MSc Quantitative Finance

Fees for entry in 2027 have not yet been set. For reference, the fees for the academic year beginning September 2026 were as follows:

• MSc (full-time)
  UK students (per annum): £22,600
  International, including EU, students (per annum): £36,800

The fees quoted above are fully inclusive of tuition, administration and computational costs.

Fees for entry are subject to yearly review. The University reserves the right to increase your tuition fee by up to 7% each year for courses lasting more than one year, including to reflect rising costs associated with delivering our educational and wider student experience. Postgraduate fees information .

Always contact the admissions team if you are unsure which fee applies to your qualification award and method of attendance.

All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. Any unavoidable additional compulsory costs totalling more than 1% of the annual home undergraduate fee per annum, regardless of whether the programme in question is undergraduate or postgraduate taught, will be made clear to you at the point of application. Further information can be found in the University's Policy on additional costs incurred by students on undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes (PDF document, 91KB).

We know that student finance can be complicated. The links below provide further information to help guide you.

Learn more about - student finance options for UK students.

Learn more about - fees and finance for international students.

Graduates of The University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University can receive a 10% discount on their master's degree tuition fees as part of our Manchester Alumni Loyalty Discount scheme.

Topic 1: Mean-variance portfolio analysis and the CAPM 
Topic 2: Asset Pricing: A complete markets model
Topic 3: Option Pricing and Risk-Neutral Valuation 
Topic 4: Multi-Period Asset Pricing
Topic 5: Forward and Future Prices

BMAN70381 Programme Req: BMAN70381 is only available as a core unit to students on MSc Quantitative Finance and MSc Mathematical Finance

•  To gain a good understanding of the main theories and techniques of modern asset pricing.
•  To follow the derivation of the Capital Asset Pricing Model and the Black-Scholes option pricing model.
•  To appreciate the applications of these theories in portfolio analysis, risk management and corporate finance.
•  To develop analytical skills for use in Finance.

 

On completion of this unit successful students will have achieved the following learning outcomes:

•  Understand and be able to apply the main techniques of modern asset pricing.
•  Understand the main assumptions of the Capital Asset Pricing Model and be able to derive the main steps of the model.
•  Appreciate the most important applications of the model.
•  Understand how the model applies in a multi-period world.
•  Understand the principle of risk-neutral valuation and be able to derive the Black-Scholes option pricing model.
•  Appreciate the difference between forward contracts and futures contracts.
•  Understand the pricing of forward and futures contracts.

Set of Exercises (20%)

MCQ Examination (80%)

Informal advice and discussion during a lecture, seminar, workshop or lab.
Responses to student emails and questions from a member of staff including feedback provided to a group via an online discussion forum.
Written and/or verbal comments on assessed or non-assessed coursework.

Poon and Stapleton, Asset Pricing in Discrete Time: A Complete Markets Approach, Oxford UP, 2005
Copeland, Weston and Shastri, Financial Theory and Corporate Policy, 4th International edition, Prentice Hall, 2005
For a review of some basic mathematical techniques that are used in financial theory see Copeland and Weston, appendix B, D. For a review of the properties of the normal distribution see Stapleton and Poon: Appendix of Chapter 3.
Selection of seminar academic papers for each topic (provided by the course coordinator)

Informal Contact Methods

Office Hours