Results for FINANCE

This course covers the foundations of finance with an emphasis on applications that are vital for corporate managers. We will discuss many of the major financial decisions made by corporate managers, both within the firm and in their interactions with investors. Essential in most of these decisions is the process of valuation, which will be an important emphasis of the course. Topics include criteria for making investment decisions, valuation of financial assets and liabilities, relationships between risk and return, capital structure choice, payout policy, the use and valuation of derivative securities (e.g., options and convertible securities), and risk management. This course is targeted to those students who are new to finance and for those with little quantitative background.

This course covers the foundations of finance with an emphasis on applications that are vital for corporate managers. We will discuss many of the major financial decisions made by corporate managers, both within the firm and in their interactions with investors. Essential in most of these decisions is the process of valuation, which will be an important emphasis of the course. Topics include criteria for making investment decisions, valuation of financial assets and liabilities, relationships between risk and return, capital structure choice, payout policy, the use and valuation of derivative securities (e.g., options and convertible securities), and risk management. This accelerated course is designed for those students who are relatively new to finance but who possess solid quantitative skills.

This course covers the foundations of finance with an emphasis on applications that are vital for corporate managers. We will tackle most of the important financial decisions made by corporate managers, both within the firm and in their interactions with investors. Essential in most of these decisions is the process of valuation, which will be an important emphasis of the course. Topics include criteria for making investment decisions, valuation of financial assets and liabilities, relationships between risk and return, capital structure choice, payout policy, the use and valuation of derivative securities (e.g., options and convertible securities), and risk management. This advanced course is targeted to those with a strong background in finance and (at least) solid quantitative skills.

This course, intended for graduate students and advanced undergraduates, covers the foundations of finance with applications in corporate finance and investment management. It discusses many of the major financial decisions made by managers and investors, emphasizing the process of valuation. Topics include criteria for making investment decisions, risk and return, market efficiency, capital structure, and the valuation of derivative securities (e.g., options). The course also provides coverage of the major financial instruments issued by corporations including debt, equity, and convertible securities. Prerequisite: ability to use spreadsheets, knowledge of basic probability and statistics concepts, including random variables, expected value, variance, covariance, and simple estimation and regression. For registration questions about this course, please contact the Graduate School of Business at academic_operations@gsb.stanford.edu.

This course covers the foundations of finance with applications in corporate finance and investment management. It discusses many of the major financial decisions made by corporate managers and investors. Essential in many of these decisions is the process of valuation, which will be an important emphasis of the course. Topics include criteria for making investment decisions, valuation of financial assets and liabilities, relationships between risk and return, market efficiency, and the valuation of derivative securities (e.g., options). The course also provides coverage of the major financial instruments issued by corporations including debt, equity, and convertible securities.

This seminar focuses on private equity investing, including investments with control, buyouts, and minority investments at various stages in a company's life. Private equity investing activity has grown significantly over the past decade. This seminar explores selected topics in private equity investing for those MBA students who take the corequisite course FINANCE 321, Investment Management and Entrepreneurial Finance. Private equity includes both established and early stage companies. The course extends and deepens the entrepreneurial finance area for those with an interest in private equity, venture capital and principal investing, taking a global view. Utilization will be made of original case studies and lecture-discussions, building on the framework of FINANCE 321. The Seminar meets with outstanding investors.nnnAll those registered in F321.1 will also be registered in F319. See yellow Term Sheet put in MBA Boxes in early May.nnnAll those registered in F321.2 will also be registered in F329. See yellow Term Sheet.

This course is intended for those who plan careers that may involve debt financing for their businesses or other investments, or involve trading or investing in debt instruments and their derivatives, including money-market instruments, government bonds, repurchase agreements, interest-rate swaps, mortgage-backed securities (MBS), corporate bonds, structured credit products, and credit derivatives. We will emphasize institutional features of the markets, including trading, pricing, and hedging. There is a special focus on distressed debt. Most lectures will start with a cold-called student presentation of an un-graded short homework calculation. There will also be a series of graded homework, an in-class mid-term, and about six graded 'pop quizzes' of 10 minutes or less.

Equity investment in companies, common stocks, early/growth stage ventures, deals, partnerships, hedge funds, or other entrepreneurial opportunities will be immediately or eventually important for most MBAs--either on the investing side or on the fund-raising financing side. This investment course discusses many practical and conceptual factors influencing the analysis and value of companies and deals, including publicly listed and private equity investments, and on success of investment approaches. The focus of this course is on quoted and private equity investments and on entrepreneurial finance. The format of the class is primarily case discussions and lecture discussions led by the professor and investors/principals who were involved in the case. This course enables MBA students to learn a broad investing skill-set and to study outstanding investors. Additional sessions are offered on three Wednesday afternoons in Fall. See yellow Term Sheet put in MBA Boxes in early May.

