able to describe, discuss and explain the topics in subject CT8 of the Institute of Actuaries along with performing basic calculations to apply the theories covered
2. Be able to discuss the relative merits of the CT8 material from a real-world financial markets perspective

Workload	Full-time hours per semester
*Type*	*Hours*	*Description*
Lecture	36	No Description
Tutorial	12	Presenting tutorial questions which have been solved by the group
Independent learning	140	No Description
Total Workload: 188

All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml

Indicative Content and Learning Activities

Financial Economics.
Units 1 to 7 and 9 to 10 of the Core Reading of the Institute of Actuaries.

Assessment Breakdown
Continuous Assessment	25%	Examination Weight	75%

Course Work Breakdown
Type	Description	% of total	Assessment Date
Group project	Carrying out financial economics calculations in MS Excel and to producing an associated discussion in Word in a professional format	25%	Sem 1 End

Reassessment Requirement
Resit arrangements are explained by the following categories; 1 = A resit is available for all components of the module 2 = No resit is available for 100% continuous assessment module 3 = No resit is available for the continuous assessment component
This module is category 3

Indicative Reading List

Edwin J. Elton, Martin J. Gruber, Stephen J. Brown, and William N. Goetzmann: 2007, Modern Portfolio Theory and Investment Analysis, 7th, John Wiley & Sons, New York,
John van der Hoek, Robert J. Elliott: 2006, Binomial Models in Finance, Springer, Berlin,
Yannick Malevergne, Didier Sornette: 2006, Extreme Financial Risks: from Dependence to Risk Management, Springer, Berlin,
John C. Hull: 2006, Options, Futures, and other Derivatives, Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River,
Robert L. McDonald: 2005, Derivatives markets, Addison-Wesley, Boston and London,
Michael U. Dothan: 1990, Prices in Financial Markets, Oxford University Press, New York,

Other Resources

None

Array

Programme or List of Programmes

ACM

BSc Actuarial Mathematics

BSSA

Study Abroad (DCU Business School)

BSSAO

Study Abroad (DCU Business School)

ECSA

Study Abroad (Engineering & Computing)