The School of Commerce & Enterprise · business, money & management
Finance & Investing
Where money comes from, what it costs to borrow, and how patiently it compounds.
Present value, future value, and the single idea underneath every rate you will meet.
Syllabus · 3 units · ~8 hours
Unit I — A Dollar, Dated
Why timing changes value · Future value and compounding · Present value and discounting
Unit II — Streams of Payments
Annuities and perpetuities · Loan amortization, line by line · Comparing offers with net present value
Unit III — Rates in the Wild
APR versus effective annual rate · Inflation and real returns · The rule of 72, checked against the math
Which projects to fund, how to fund them, and what the capital actually costs.
Syllabus · 4 units · ~30 hours
Unit I — Value and the Firm
The goal: value, not size · Cash flows, not earnings · NPV and IRR, with their quarrels
Unit II — Risk and Return
Diversification and what it cannot remove · Beta and the capital asset pricing model · The cost of capital, assembled
Unit III — Capital Structure
Debt versus equity: the eternal trade · Taxes, distress, and the trade-off theory · Dividends and buybacks
Unit IV — Working Capital and Beyond
Managing cash, receivables, inventory · Raising money: banks to public markets · Mergers: why most disappoint
Stocks, bonds, funds, and the patience that does most of the work.
Syllabus · 3 units · ~14 hours
Unit I — The Asset Menu
Stocks: owning a slice of earnings · Bonds: lending at a stated rate · Funds and indexing: buying the haystack · Cash, property, and the rest
Unit II — Risk, Honestly
Volatility versus permanent loss · Diversification across and within assets · Fees: the quiet compounding against you
Unit III — The Long Game
Time horizons and asset allocation · Rebalancing without fuss · Why forecasts age badly
Reading a business through its filings and arriving at a defensible price.
Syllabus · 4 units · ~26 hours
Unit I — The Analyst's Stance
Price versus value · The circle of competence · Filings: the 10-K as primary source
Unit II — The Business and Its Moat
Unit economics and returns on capital · Competitive advantage, evidenced · Management: the capital-allocation record
Unit III — Valuation
Discounted cash flow, built honestly · Multiples: comparing with care · Margin of safety as method, not slogan
Unit IV — The Decision
Writing the investment memo · Position sizing and the sell discipline · Keeping score against the index
What banks do, how central banks steer, and why interest rates move everything else.
Syllabus · 4 units · ~20 hours
Unit I — Money Itself
The functions of money · How banks create deposits · Payment systems, from checks to instant
Unit II — Banks and Their Risks
The balance sheet of a bank · Runs, panics, and deposit insurance · Regulation after each crisis
Unit III — Central Banking
The policy rate and its transmission · Inflation targeting · The lender of last resort
Unit IV — Markets
Reading the yield curve · How the bond market prices expectations · Financial crises: a short pattern book
Loss aversion, overconfidence, and the market's moods — the investor as the main risk.
Syllabus · 3 units · ~12 hours
Unit I — The Rational Baseline
Efficient markets: the claim · Anomalies that will not leave · The limits of arbitrage
Unit II — The Biased Investor
Loss aversion and the disposition effect · Overconfidence and overtrading · Herding and bubbles
Unit III — Defenses
Rules, automation, and pre-commitment · Checklists before trades · Measuring your own record honestly