Department of Business Administration

Course schedule: Fridays, as listed in the course outline.

Goals

Students taking this elective course should expect to learn the nature and purposes of financial investments in an international context. They will gain skills in investing techniques and in risk management, including trading aspects. They will learn, through hands-on case studies and portfolio management, how to judge the risk of stocks from an investor's perspective, and how to create and manage investment positions. In the end, the goal is to apply state-of-the-art techniques to stock market investing and risk management decisions.

Instructor

Prof. António Marques-Mendes
Office nr.: 417. Tel +351-239-790-548; Fax +351-239-790-413
Web site   http://www.marques-mendes.com • E-mail student@marques-mendes.com

Lectures and seminars take place in Room PC2

Tutorials and appointments are available by prior booking through email

Details on Marques Mendes' current research interests and availability to supervise MBA and PhD thesis can be found in his personal web page.

Pedagogy

The course employs cases and problems as well as classroom lectures and discussions. We will make use of international as well as domestic examples. Written assignments will be due for most sessions. Some will be prepared individually and some in group. Each student will be expected to participate actively in class discussions. There will be a final exam.

The Course on the Internet

We will make use of the Internet--notably the World Wide Web--for resource material and communication. Indeed this course outline itself will change: the definitive version is at the Web site http://www.marques-mendes.com/feuc/ifi/ . All students must have an email address and Web access. Your default address will be the one assigned by the Course Instructor. Lecture materials, as available, can be downloaded from the Web. (In some cases you will need the Adobe Acrobat reader, Version 3 or higher, available free from Adobe's World Wide Web Site http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html.). To access the course site, use alunoifi+student number (e.g. alunoifi01) as ID, and your 9-digit password (ask me to get it).

To keep up with the world of international investment try the following Web sites:

• CNN Finance • The Financial Times • Yahoo Finance • Bloomberg • Reuters • MarketWatch

• and much more at Marques-Mendes's Finance Resources on the Web

Text and cases

Marques-Mendes, The education of a stock market investor ( mimeo, forthcoming) ESMI;

Stephen Lofthouse, et al, Investment Management  (2001) IM.

Students should have read the assignments before coming to class. Material covered in the assigned textbook readings will generally not be repeated in class. Rather, class time will be devoted to lecture and case discussion, applying the material covered in the readings.

Grading

• Class participation 20% 
• Cases/problems 50%
• Final examination 30%.