MS in Global Finance Online (MGFO)

This course begins with the building block concept of the time value of money, and quickly moves onto applying this concept to government bond valuation, Macauley and Modified duration, the shape of the yield curve, the relation between spot and forward rates of interest, and the relation between nominal and real returns. We then apply these skills to corporate bond and stock valuation with a deep dive on bond covenant provisions, the discounted dividend model and the use of comparables in valuation. We next make a connection between these valuation approaches and the Markowitz efficient frontier method for constructing an optimal portfolio. The relation between the Markowitz method and the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) is our next topic followed by how to apply to CAPM for constructing an optimal
portfolio and estimating a security’s expected return. We conclude with a detailed explanation of how markets work—and consequently how investors should invest—according to the efficient market hypotheses and the competing hypothesis of behavioral finance.

This course builds on the concepts and skills learned in the Global Financial Markets course through a deep dive into the investment industry, especially mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The course consists of online lectures and team meetings and concludes with the in-person component in Dubai. The cornerstone of the course is a case competition where the students will be assigned to teams. Besides spending much of the course gathering and analyzing data for their presentation, the students will receive coaching on their presentation skills. The course faculty will also advise the student teams in one-on-one sessions.

Financial accounting refers to translating a firm’s economic activity into highly structured information about financial performance and condition. This information is highly structured because all firms apply generally the same GAAP standards—with important differences accounted for between Indian and U.S. GAAP—to produce the information, yielding financial data that are comparable across firms and across time. This class focuses on how we can use financial information to gain insights into firms’ financial performance and condition. This course seeks to teach you how to understand and communicate firm performance to outside stakeholders (e.g., current and prospective capital providers, business partners, employees, etc.) for your role as a future business leader.

This course is very generally focused on two questions. First, what investments should the firm make? Investments include projects within the firm, acquisitions of other companies, and corporate divestitures, which reverse prior investments. Second, how should those investments be financed? Both questions are approached from the perspective of maximizing the value of the firm. That is, we will develop the necessary analytical tools to choose investment and financing schemes that maximize the value of the firm. We will cover some related topics, however, developing the analytical tools to answer the corporate investment and financing decisions is the primary goal of the course.