Master of Finance (MF)

Core Courses

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August

• MFIN 5100 3.00 CAPITAL MARKETS
  This course provides an in-depth analysis of the foundations of the capital markets, financial securities, empirical work, and practice. This first finance course in the Master in Finance programme provides the basic economic intuition and fundamental derivations of financial models and valuation framework, as well as the essential practical side of the concepts and financial models. Prerequisites: A working knowledge of calculus and basic econometrics (OLS regressions) will be necessary.

Fall

• ACTG 6130 3.00 INTERMEDIATE FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING FOR FINANCE MAJORS
  This course is meant specifically for non-accountants who want a broader understanding of accounting issues and how they impact financial statements. This course covers both sides of the balance sheet focusing on understanding the impact of the issues on the financial statements instead of the detailed technical application. This course is not recognized as a course by the accounting designations. Pre-requisite: MBA/IMBA: ACTG 5100 3.00 or equivalent MF: MFIN 5100 3.00 Course credit exclusion: ACTG 6120 and ACTG 6140 (either ACTG 6130 3.0 or ACTG 6120 3.0 and 6140 3.0)
• FINE 6310 3.00 ECONOMETRICS OF FINANCIAL MARKETS
  This empirical methods course focuses on the statistical techniques that are most often used in the analysis of financial markets. The list of topics include: statistical properties of asset returns, tests of asset pricing models, efficient market hypothesis, event study methodology, simulation methods, panel data analysis, and volatility estimation such as GARCH, value-at-risk, and time-varying correlations. Co-requisite: FINE 6200 3.0
• MFIN 5000 0.00 RESEARCH SEMINAR SERIES
  The seminars enhance the core curriculum and provide students with an opportunity to dialogue with leading academic scholars in the field, and learn about their current research. These seminars constitute an important part of the research component in the Master of Finance program. Attendance is mandatory.
• MFIN 5050 0.00 PROFESSIONAL SEMINAR SERIES
  The seminars complement the core curriculum and provide students with an opportunity to dialogue with industry experts from different areas of finance, and discuss career opportunities. Attendance is mandatory.
• MFIN 5200 3.00 FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT AND VALUATION
  The three fundamental corporate finance decisions, the investment decision, the financing decision and the dividend decision, are studied in this course. Students will examine both theories of these decisions and the application of the theories to real businesses. In addition, business valuation concepts and tools will be studied and applied to real businesses. Prerequisite: MFIN 5100 3.0 Co-requisite: ACTG 6120 3.0
• MFIN 5600 3.00 INSTITUTIONAL WEALTH MANAGEMENT
  This course focuses on the role that institutional investors play in the financial market and their investment process. It begins with an overview of the wealth management industry, followed by an examination of the asset allocation decision, investment strategies, portfolio performance evaluation, alternative investments, behavioral finance, and responsible investing. The emphasis is on both the theoretical underpinnings and the practical execution of the investment models. Prerequisite(s) MFIN 5100 3.0

Winter

• MFIN 5000 0.00 RESEARCH SEMINAR SERIES
  The seminars enhance the core curriculum and provide students with an opportunity to dialogue with leading academic scholars in the field, and learn about their current research. These seminars constitute an important part of the research component in the Master of Finance program. Attendance is mandatory.
• MFIN 5050 0.00 PROFESSIONAL SEMINAR SERIES
  The seminars complement the core curriculum and provide students with an opportunity to dialogue with industry experts from different areas of finance, and discuss career opportunities. Attendance is mandatory.
• FINE 6800 3.00 OPTIONS, FUTURES & OTHER DERIVATIVE SECURITIES

  This course explains the way in which derivative securities such as options, futures contracts, forward contracts, swaps and interest rate caps can be valued. It discusses arbitrage relationships, risk neutral valuation, the creation of options synthetically, numerical procedures and the evaluation of credit risk.

