BSc Management (Accounting & Finance) with Industrial/Professional Experience / Course details

The course will study the practical element of investing. Students will study the background of financial markets and investment communities.  We will look how this has developed into the roles and the player’s active in today’s investment industry.  Students will research, present and apply practical investment styles, strategies, evaluation and selection techniques that have been used by very successful investors over time as well as new strategies applied today.

Students will gain knowledge about different investment vehicles that can be used such as mutual funds, investment trusts, exchange traded funds or single lines of stocks etc. Students will also provide understanding and practise about different types of investors and their requirements and limitations when investing.

Trying to solely understand financial markets is not enough to be successful in the financial industry today. To be able to understand clients’ specific needs, how to create an investment mandate and suitable investment portfolios for different types of investors are also key skills.  Therefore the students will conduct client role plays and provide a client recommendation for investing.

The students will also participate in numerous active stock trading simulations to be able to apply their investment knowledge at different stages.

The course will mainly be taught by Patricia Perlman-Dee who has spent over 11 years in the industry on trading floors in numerous investment banks such as Citigroup, JP Morgan and Nomura, followed by Wealth Management at Barclays. The course has large input from industry professionals.

BMAN20072 and BMAN23000(A)/(B) are the pre-requisite for BMAN32082. Available to students on BSc Mgt/Mgt Specialism, IM, IMABS, BSc Accounting, IBFE, BA (Econ) Accounting and Finance Pathways, BSc Economics & BSc Maths with Finance.

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:
BMAN23000(A)(B) Foundations of Finance
BMAN20072 Investment Analysis

It is strongly preferred that students have achieved 60% or higher in the pre-requisite course units listed above. 

The course unit aims to:

• Understand the background and roles in financial markets, investment banking and fund management industry.
• Discuss theories of market efficiency; active vs passive management
• Critically examine and evaluate practical investment techniques used by some of the world’s most successful investors
• Explain how different types of investors make investment choices
• Apply a range of investment techniques/strategies in creating and managing a portfolio for different investor ‘s needs
• Apply acquired investment knowledge in trading a portfolio of Equities
• Review and critically evaluate choice of benchmark and choice of investment vehicles
• Present  and explain investment advisory solutions according to clients’ needs
• Review and critically evaluate the impact of constraints, ethics and behavioural finance in the investment industry
• Provide an overview of the practical aspects and terminology in the investment industry

The syllabus involves a combination of lectures, guest speaker, workshops, trading sessions, role plays, group projects and presentations as per suggested Week and Teaching outline below. Some weeks will have both allocated lectures as well as workshops. Lectures will be delivered face to face in the lecture theatre. The only exception is Lecture 7 – which will be a live online session for Q&A. Workshops will be delivered online as well as face to face. Workshop 2 will all be delivered online for all groups due to the nature of the Group Assessment. Workshop 4 and Lecture 7 are delivered after the Easter Break. Face to face workshop groups will be limited to 330 students per group because of room restrictions as well as timings for Group Assessment and Role Play exercise.

There will be ongoing exercises/assessments throughout the course. Completion of these exercises ON TIME is essential for being awarded marks.

Lecture Topics

Week 1 - Lec 1

Welcome and Course overview and administration, Overview Asset classes, What are Capital Markets, Why do Capital Markets exist, , Development of Investment Banks, Industry participants, buy side vs sell side, etc. Impact on asset classes by market event. Guest Speaker – Senior Investment Banker

Week 2 - Lec 2

Review of portfolio theory, Asset Allocation/Strategic/Tactical, Passive vs Active vs market efficiency, Active share, smart Beta, Introduction Style Investing and Group Assignment presentation in week 4 workshop 2- External Guest speaker; CIO of Investment firm

Week 3 - Lec 3

Overview theory equity valuation, Equity Research analyst work, Importance of data and assumptions, Sources of information, Equity valuation in practice, The real value in equity research, Understanding Equity Research reports, Introduction to  ESG investments, including selection methodologies. 2 External Guest Speakers ; Divisional Investment Director; what does good research look like. Investment Partner- ESG Investments

