FINA 60011 Finance Fundamentals
The course is designed to help bridge the gap between an undergraduate experience in Finance and a graduate level course. As such, there is less emphasis on memorization of terminology and much greater emphasis on critical thinking, analytics, and decision-making. This course will review some of the basic concepts, but a major emphasis will be placed on identifying and describing practical applications of key concepts by means of case studies and projects, with emphasis on the ambiguities and nuances occurring in applying theory to empirical projects. This is also supplemented by developing students' critical thinking skills through in-depth analysis of financial decisions from a managerial perspective. This course will help students better understand the key issues that managers face when they make investment decisions, including technical issues, such as knowledge of cash flows, time-value of money, valuation principles, but also big picture issues, examining what the sources of value creation are, how to deal with managerial biases and estimation uncertainty, and how investment decisions must fit with the strategic vision of the firm.