Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular term. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the MyBU Student Portal for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

• QST FE 462: Business Valuation
  Undergraduate Pre-requisite: QST FE323.- The objective of this course is to understand how companies are valued and provide a framework to approach valuation within any field of finance. Valuation is a critical tool and technique that is required across all sectors within the field of finance: corporate finance, venture capital, private equity, investment banking, and public equity investing. Yet, despite the differences in each of these areas, the approach to valuation is consistent across all disciplines. The guiding principle underlying this course is that value is created when a company earns a return on capital that exceeds its cost of capital. A company’s value is predominantly driven by two factors: the spread between its return on invested capital and cost of capital, and the company’s ability to generate unit growth. Business Valuation will provide the skills necessary to evaluate a company’s business model, analyze published financial statements, convert these financial statements into a model that forecasts its financial statements, assess its cost of capital, and most importantly how to use these inputs to determine its valuation.
• QST FE 469: Real Estate Finance
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (QSTFE323) - Provides an introduction to and an understanding of real estate finance. Draws together and considers major functional areas including: structuring, ownership, finance, taxation, property valuation and analysis. The course provides a framework for decision making in the real estate investment and finance fields. The course is specifically designed to offer students interested in real estate careers a foundation from which to build. 4 cr.
• QST FE 498: Directed Study: Finance
  Directed study in Finance. 2 or 4 cr. Application available on Undergraduate Program website.
• QST FE 711: Finance 1
  This course begins by briefly introducing students to some fundamental concepts in financial theory, including the separation of investment, cash flow and consumption decisions for firms; the time-value of money, net present value, and the associated impetus towards value-based decision making; as well as arbitrage and the law of one price, and the idea of efficient markets. Students will then dig deeper into the mechanics of discounting, compounding, and calculating free cash flows, giving them tools to make value-based decisions about whether to undertake or cancel a project within a firm; value a share, or acquire a company, using a given discount rate.
• QST FE 712: Finance 2
  Graduate Prerequisites: (QSTFE711) - The course begins with a brief introduction to some basic financial securities (stocks and bonds) and how to calculate their risks, returns, and correlations. We will then study the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) of asset pricing model, a theory setting out the required returns on financial assets, and its implications for how to invest in financial markets. We will use the CAPM to derive a required return on investment, which we will then use as to calculate a weighted average cost of capital (WACC), which will be the discount rate used to assess the net present value of business investments. The WACC can be used to find the present discounted value of a firm, or of a potential acquisition, as well as to determine the net present value (NPV) of a project under consideration for investment by a firm. The course will finish with a case study valuation of one such project or acquisition, using knowledge on the calculation of free cash flows from FE711 and of the calculation of the discount rate from FE712.
• QST FE 713: Finance 3
  Graduate Prerequisites: (QSTFE712) - This course extends students' understanding of corporate valuation beyond that acquired by allowing for valuing firms with different capital structures (e.g., what happens to valuation when a firm levers up?). This practical knowledge is built upon an analytical framework about the costs and benefits of different forms of financing (debt, equity, hybrid securities) in different industries, time periods, and circumstances. When should firms use debt financing, and when equity? What is the impact of paying dividends; when should dividends be preferred to share buybacks, and when should cash be retained in the firm rather than paid out? This course will give students an insight into the answers to these and similar questions.
• QST FE 722: Financial Management
  Graduate Prerequisites: QST MO712 or MO713, QST AC710 or AC711 (previous or concurrent) - The objective of this course is to introduce the students to the theory and practice of corporate finance, and to provide the students with a set of analytical tools necessary to answer the most important questions related to firms' valuation and investment decision making first under certainty and then under uncertainty. The course can be divided into the following three building blocks: valuation, investment decisions, and the relation between risk and return.
• QST FE 820: Corporate Financial Management
  Graduate Prerequisites: (QSTFE712 OR QSTFE722) - This course provides an in-depth analysis of financial considerations relating to corporate growth. It addresses the setting of financial and corporate goals in terms of maximizing shareholder wealth and relationships among working capital, debt levels, capital costs, dividend policy, growth and the value of the firm. It also considers the requisite financial analysis associated with mergers and acquisitions and bankruptcy.
• QST FE 822: Fixed Income Markets
  Graduate Prerequisites: (QSTFE712 OR QSTFE722) - This is a course primarily on fixed-income debt securities and markets. Emphasis is placed on the factors that determine bond yields, factors such as the coupon and maturity structure, liquidity, credit risk, and tax status of the security, and on measures of return and risk, statistics such as the yield to maturity, horizon yield, duration, and convexity. We will cover government debt (Treasuries and municipals), corporate bonds (investment-grade and high-yield), agency (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) and mortgage-backed debt created via securitization (i.e., collateralized mortgage obligations). We will emphasize how interest rate and credit derivatives are used to manage portfolios of fixed-income securities.