The focus of this course is to apply the fundamental ideas of corporate finance to real-world problems. This course is a follow-up to the Fall course in Managerial Finance in which the basics of finance and valuation were covered. We will explore both how to make the acquired knowledge practical as well as to deepen our understanding of the core principles of finance.nnnDuring the course we will analyze cases covering a wide range of topics such as capital structure, private equity and venture capital, mergers and acquisitions, hostile takeovers and leveraged buyouts, as well as bankruptcy and financial distress. These cases provide an opportunity to bridge the gap between theory and real-life situations. Students are expected to develop their own spreadsheets and provide recommendations based on their analysis of the case material. nnnThis course was formerly known as FINANCE 224. An accelerated version of this course is offered as FINANCE 331.

This course is an introduction to options, futures and other derivative securities. The goal is to learn a core set of principles that underlie the pricing and use of derivatives. In particular, we will cover the valuation and use, both for risk management and for speculation, of forwards, futures, swaps, and options; the Black-Scholes option-pricing formula; delta-hedging; credit derivatives; financial risk management; and the role of derivatives in the recent financial crisis.

The aim of this course is to develop a thorough understanding of financial markets. We explore how investors make decisions about risk and return, how financial markets price risky assets in equilibrium, and how financial markets can sometimes malfunction. The course puts particular emphasis on the role of real-world imperfections that are absent from the standard textbook view of financial markets. For example, we explore the role of illiquidity: Why are there liquid markets for some types of assets but not for others? Why does liquidity often disappear in times of market turmoil? We will also study recent insights from behavioral finance about investor psychology and market inefficiencies. Moreover, we will look at financial innovations such as credit-default swaps, securitization, and hedge funds that play important roles in financial markets these days. We use cases to develop these topics in the context of practical decision-problems in the areas of asset allocation, risk management, and financing.

"Global Principal Investing/Hedge Funds" is a seminar on selected topics in masterful investing in publicly traded and private equity/venture capital investments, with focus on the principal's point of view. We study hedge funds and mutual funds and meet with outstanding investors. The scope and context is global including emerging markets. The Seminar is taught by a founding director of one of the largest international investment funds.nnnAll those registered in F321.1 will also be registered in F319. See yellow Term Sheet put in MBA Boxes in early May.nnnAll those registered in F321.2 will also be registered in F329. See yellow Term Sheet.

This course covers strategic and tactical asset allocation in investment portfolios as well as specific asset and manager selection. We consider challenges that are unique to the various asset classes that comprise broad-based portfolios, including: public equities, fixed income securities, private equity (both buyout and venture capital), hedge funds, and real assets (real estate, energy, timber, and commodities). We also consider challenges that are specific to various geographies (domestic versus developed international versus emerging markets) across the various asset classes. The portfolio optimization framework employed considers the perspective of different types of investors that vary along such dimensions as risk preference, liquidity preference/investment horizon, tax status, social objectives, and special asset-specific relationship, information or skill advantages.nn nnMore specifically, our framework considers: tradeoffs between seeking diversification to control risks, and making concentrated bets where there appears to be outsized return prospects (whether due to one-off proprietary investment opportunities or the market appearing to value certain sectors improperly); tradeoffs between passive investment (at low administrative cost and complexity) and active investment designed to produce premium returns (despite the incremental cost and complexity); distinctions between investing as principals and delegating to managers, and the importance of aligning incentives among all parties; the importance of liquidity in driving the pricing, risk and expected returns to various asset classes and the importance of identifying which parties are natural suppliers of liquidity and which the natural demanders; the importance of effective underwriting and ongoing monitoring of investment opportunities; the importance of tax considerations in the pricing and expected returns to various asset classes; and the importance of identifying which parties form the natural clienteles in each asset class.nn nnFor a number of the sessions, we will invite domain experts to add spice and depth to a portion of the class discussion.

