FINE 7110 Investments
Fall Semester 2024
Tuesdays 6:30 – 9:15
GWBC Room 480
Course Syllabus
E-mail: wreese@tulane.edu
Phone: (504) 865-5465
Office Hours: Wednesdays 4:00 – 5:00 in Room 604 or via Zoom
Course Description
The first half of this course will be an in-depth study of portfolio theory. We will develop the foundations of Modern Portfolio Theory and show how you would use its principals to calculate mean/variance efficient portfolios. We will look at both the traditional Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), and multifactor models, specifically the Fama/French three-factor model. The second half of the course will focus on fixed income analytics. We will discuss how to price various types of fixed income securities and how to measure their interest rate risk. We’ll learn how to hedge interest rate risk using interest rate futures and interest rate futures options contracts. We’ll also examine various theories about the term structure of interest rates, deriving implied forward interest rates and bootstrapping yield curves. Finally, we will have a brief introduction to Behavioral Finance and learn what its implications are for investors and markets.