• QST FE 823: Investments
  Graduate Prerequisites: (QSTFE712 OR QSTFE722) - Introduction to the investment management process. Defining investment objectives and constraints. Introduction to Modern Portfolio Theory, CAPM, Fama- French factors, APT, efficient markets, stock, bond and option valuation models. Introduction to forwards and swaps and their applications within investment strategies. Active and passive investment strategies, fundamental analysis, trading practices, and performance evaluation. Introduction to the role of futures and options in hedging and speculation. Arbitrage and hedge fund strategies. Understanding the assumptions underlying the different approaches and their limitations. Topics related to current events and the recent financial crisis.
• QST FE 833: ESG Equity Investing
  ESG Equity Investing is an introductory course that provides the appropriate tools to analyze and undertake investments in publicly listed companies taking into account the social impact of these financial decisions. Different dimensions of social impact -- Environment, Social, and Governance -- are discussed along with corresponding ESG metrics available to investors. The core of the course deals with the integration of (quantitative-based) portfolio allocation models with (qualitative-based) ESG scores and objectives. The course also discusses how impact investing may affect the behavior of firms, as well as alternative channels through which investors can provide impact (private investments, activism).
• QST FE 850: Private Equity: Leveraged Buyouts
  Graduate Prerequisites: (QSTFE713 OR QSTFE820) - Private Equity (PE) is a major force in the capital markets, acquiring household names such as Dell, Toys R Us, Neilson, Nieman Marcus, and many more. This course exposes students to, and de-mystifies, the PE world. The focus is centered on LBOs and their position in the alternative asset class. Students learn about the activities of PE firms including formation, fundraising, investing (deal structure, terms, due diligence, governance) and exiting. We also discuss how other industry sectors serve or are affected by PE and who the players are. This is a capstone course that integrates marketing, strategy and finance to further the understanding of business evaluation. Case study and class participation are the primary modes of learning. Course offered jointly with undergraduate course SMG FE 450.
• QST FE 854: Entrepreneurial Finance
  Graduate Prerequisites: QST AC710 or AC711, QST FE712 or FE722 - The focus of FE854 is on the development of financial and business skills to identify, evaluate, start and manage new ventures. A comprehensive understanding of finance is an essential ingredient in the "recipe" for business success. No longer can the assumptions underlying financial projections be treated as "black boxes." In many cases, the answer is less important than the analytical process used to calculate it. Readings for the course will primarily be in the form of case studies, and will be supplemented by guest speakers, presentations, and readings from academia and industry.
• QST FE 870: Analysis and Management of Financial Risk
  Graduate Prerequisites: (QSTFE712 OR QSTFE722) - This course introduces the analysis and management of risk in the context of financial institutions. The objective of the course is to provide a conceptual framework for thinking about financial risk, covering both theoretical background and practical implementation
• QST FE 898: Directed Study: Finance
  Graduate Prerequisites: Consent of instructor and the department chair - Graduate-level directed study in Finance. 1, 2, or 3 cr. Application available on the Graduate Center website.
• QST FE 899: Directed Study: Finance
  Graduate Prerequisites: Consent of instructor and the department chair - Graduate-level directed study in Finance. 1, 2, or 3 cr. Application available on the Graduate Center website.
• QST FE 918: Doctoral Seminar in Finance
  This doctoral course, is designed to provide students with an introduction to financial economics. This lecture-based course will cover no arbitrage conditions, preferences and risk aversion, portfolio selection, the capital asset pricing model, asset pricing and dynamic asset pricing. In addition to lectures, this class will include readings and assignments. Open to MBA students with faculty member's permission. Must have strong quantitative background and several courses in finance or economics.
• QST FE 920: Advanced Capital Markets
  This course provides a comprehensive and in-depth treatment of modern asset pricing theories. Extensive use is made of continuous time stochastic processes, stochastic calculus and optimal control. In particular, martingale methods are employed to address the following topics: (i) optimal consumption- portfolio policies and (ii) asset pricing in general equilibrium models. Advances involving non-separable preferences, incomplete information and agent diversity will be discussed.
• QST FE 998: Directed Study: Finance
  Graduate Prerequisites: Consent of instructor and the department chair - PhD-level directed study in Finance. 1, 2, or 3 cr. Application available on the Graduate Center website.
• QST FE 999: Directed Study: Finance
  Graduate Prerequisites: Consent of instructor and the department chair - PhD-level directed study in Finance. 1, 2, or 3 cr. Application available on the Graduate Center website.