(Note: this course was formerly known as FIN 230) The main aim of this course is to enable students to apply the fundamental ideas of finance to problems in the area of corporate finance with all the complexities the real world entails. The course is a follow-up to the Fall Managerial Finance course where students learnt basics of valuation tecyhniques and various finance applications. We will explore both how to make all this knowledge practical as well as how to deepen our knowledge of fundamental finance ideas. nnnThe main focus of this course is on the corporate financial manager and how he/she reaches decisions as to investments, dividends and financing of all sorts. Topics include leveraged buyouts, hostile takeovers, private equity financing and venture capital, financial distress and bankruptcy, mergers and acquisitions, managing working capital. The cases will be used to motivate our discussion of how to bridge the gap between rigorous finance theory and its application to practical problems in corporate finance.nnnThe course is case-based and more advanced than FINANCE 324. "Advanced" means that we will discuss a lot of subtle qualitative issues as well as explore deeper fundamental applications of core finance ideas. The course is intensive and will require students to prepare carefully all cases, read and understand a lot of materials, and actively participate in the class discussion. The main teaching method is cold calling.

This course will develop a detailed knowledge of corporate valuation techniques, together with an understanding of the role such valuations play in a wide range of corporate financing decisions. First, the course will carefully consider different valuation techniques, the assumptions that underlie each of these methods, how they are applied in practice, how they are related to one another, and how to decide which method of valuation is appropriate for a given application. After developing these tools, they will then be applied to a wide range of corporate finance settings. Among the applications to be considered are mergers and acquisitions, international valuation, corporate governance, financial distress, agency conflicts, asymmetric information, and overvaluation. For all of these applications, this course will emphasize the central importance of valuation to understanding observed phenomena and to guiding optimal decision making, as well as the unique challenges to valuation posed by the particular application.

This course will combine practical and up-to-date investment theory with modeling applications. Understanding beautiful theory, without the ability to apply it, is essentially useless. Conversely, creating state-of-the-art spreadsheets that apply incorrect theory is a waste of time. Here, we try to explicitly combine theory and application.nnnThe course will be divided into 6 modules, or topics. The first day of each module will be a lecture on an investment topic. Also provided is a team modeling project on the topic. The second day of each module will be a lab. The lab day will begin with modeling concepts (tips) designed to help you use Excel to implement the module's investment topic. After the tips are provided, the remainder of the lab day is devoted to teams working on their modeling project and allowing for Q&A. On the third day of each module will be presentations and wrap-up.

Financial crises are as old as financial markets themselves. There are many similarities between historical events. The recent credit crisis, for example, is far from unique. More often than not financial crises are the result of bubbles in certain asset classes or can be linked to a specific form of financial innovation. This course gives an overview of the history of financial crises, asset price bubbles, banking collapses and debt crises. We start with the Tulip mania in 1636 and end with the recent credit and debt crises. The purpose of the course is to understand the causes of past crises and to develop a conceptual framework that ties common elements together. We will discuss the lessons that we can draw for financial markets today.

The object of this course is to study the money management industry from the perspective of the user --- an investor who wants to invest money. This course will study the main components of the money management industry: mutual funds, hedge funds, private equity funds and venture capital funds. It will also examine important users of the industry such as non profits, endowments and defined benefit pension funds. The emphasis of the course will not be on how fund managers make money, but rather on how the industry is organized, how managerial skill is assessed, how compensation is determined, and how economic rents are divided between managers and investors. The course will explore how competitive market forces interact with managerial skill and other market frictions to give rise to the observed organization of the industry.

The course will take the perspective of a mid-level manager or decision-maker who is responsible for collecting, analyzing, and utilizing financial information in the context of a major transaction. The class will integrate theories presented throughout courses in the core, particularly accounting and finance. In addition to providing an important context for application of these theories, the seminar will also incorporate various methodologies that will enhance a manager's ability to develop and review financial models. Students will work on a series of cases and build models that can be used for earnings and pro-forma financial statement forecasts, valuation, the assessment of financing needs, merger analysis, and LBO evaluation. Students will also gain experience presenting financial models and critically assessing them. By the conclusion of the course, students will develop the skills to construct complex financial models and the logical frameworks to utilize them for various organizational applications.

Students will engage in the development of corporate financial modeling cases and solutions. Students will also develop materials to aid others in building financial models, and serve as case leaders during lab workshops. Extensive background in financial modeling and experience with Excel is required.

This course provides an introduction to behavioral finance, a discipline which integrates insights from psychology into the study of financial decisions and markets. There will be a focus on understanding the psychological underpinnings of financial decision-making as well as the institutional frictions that may allow these psychological mechanisms to influence economic outcomes. Applications include the pricing of assets relative to fundamental value, trading strategies, managerial behavior, and household savings and investment decisions. Conceptual issues will be emphasized through a mix of case discussions and lectures, and quantitative exercises will serve to develop analytical tools for making financial choices.

