BSc Economics

To expand student knowledge regarding investment, this course covers diverse topics, including portfolio management and diversification, performance evaluation, bond and equity valuation, and introduces students to futures, options, behavioral finance, as well as professional ethics.  

BMAN 20072 has pre-reqs of:BMAN10522/BMAN10522(M) or BMAN10552. BMAN10552 must be passed at 60% or above to be eligible to take BMAN20072.BMAN23000 (A), (B) or (C) are co-requisites of BMAN20072.

Pre-requisite course units have to be passed by 40% or above at the first attempt unless a higher percentage is indicated within this course outline. If the pre-requisite unit is defined as a compulsory course unit within your programme of study (Maths with Finance, IBFE, Accounting, BA Econ pathways for example) then progression onto the dependent unit is permitted as long as you have gained the appropriate amount of credit to progress on to the following year of your registered undergraduate programme.

Pre-requisites:
BMAN10522/10522(M) Financial Decision Making or
BMAN10552 Fundamentals of Finance with an examination pass mark of 60% or above.

Co-requisites: BMAN23000(A) or (B) Foundations of Finance.

Dependent course units: BMAN30190 Empirical Finance (Only available to students specialising in Finance either singly or jointly and provided the following area pre-reqs have been passed. BMAN23000 (A) or (B) Foundations of Finance, BMAN20072 Investment Analysis and BMAN20081 Financial Statement Analysis).

This course develops the understanding and application of the theory, tools, terminology, and professional ethics of investments from a finance viewpoint. To maximize transferability of knowledge and skills, this course emphasizes general investment principles as opposed to details of specific securities and investment vehicles, which are subject to regular changes. Successful completion of the course lays the foundation for students wishing to pursue a career that involves providing and implementing investment advice. 

Students should be able to:  

Week 1-1: Introduction

Week 1-2: Risk and Capital Allocation

Week 2-1: Optimal Risky Portfolio

Week 2-2: Markowitz Portfolio Optimization

Week 3-1: Index Models

Week 3-2: Security Analysis

Week 4-1: Portfolio Performance Evaluation

Week 4-2: Capital Asset Pricing Model

Week 5-1: Arbitrage Pricing Theory

Week 5-2: Empirical Evidence on Security Returns

Week 6-1: Efficient Market Hypothesis

Week 6-2: Behavioural Finance

Week 7: Guest Lecture

Week 8-1: Term Structure of Interest Rate

Week 8-2: Managing Bond Portfolio

Week 9-1: Futures

Week 9-2: Options

Week 10: Revision 

All lectures will be on campus. The course unit has 18 one-hour lectures. Power point slides for all lectures can be downloaded from Canvas. Students are expected to read the prescribed readings in the Timetable below.

In addition to the lectures, there will be 4 one-hour workshops, designed for problem solving. All workshop materials in the form of questions with solutions will be available on Canvas.  

 

Lectures:  

18 one-hour lectures. 
 

All lectures will be recorded, and the corresponding lecture slides can be downloaded from Canvas.  

 

Workshops:  

Four workshops will be held, each session is 50 minutes long.  

The aim of workshops is to provide students the opportunity to interact with the teaching assistant and other students to obtain immediate feedback. The workshops will mainly focus on solving some of the weekly problem sets. Students are expected to solve the problem sets by themselves before participating in.  

Students can post their questions on Canvas discussion forum. Teaching staff will try their best to answer those questions in the forum and also during the workshop sessions if time allows.  

 

Problem sets:

Questions on problem sets are designed to help students testing their knowledge and understandings. They will be available together with the lecture materials.

Solving problem-set questions before seeing the solutions is highly recommend to students, as it is a very good preparation for the final exam. Answering and discussing them will be the delivered during workshop sessions. We strongly recommend students pay attention and actively participate in discussions at workshops. 

KU1: Gain the knowledge of the theory, tools, and terminology of investment management.

KU2: Understand the limits of such knowledge and its effects on analyses and interpretation. 

IS1: Develop logical and critical thinking for the decision making of portfolio allocation and derivative investment. 
 

PS1: Develop computational and quantitative problem-solving skills.

PS2: Gain experience in a real-world portfolio investment exercise.

PS3: Be familiar with the latest developments and innovations in investment analysis. 

TS1: Build capacity for independent and self-managed learning, as well as working with other members of a team. 

Formative Assessment:
Group coursework

Summative Assessment:
Examination (100%)

Formative Assessment: Portfolio performance will be discussed in the revision lecture.  

Exam: Marks and feedback will be available at the Semester 2 Publication date.

Textbook: Bodie, Z., Kane, A., and Marcus, A., Investments, 13th edition, McGraw-Hill Irwin.  

eTextbook is available via the link provided in Canvas course webpage.  

Supplementary Text: Standards of Practice Handbook, 2014, 11th edition, CFA Institute Reference for “Week 7 Professional Ethics in Finance” Available at: https://www.cfainstitute.org/sites/default/files/-/media/documents/code/code-ethics-standards/standards-practice-handbook-11th-ed-eff-July-2014-corr-sept-2014.pdf

 

 

 

Information
Length of course: 12 weeks
 

 

Tuition fees for home students commencing their studies in September 2027 will be £10,050 per annum. Tuition fees for international students will be £35,300 per annum.

For general information please see the undergraduate finance pages.

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.

As an international student you may be eligible for our Global Futures Scholarships . This is open to students starting their studies in September 2026.