Week 5 - Lec 4

Different type of investors; private client, institutional:  How does pension fund invest/manage risk, what are hedge funds and different hedge fund strategies. Establishing a policy statement, Understanding individual risk and return, External External Guest speaker; Managing Director, International Wealth Management firm

Week 6 - Lec 5

What is an investment mandate, Practical investment mandates, Understanding of different types of investment vehicles and how they are used in investment mandates, The investment selection process. External Guest Speaker; Investment manager

Week 7 - Lec 6

Theoretical performance evaluation vs Practical Performance evaluation, presentation of performance, Understanding benchmarks, understanding fees and implications of fees on performance, typical investment mandates. Introduction to Behavioural Finance : External guest speaker; Financial Expert on Fee and regulation

Week 10 - Lec 7

Learnings from client meetings, Revision topics, Q&A *Optional

Workshop

Week 2 - Workshop 1

Trading session 1, Efficient Market, understanding different type of trading orders

Example Activities: Active trading on Fin Lab, numerous trading sessions with separate learnings, discussions and reflections

Week 4 - Workshop 2

Group Presentations of 5 Successful investors (groups of 4/5)- Formal Assessment

What is investment style; value, growth, contrarian etc. Study of 5 successful investors over time, technique, style, application and implementation-Peer to Peer learning

All workshops will be ONLINE for this Workshop

Example Activities: GROUP ASSESSMENT 1 -Each group to present for 8 min total; power point pres + 2 page fact sheet, each student to provide detailed peer to peer feedback (participation). Investment professionals invited to take part in panel

Week 6 - Workshop 3

Practical application of subjects studied so far; asset allocation, investment mandates, investment vehicles, client information

Example Activities: Exercises; Asset Allocation, Case studies; Investment mandates, Case study; investment vehicles, preparation for a client meeting, understanding relevant information for recommendation, Usage of Beta. What is market neutral? Market outlook,  Equity research, Group discussions and calculations.

Week 9 - Workshop 4

Investment mandate case studies from case study. Trading session 2; trading/investing with constraints

Example Activities: The students will have created recommended client portfolios that will need to be submitted to BB and discussed/presented in WS 4 (classroom participation). Discussion of investment mandate case studies, trading session where individual client con

• L1: Explain, compare and contrast and critically evaluate the analytical tools and evaluation methods used by some of the world’s greatest investors
• L2: Identify the participants in the financial markets and their roles (investment focus)
• L3: Demonstrate the understanding of different investor needs, requirements and constraints.
• L4: Recognize the importance of both team and specialist input.

• L5: Demonstrate the analytical skills of evaluating and selecting investments
• L6: Compare and contrast theoretical knowledge with investor needs in creating financial solutions

• L7: Create an investment portfolio
• L8: Illustrate, analyze, organize and implement investment solutions/recommendations for different clients
• L9: Ability to conduct a client meeting
• L10: Create, run and conduct trading of a portfolio of equities

• L11: Demonstrate understanding of importance of transferrable skills in the investment industry
• L12: Understand the importance of collaboration, recognizing strengths and weaknesses and how to use these most efficiently in the investment industry.
• L13: Demonstrate confident presentation skills
• L14: Demonstrate professional relationship & communication skills

• 50 % 1 hour unseen MCQ exam - Date to be confirmed
• 35% Group work and presentation – A) 8 minutes Powerpoint presentation(6 min pres+2 min Q&A) of max 8 slides, 2 pages “factsheet” to be produced in addition to the presentation and peer to peer feedback submission for each observed group, peer review. B) 2 Portfolio submissions, peer review
• 15% Active Engagement Assessments - assessments are objectively measured through submission of Trading activity results, BB Quizzes and submission of Active participation exercises

Detailed description of each Assignment and how marks are awarded and allocated can be found on Blackboard under Assignment Info

Feedback will be provided through multiple channels.

