INVESTMENT STRATEGIES COURSE SYLLABUS Professor Robert H. Stovall, CFA / Course # B40.3122 Fall Semester 2003 / NYU Stern Class Meets Wednesday Evenings from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM Tisch Hall / 40 West 4th St - Room Tisch 200 This course will discuss various investment strategies utilized by recognized authorities in the financial services industry. It aims to give you practical insights into deciding which strategies are more effective than others and why. Free copied materials are supplied by the professor. Texts are useful but optional. Our objective is to give you a subjective and anecdotal approach to security analysis, relative valuation, industry and group rotation, market timing, market-neutral investment techniques and asset allocation. We will not include modern portfolio theory. Guest lecturers will be used to explore success or failure in the “New Economy”, “globalization”, sector analysis, quantative portfolio development, fundamental and technical analysis, plus key fixed income concepts. Old and new market theories will be discussed, including various sentiment, psychological, and cyclical influences on securities prices, plus value, growth and momentum investing in equities plus managing fixed income portfolios. We will also cover marketplace history and case studies of such tools as internet day trading, political linkage to securities price performance, interest rate sensitivity measurements and the rationale behind contrary opinion strategies. Optional Texts: Jeremy J. Siegel, Stocks for the Long Run, Irwin, Revised 2002 Ralph Acampora, The Fourth Mega-Market now through 2011, Hyperion 2000 Sept 24 Guideposts to security analysis and valuation. Institutional dominance vs. individual re-emergence. Various investment themes: fear vs. greed; internationalization, bond/stock/cash allocations. Price-to-sales vs. price-to-earnings and cash flow measurements; Identifying take-over targets. October 1 GUEST SPEAKER: David J. Braverman, CFA Stock market theories and their effectiveness: Value strategies vs. growth strategies, seasonal timing tools, contrary indicators, and political linkages to market performance. “Focus” vs. “index investing” – How the S&P Index Committee works, selecting and deleting stocks in the S&P500 and other indices. Analyzing and attributing returns for S&P’s STock Appreciation Ranking System. October 8 GUEST SPEAKER: Ralph Acampora, CMT Using the basics of technical analysis to chart future price patterns of stocks and bonds. Defining the various phases of price activity. A detailed rationale for the millennium markets. October 15 GUEST SPEAKER: Stuart Veale This lecture discusses the three most powerful tools in managing fixed income portfolios: Duration, convexity, and option adjusted spread analysis. It also illustrates the entire portfolio design process from objective setting to annual review – paying special attention to strategic asset allocation. ** MIDTERM ASSIGNMENT DUE (in class or post marked by 10/8/03). October 22 GUEST SPEAKER: Sam Stovall, CFP The basics behind sector investing. How the economy impacts industries, companies and their stock prices. Sector investing via mutual funds. Linkage between sector rotation and asset allocation. October 29 FINAL EXAMINATION (5:30 PM - 9:00 PM)INVESTMENT STRATEGIES COURSE SYLLABUS Professor Robert H. Stovall, CFA / Course # B40.3122 Fall Semester 2003 / NYU Stern Class Meets Wednesday Evenings from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM Tisch Hall / 40 West 4th St – Room Tisch 200 Using the media as a tool, watch these television programs: • CNBC -- “Money Wheel” and “Squawk Box”, etc (7 days on cable) • CNBC -- “Louis Rukeyser’s Wall Street” (Friday night at 8:30 PM) . . . . Also on PBS over the weekend locally. • CNN -- “Ahead of the Curve” etc. (Weekdays on cable plus weekend specials) • PBS -- “Nightly Business Report” (Weeknights on channel 13 at 6:30 PM) Listen to one of these news radio stations to keep informed of financial and other news: • WCBS -- 880 AM (Every 25 minutes, at 25 and 55 minutes past every hour) • WINS -- 1010 AM (Every 25 minutes, at 25 and 55 minutes past every hour) • WBBR -- 1130 AM (Bloomberg Network – 24 hours) Also be familiar with these business magazines: • Barron’s (Weekly – Saturday) • Business Week MOST IMPORTANT – read at least one of these every day: • Investor’s Business Daily • The Financial Times • The New York Times • The Wall Street Journal If you have questions about this course, see Whitney Phaneuf, Finance Dept, 998-0364 / [email protected], or grader: Emilio Fabbrizzi, 718-855-5331 /