  Prerequisite: MBA/IMBA: FINE 6200 3.00
  MF: MFIN 5600 3.00
  Course credit exclusion: SB/FNEN 6810.030 (either SB/FINE 6800.030 or SB/FNEN 6810.030, but not both, may be taken for credit)

Summer

• MFIN 5500 3.00 ANALYSIS STRUCTURED PRODUCTS USING EXCEL

  This course will function as a hands-on research practicum in which 3-4 "live" structured products will be brought into the classroom and analyzed using the tools of financial economics. And, given the advanced (capstone) nature of the course, we will examine these structures from a variety of perspectives. Some of the questions we will address are: Who exactly manufactures them? Why are they being created? Who buys them and how do they fit into a pre-existing investment portfolio? How should they be priced/valued? What are their regulatory and tax implications? Can they be synthesized using existing securities? How profitable are they for the issuer/underwriter?

  Prerequisite: MFIN 5400 3.0 Fixed Income Securities

• MFIN 5700 1.50 CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND SECURITIES LAW
  This course provides an overview of Canadian capital markets and securities regulation and a discussion of selected issues in corporate governance. The focus is on contemporary debates in securities regulation and corporate governance, paying particular attention to how these developments are situated within the history of the development corporate governance laws and norms in Canada and internationally.
• MFIN 5800 3.00 FINANCIAL RISK MANAGEMENT
  The objective of the course is to provide an introduction as well as an in-depth understanding of issues in financial risk management from the perspective of non-financial corporations. The focus is on the measurement of risk and the usage of related instruments to hedge the risk. Prerequisite(s) MFIN 5400 3.0 FINE 6800 3.0
• MFIN 5900 1.50 ETHICAL DECISION-MAKING FOR FINANCE PROFESSIONALS

  This course is designed around the Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct from the CFA Institute. Students who wish to pursue a career in capital markets should prepare themselves with a thorough understanding of the ethical principles and professional standards. Using real-life examples and case studies, students gain experience in analyzing and resolving complex business challenges in finance.

Stream Options

To complete the following streams, students must complete the following additional courses (listed per term).

Capital Markets

Winter

• MFIN 5300 3.00 INVESTMENT BANKING

  The objective of this course is to provide an advanced analysis of the major issues affecting the financial policy of a modern corporation and the role of investment banks in facilitating those policies. We will discuss issues such as the Going-public decision of a firm and its Initial Public Offering (IPO), Security Issuance decisions such as SEO's, other corporate restructurings and M&A's, impact of corporate governance on such decisions, roles played by Analysts and Institutional Investors and their impact on such decisions and how Investment Banks take all these into account when they advise firms on these decisions.

  Prerequisites: MFIN 5100 3.0, MFIN 5200 3.0
  In addition, a working knowledge of basic econometrics (OLS regressions) will be necessary.

• MFIN 5400 3.00 FIXED INCOME SECURITIES
  This is an introduction to the management of fixed income markets and interest rate derivative securities. Major topics covered include term structure theories, institutional settings of the fixed income markets, and analytical tools for managing interest rate risk. It not only emphasizes traditional management methods such as duration and immunization, but also cutting edge approaches such as continuous-time, dynamic management techniques of interest rate risk. Prerequisite: MFIN 5200 Co-requisite: FINE 6800
• ENTR 6910 3.00 VENTURE CAPITAL AND PRIVATE EQUITY
  This course is primarily geared to students interested in working in venture capital or other private equity organizations at some point in their careers. It is also valuable for those who intend to work alongside venture capitalists as managers of firms being financed by such investors and for students interested in applying aspects of private equity investing to established organizations. The course is divided into 4 modules focusing on the venture capital cycle including fundraising, investing, and exiting. In the final module the course explores new frontiers in venture capital including corporate venturing. Throughout the course we touch on career issues with respect to private equity. Prerequisite: all 5000-series Required Foundations of Management Core Courses.