This 2-unit elective in the MBA Program is an analytical review and simulation of a private equity transaction from the viewpoint of the private equity partnership. The course looks at all aspects of a "deal" and may be of interest to five groups of students: (i) students who may be interested in working in private equity as a career; (ii) students who plan to be employed by operating companies that are owned by private equity firms; (iii) students who may invest in private equity partnerships as a limited partner; (iv) students who find private equity to be an interesting part of the financial community in general (v) students who expect to participate in corporate business development or mergers and acquisitions. The course will meet for nine classes, most for a duration of 90 minutes. One class will be a mock investment review committee presentation as a final project.

This course is an introductory PhD level course in financial economics. We begin with individual choice under uncertainty, then move on to equilibrium models, the stochastic discount factor methodology, and no-arbitrage pricing. We will also address various empirical puzzles relating to asset markets, and explore the models that have been developed to try to explain them.

This course continues F620 in covering some of the main concepts of asset pricing. Among the topics covered: (i) Dynamic asset pricing models in discrete and continuous time (i) Rational Expectation models and their foundations (iii) strategic trading models.

This course is an introduction to multiperiod models in finance, mainly pertaining to optimal portfolio choice and asset pricing. The course begins with discrete-time models for portfolio choice and security prices, and then moves to a continuous-time setting. The topics then covered include the Black-Scholes model of asset pricing and some of its extensions, models of the term structure of interest rates, valuation of corporate securities, portfolio choice in continuous-time settings, and finally, general-equilibrium asset pricing models. Students should have had some previous exposure to general equilibrium theory and some basic courses in investments. Strong backgrounds in calculus, linear algebra, and probability theory are recommended. Problem assignments are frequent and, for most students, demanding. Prerequisite: F620 or permission of instructor.

This course considers a wide range of topics in theoretical corporate finance (broadly interpreted). Topics include capital structure decisions, agency conflicts in the firm, dividend policy, security design, optimal financial contracting, the theory of the firm, the market for corporate control, and banking and financial intermediation, among others. The primary focus is on how asymmetric information, agency conflicts, strategic interactions, and incomplete contracting affect corporate financial decision-making. The course aims both to familiarize students with influential papers and current research, and to promote new research ideas in the area.

This course is an introduction to empirical research in finance. The focus of the course is on applications of econometric methods in finance. We cover applications of time-series (macro) econometrics (much of asset pricing), but also some key issues in panel data (micro) econometrics (mostly corporate finance). Topics include tests of asset pricing models, return predictability in time-series and cross-section, empirical studies of asset market imperfections, studies of individual and professional investor behavior, and identification and specification issues in empirical corporate finance. The aim is to familiarize students with essential econometric methods and with important empirical facts and areas of current research interest.

This is a course on contemporary theoretical and empirical issues in corporate finance. Building upon the first-year courses in corporate finance theory and empirical methods in finance, we will examine issues in asset pricing applications to corporate finance, dynamic capital structure (dynamic financing decisions), financial distress, financing and investment interactions, and behavioral corporate finance. Both conceptual economic frameworks and econometric methods will be developed as needed. A requirement for this course is that students complete two written projects, one theoretical and one empirical, and at least one of these projects will be presented to the class.

Finance Pre-Seminar Reading

This course explores the interplay between dynamic asset pricing theory, statistical assumptions about sources of risk, and the choice of econometric methods for analysis of asset return data. Therefore, the lectures will be a blend of theory, econometric method, and critical review of empirical studies. Both arbitrage-free and equilibrium preference-based pricing models will be discussed, with particular emphasis given to recent developments and outstanding puzzles in the literature. nnnThe prerequisites for F632 are MGTECON 603 - 604, Finance 620, Finance 622, and Finance 625. In particular, I will assume familiarity with dynamic asset pricing theory, at the level of F622; and large-sample theory for least-squares, generalized method-of-moments, and maximum likelihood estimation methods. We will review these methods in the context of specific applications, but this material will not be developed in depth.

This course is offered for students requiring specialized training in an area not covered by existing courses. To register, a student must obtain permission from the faculty member who is willing to supervise the reading.

This course is elected as soon as a student is ready to begin research for the dissertation, usually shortly after admission to candidacy. To register, a student must obtain permission from the faculty member who is willing to supervise the research.