Finance

Students specializing from Fall 2024

Requirements

To specialize in Finance, enrol in 3.00 credits of Required course and 9.00 credits of the Elective Courses listed below for a total of 12.00 credits*

Required Courses:

• FINE 3050 3.00 PERSONAL FINANCE

  Students learn personal financial management with a focus on professional work in the financial services industry and more so for their own family situation. The main topics include goal-setting, budgeting, taxation, debt management, risk management, insurance, investment principles and practice and retirement planning. Much of the course is based upon realistic problems and cases.
  Prerequisite: SB/FINE 2000 3.00 and Year 3 BBA/IBBA standing required
  Course Credit Exclusion: SB/FINE 4050 3.00

^{*FINE 3050 3.00 is the required course for the Finance specialization starting with the graduating class of 2026. The graduating class of 2025 can use the old set of required courses, FINE 3100 3.00 and FINE 3200 3.00, towards the specialization, or they can use the new required course, FINE 3050 3.00 (formerly FINE 4050 3.00), towards the specialization.}

Elective Courses:

• FINE 3100 3.00 FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
  In this course, students develop their knowledge and skills as financial managers. The course includes both the study of financial management theories and the analysis of business cases. Building on the basics of financial management introduced in SB/FINE 2000 3.0, the course covers capital structure decisions, dividend policy, working capital management, capital budgeting, business valuation, mergers and acquisitions and risk management. Prerequisite: SB/FINE 2000. 3.00 Course Credit Exclusion: AP/ECON 4400 3.00, (Formerly: AS/ECON 4400 3.00 or AK/ECON 4082 3.00), AP/ECON 4220 3.00 (Formerly: AS/ECON 4420 3.00), and AP/ECON 4410 3.00 (Formerly: AS/ECON 4410 3.00)
• FINE 3200 3.00 INVESTMENTS

  The course begins with an overview of the investment environment in developed markets, followed by a more in-depth analysis of key investment topics. These topics include modern portfolio theory, asset pricing models, term structure of interest rates, stock and bond portfolio management, evaluation of portfolio performance, and behavioral finance. This course serves as a useful introduction to the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)
  curriculum.

  Prerequisite: SB/FINE 2000 3.00
  Previously offered as: SB/FINE 4200 3.00

• FINE 3300 3.00 PYTHON FOR FINANCE PROFESSIONALS

  A comprehensive introduction to Python with emphasis on applications in Finance, a must-have skill for any analyst role. It is an immersive course where students acquire programming skills, work with financial data, build financial models, run analytics, and make predictions.

  Prerequisites: SB/FINE 2000 3.00 and SB/OMIS 2050 3.00

• FINE 3310 3.00 APPLICATIONS OF DATA SCIENCE IN FINANCE

  The focus of this course is on using modern programming to perform statistical analysis as used in finance. Applications include assessing properties of asset returns, testing asset pricing models, conducting event studies, understanding simulation methods and panel data analysis, and modelling volatility, value-at-risk, and time-varying correlations. Students will learn about empirical methods in finance by performing statistical analysis on financial data.

  Prerequsites: SB/OMIS 2050 3.00, SB/FINE 2000 3.00; Year 3 BBA/iBBA standing required

• FINE 3500 3.00 BEHAVIOURAL FINANCE
  This course surveys finance topics where psychological factors influence security pricing and financial decisions. Much recent study contradicts the view of classical finance that incorporates fully rational and unemotional agents. This course presents situations in which behavioural biases lead to sub-optimal market outcomes. Students will gain a deeper understanding of state-of-the-art developments in behavioural finance and how they apply to practical settings in security analysis and portfolio selection. Prerequisite: FINE 2000 3.0
• FINE 3810 3.00 FIXED INCOME FUNDAMENTALS
  This course introduces the basic concepts and valuation techniques used in the bond market. The first part of the course covers bond prices and their relationship to the no-arbitrage condition, the term structure of interest rates and its estimation. The next part focuses on determination of present value of different cash flows, valuation of financial instruments and bond portfolio. Prerequisite: SB/FINE 2000 3.00
• FINE 4060 3.00 ADVANCED PERSONAL FINANCE: RETIREMENT INCOME MODELS

  This course addresses advanced topics in personal finance. It focuses on the management of uncertainty (randomness) consumers face towards the end of the lifecycle in the areas of longevity, mortality, inflation, investment returns, pensions and income taxes. The instructional pedagogy is interactive and computational. Students will learn how to create R-scripts that optimize and solve real-world retirement income problems.
  Prerequisite: SB/FINE 2000 3.00
  Corequisite: SB/FINE 3050 3.00

• FINE 4150 3.00 ADVANCED CORPORATE FINANCE
  Building on the concepts, models and decision situations presented in SB/FINE 2000 3.0 and SB/FINE 3100 3.0, the course exposes students to more advanced, complex and specialized decision situations in the areas of corporate investment, financing, financial planning and financial management. Applications and case analyses are important aspects of the course. Prerequisite: SB/FINE 3100 3.00 Course Credit Exclusion: AP/ECON 4420 3.00 (Formerly: AS/ECON 4420 3.00)
• FINE 4280 3.00 FINTECH: DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF FINANCIAL SERVICES

  This course is designed for students interested in how technology is transforming the financial services industry. The course begins with an analysis of the Fintech ecosystem, and then dives into the various Fintech verticals, pain points and solutions, applications of emerging technologies, startup financing and valuation, and cryptocurrencies. In the capstone project, students learn to develop their own fintech business.

  Prerequisite: SB/FINE 2000 3.00
  Corequisites: SB/FINE 3100 3.00 or SB/FINE 3200 3.00 or SB/FINE 3050 3.00

• FINE 4800 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.

  Prerequisites: SB/FINE 2000 3.00 and SB/MGMT 1050 3.00 (previously offered as: SB/OMIS 1000 3.00)
  Course Credit Exclusion: AP/ECON 4410 3.00

• FINE 4880 3.00 FINANCIAL INNOVATION & IMPACT INVESTING

  This course prepares students to develop investment vehicles addressing social and environmental challenges, gearing them for careers in the expanding field of impact investing. Unlike traditional finance, this course integrates ESG considerations into investment strategies. Students will engage in team projects, analyze real-world cases, and develop innovative financial solutions that generate positive impacts, emphasizing experiential learning and critical thinking.

  Note: Students must have already taken a FINE 3000-level course or be taking one concurrently.