Robinson College of Management Georgia State University FI 4000 Fundamentals of Valuation CRN 87680 Section 010 TR 4 30 pm 7 00 pm Location ALC 302 Course Syllabus Fall 2010 Professor Rasha Ashraf Office 1238 RCB Email rashraf gsu edu Tel 404 413 7348 Office Hours Tuesday 3 00 pm 4 00 pm or by appointment Course Description This course introduces a sound foundation for the main concepts in investments Students will acquire fundamentals of finance theory and analytical tools for making good investment decisions The topics discussed include risk return analysis portfolio selection asset pricing equity securities analysis the efficient market hypothesis derivatives analysis and pricing fixed income securities and the economics of the foreign exchange markets This is a highly quantitative course and students are expected to be comfortable with basic finance and probability statistics regression analysis and spreadsheet programming Reading for the Course Required Text Essentials of Investments by Zvi Bodie Alex Kane and Alan J Marcus 8th Edition Irwin McGraw Hill Careers in Finance by Trudy Ring 2nd or 3rd edition Requirements and Grading The course grade will be determined by the following scheme Midterm Exam 1 20 Midterm Exam 2 20 Midterm Exam 3 20 Final Exam 20 Project One 5 Project Two 5 Career Project 5 Career Quiz 5 Total 100 The following are the possible grades Min 0 60 70 73 78 80 83 88 90 93 98 Grade F D C C C B B B A A A Class Attendance Students are expected to attend the class regularly arrive on time and stay in the class for the entire duration of the class If you miss a class it is your responsibility to find out what happened during the class If you need to leave early before the end of the class you need to get approval from the instructor before the class begins An attendance sign up sheet will be circulated during each class and you are responsible to sign the class roll If you do not sign the class roll you will be considered absent for the day The attendance sheet will be circulated at the beginning of the class and if you arrive late and the professor has already collected the attendance sheet then you will not be permitted to sign it If you are absent from the class more than five times you will be dropped from the class by the instructor This includes the first day of the class regardless of when you have registered for the class If a student is withdrawn for excessive absences a final grade of WF will be assigned Exams The exams will include combinations of objective questions multiple choice true false numerical problems short answer and longer essays Exams will be closed book and closed notes You ll be provided with a formula sheet Midterm exams will be held on the scheduled exam day and final exam will be held in the final exam week on the day and time stated in the course calendar Projects There will be two class projects and one career project The requirements of the projects will be discussed during the class Each project is due by the end of the class period on the designated due date Refer to the course calendar for the due dates No late submission is accepted and failure to submit the project on time will result a score of zero The project is individually assigned and each student is expected to work on it completely independently without any help from others Each student need to submit a report on the project displaying their results The detail of the report that is expected will be discussed in the class in due time Make up Policy There are no make up exams If you miss or you know ahead of time that you will miss a scheduled in term exam you must notify the instructor as soon as possible and provide a documented reason for your absence If the reason is sufficient to warrant absence from the exam the weight of the missed in term exam will be added to the final exam If you fail to provide appropriate documentation for your absence you will get zero for the missed exam It is the discretion of the instructor to decide whether the provided documentation is sufficient to allow you to have your grade adjusted The policy only applies for one in term exam If you miss more than one in term exams you ll be assigned a grade zero regardless of the reason for your absence Honor Code It is your responsibility to familiarize yourself with Georgia State Honor Code The University Policy on Academic Honesty can be found in On Campus The Official Student Handbook under the Code of Conduct http www gsu edu wwwcam code academicconduct index html This document establishes clear standards for academic honesty and will be enforced in this course Students are expected to follow the Honor Code completely Please ask the professor if you need any clarification Any violation of the code will be reported to the authority Courtesy Rules 1 Turn off your cell phones 2 Do not use laptops during the class sessions 3 Do not bring any other reading material except for the material related to this course 4 Do not engage in any discussions non related to the course during the duration of the class Student Evaluation of Instructor Your constructive assessment of this course plays an indispensable role in shaping education at Georgia State Upon completing the course please take the time to fill out the online course evaluation Tentative Course Outline The following course outline is an approximate schedule of topics that will be covered Please note that it is subject to change Date Topic Reading from BKM 08 24 2010 Course Introduction Review of Time Value of Money 08 26 2010 09 02 2010 Introduction to Portfolio Theory Chapter 5 Risk and Return 09 07 2010 09 14 2010 Introduction to Asset Allocation Chapter 6 Portfolio Theory and Mean Variance Analysis 09 16 2010 Tue Exam 1 Project 1 Due 09 21 2010 Asset Pricing Models CAPM Chapter 7 and APT 09 23 2010 09 30 2010 Equity Valuation Chapter 13 10 05 2010 10 07 2010 Debt Securities Bond pricing Chapter 10 and bond yields Term Structure Analysis 10 12 2010 10 14 2010 Interest rate risk Chapter 11 10 19 2010 Tue Exam 2 Project 2 Due 10 21 2010 10 28 2010 Introduction to options option Chapter 15 fundamentals and strategies 11 02 2010 11 09 2010 Option Valuation 11 11 2010 Thurs Exam 3 11 16 2010 11 18 2010 Futures Markets Chapter 17 11 30 2010 Efficient Market Chapter 8 12 02 2010 International Investment Chapter 16 and Chapter 19 Risk Management Career Project Due Date Your constructive assessment of this course plays an indispensable role in