In-class feedback will be provided through discussions and questioning, with both lecturer, peer-to-peer and through interaction with guest speakers. Students will also receive instant feedback in the lectures and workshops though the use of Turning Point Polling which will be used for students to test acquired knowledge as well as possibilities of own drawn conclusions.

The workshops will provide immediate feedback though discussion of cases and exercises. Students will receive feedback from workshop leader but also through Peer-to-peer learning through for example role play.

Students will receive written and/or verbal feedback on assessed group work and group presentations. Students will receive generic written feedback on examination through Blackboard. Students wishing to discuss individual exam performance should follow established Alliance MBS procedures for performance review.

Student emails and questions will be responded to within 48 working hours.

I very much welcome feedback from students. Students will have the opportunity to fill out a course evaluation form as well as providing ongoing feedback though out the course. I will encourage students to provide ongoing feedback as this will be a new course.

An up to date suggested reading resource list will be provided on BB before the course starts.

The recommended text books are; (indicative chapters)

Reilly, Brown & Leeds, Investment Analysis & Portfolio Management, 11^th Edition, Cengage (RB) Chapters; 1,2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10(353-356) ,11,17, 18,

It is desired that this will be available on Kortext

Students will use a range of practical literature such as; Peter Lynch with John Rothchild; One up on Wall Street, Benjamin Graham; The Intelligent Investor, Robert Hagstrom; The Warren Buffet Way, David Dreman; Contrarian Investment Strategies, etc.

The final literature list will be confirmed closed to course start

CFA Institute material; Standard of Practice Handbook, 2010, 10^th edition, CFA Institute, see heep://www.cfapubs.org/doi/pdf/10.2469/ccb.v2010.n2.1

Journal Articles, Daily Articles from FT etc

Students are encouraged to do their own research through sources as Thomson One, Stockopedia, Validea, Investorguide.com, Yahoo Finance, Morning Star, FT.com, Bloomberg, Citiwire etc.

A trading platform; Finance Lab Pro will be made available for students to trade a portfolio of equities.

The readings will also consist of specifically tailor-made videos by investment professionals from for example Seneca Investment Management, Barclays Wealth, Instructus Markets, TilneyBestInvest, Simon Baynes Ltd., Julius Baer, Brown Shipley, Brewin Dolphin and Corvinus Capital.

A separate suggested reading resource list will be provided on BB before the course starts.

Lectures: 6 x2 hours =12 hours +1 x 1 hour =Optional summary lecture

Workshops: 4x2 hours =8 hours (including Group Assessment presentation) – Workshops will be synchronous and delivered face to face (or online – one workshop group) with exception of workshop 2 which will be delivered online for all groups.

You will not be able to change or swap workshop groups once the course has started. Please check your schedule well in advance. Remember workshop attendance is mandatory and group work will be allocated to the groups in the workshop. Therefore will it not be possible to accommodate changes unless exceptional circumstances.

Total 20.0 Formal contact hours

80.0 independent study hours split between self-study, preparation for lectures and workshops, reading, on-line material, exercises, assessment preparation. Total study hours are 100 hours split between formal contact hours and independent study hours

Programme Restrictions: ONLY for BSc Management, BA (Econ) Accounting and Finance, BA (Econ) Finance, BA (Econ) Economics and Finance, BSc in Accounting, , BA/BSc International Business, Finance and Economics, BSc Maths with Finance, BSc/BA Economics, BSc Economics

The course has a restriction of maximum 130 participants due to room constraints of workshops and computer labs as we would like to make sure we can get allocation to labs that are within AMBS’s facilities. This would mean four workshop groups with maximum 35 participants in each as per room restrictions (accounting for faulty computers etc). This restriction could possibly be reviewed for future years.

For Academic Year 2024/25

Updated: March 2024

Approved by: March UG Committee