Summer

• FINE 6600 3.00 CORPORATE FINANCIAL ANALYSIS
  This course uses principles of economics, finance and accounting to examine problems in topics such as cash flow analysis, ratio analysis, strategic financial planning, interpretation of annual reports and prospectuses, economic modelling and business valuation. Students must deal with multi-faceted, ambiguous problems similar to real-world situations. The well-behaved data and simplifying assumptions used in theory courses are discarded in favour of the realistic, complex data in annual reports and other sources of financial information. Prerequisites: MBA/IMBA: ACTG 5210 1.50, FINE 5200 3.00, and OMIS 5120 1.50 or equivalent MF: MFIN 5200 3.00 Corequisites: One of SB/FINE 6100.030, SB/FINE 6200.030, SB/ACTG 6120.030 or SB/FNEN 6210.030. Course credit exclusion: SB/ACTG 6250.030 (either SB/FINE 6600.030 or SB/ACTG 6250.030, but not both, may be taken for credit)

Financial Risk Management*

Winter

• MATH 6910 3.00 STOCHASTIC CALCULUS IN FINANCE

  Probability models and discrete time stochastic processes; Brownian motion; Filtrations, conditional expectations, martingales; Stochastic integrals, Ito's formula; Stochastic differential equations; Diffusions, Kolmogorov equation; Girsanov Formula; Black Scholes.

• FINE 6600 3.00 CORPORATE FINANCIAL ANALYSIS
  This course uses principles of economics, finance and accounting to examine problems in topics such as cash flow analysis, ratio analysis, strategic financial planning, interpretation of annual reports and prospectuses, economic modelling and business valuation. Students must deal with multi-faceted, ambiguous problems similar to real-world situations. The well-behaved data and simplifying assumptions used in theory courses are discarded in favour of the realistic, complex data in annual reports and other sources of financial information. Prerequisites: MBA/IMBA: ACTG 5210 1.50, FINE 5200 3.00, and OMIS 5120 1.50 or equivalent MF: MFIN 5200 3.00 Corequisites: One of SB/FINE 6100.030, SB/FINE 6200.030, SB/ACTG 6120.030 or SB/FNEN 6210.030. Course credit exclusion: SB/ACTG 6250.030 (either SB/FINE 6600.030 or SB/ACTG 6250.030, but not both, may be taken for credit)
• FNEN 6850 3.00 FIXED INCOME SECURITIES

  The course builds upon the use of symbolic and numerical tools. Maple is used as a computer algebra system and then as a generator of codes in C++ and/or FORTRAN. This course provides an overview of the major components of fixed income markets, including a review of the major instruments, the issuers and the investors. The valuation of interest-rate sensitive cash flows is the underlying theme. Major topics covered include: theories of the term structure, institutional aspects of the fixed income markets, and analytical techniques for managing interest rate risk. The course will concentrate on modern valuation methods as well as traditional techniques for risk management in the fixed income market. The effect of the assumed interest rate dynamics and the prevailing interest rate condition for the riskiness and value of various features of these contracts will also be analyzed. The power of convexity and duration upon risk management and valuation will be developed. Students will use the substantive approaches developed in the course to address concrete problems. The coursework will include a project dealing with Canadian data.

  Registration with permission of the Director, Financial Engineering Program
  Prerequisite: SB/FNEN 6810.030

Summer

• FNEN 6820 3.00 ADVANCED DERIVATIVE SECURITIES

  This course covers a list of advanced topics in derivative securities with a focus on pricing and hedging. Students are assumed to have taken an introductory course in derivatives. The objective of this course is to develop modelling skills needed to value the full range of derivative securities: from exchange-traded options to over-the-counter products including exotic options, embedded options and credit derivatives. The fundamental theory is the Equivalent Martingale Pricing Principle or the Risk-neutral valuation by no-arbitrage. Analytical models and various numerical methods will be discussed in detail. It is assumed that students are familiar with the Black-Scholes and binomial pricing models.

  MBA Prerequisite: FINE 6800 3.00

*Students who wish to pursue the Financial Risk Management stream require approval of the Program Director.