Introduction to Finance, presented by the ERM Program

The Introduction to Finance Seminar covers various finance related concepts such as Time Value of Money, Stock and Bond Return Analysis, Financial Statement Analysis and Corporate Valuations, as well as an overview of the capital markets.  Students are welcome to attend any seminar.  The seminars are grouped into 4 main themes of finance as follows:

• Modern Portfolio Analysis
• Capital Markets
• Financial Statement Analysis & Corporate Valuation

• Financial Risk Management.

How To Join a Session
Click on the Join a Session button at 11:00 am ET on the day of your desired workshop. Each workshop ends at 12:30 pm ET.

Workshop info:  

Sat. Jan 29 | 11:00 to 12:30

Time Value of Money

It starts with money and time.  How much do I invest today so I have enough money to retire in 45 years? What is my rate or return of investment if I receive fixed income every month for some period? These are some of the questions that we are answering using financial mathematics.  

Sat. Feb 5 | 11:00 to 12:30

Risk, Return Analysis, Covariance, Correlation and Efficient Frontiers

The seminar will first establish the basics for measuring risk and quantifying the expected return, as well as introduce a few ways to get increased efficiency out of this relationship through allocation and diversification for higher portfolio efficiency. The covariance and correlation analysis are the factors that contribute to a minimum variance and achieve an efficient frontier.   

Sat. Feb 12 | 11:00 to 12:30

Alpha and Beta Coefficients, CAPM, R-Square and Regression Analysis

Seeking Alpha or “beating” the market is the investor’s number one objective. What are the investors minimum return expectations, how is it compared to market and to other asset classes? This seminar will assess the risk or volatility of a portfolio of stocks to understand such movements versus market movements using regression analysis.  

Sat Feb 19 | 11:00 to 12:30

Sharpe Ratio, Standard Deviation, Jensen’s Alpha, M Squared and Treynor Measure

What are the different measures of portfolio risk?  This Seminar will emphasize these all the fundamental ways to compare portfolio results via performance measurements ratios such as the Sharpe Ratio, Jensen’s Alpha, M Squared, Treynor Measure that are used extensively on wall street to gain valuable insight using comparisons. 

Sat. Feb 26 | 11:00 to 12:30

Equity Markets

Depending on where the company’s is their business development cycle, the capital raising can vary from raising early seed money to raising private equity, to getting ready to go public via Initial Public Offering. This seminar will focus on the equity primary market.

Sat Mar 5 | 11:00 to 12:30

Bond Markets

This seminar will summarize the various approaches through which a company can access the bond markets. The seminar will outline the process by which a company can raise debt publicly or privately through the vehicles a company issues when looking to raise capital in the form of debt.

Sat Mar 12 | 11:00 to 12:30

Credit Markets

This seminar will summarize various approaches through which a company can access the credit or loan markets. The seminar will outline the process and various best practices a company will go through when raising corporate loans from the syndicate, club, or private markets. 

Sat Mar 26 | 11:00 to 12:30

Financial Statement Analysis

In this seminar, you will learn about the information that is included in each financial statement, the correct term for every item in each statement, and how to read and understand the three types of statements. By looking at examples of statements, you will see how the information is provided and how the information is used to perform the analysis to get an overall picture of a company's performance. 

Sat Apr 2 | 11:00 to 12:30

Valuation Analysis

This chapter will cover eight different methods of valuating the firm’s worth. These are methods that are currently used on Wall Street to determine the values for both the private and publicly traded companies.

Sat Apr 9 | 11:00 to 12:30

Valuation Analysis - Private Company – DCF Method

This valuation method called the Discount Cash Flow (DCF) that is broadly used by many investors, advisors, banks, and academics is premised on the principle that the value of a company can be derived by the present value of its projected free cash flow (FCF). 

Sat Apr 16 | 11:00 to 12:30

Stock Market– Secondary Market & Analysis

This seminar will give an overview of the U.S. stock exchange markets, the regulations of these exchanges, and discuss various market indices such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), Standard & Poor’s Index and others.  It will also cover how investors trade stock and define all the parties involved in these transactions. 

Sat Apr 23 | 11:00 to 12:30

Bond Market – Secondary Market & Analysis

This seminar will give an overview of the secondary bond market and how investors trade bonds. Entailed in the analysis includes a risk evaluation of the present factors including impacts of interest rate fluctuations, credit rating upgrades and downgrades, and refinancing risk. It will also cover various scenarios analyses to determine factors such as duration and convexity. 

Options & Hedging Strategies

This Seminar will give an overview of the options market. It will describe strategies used by investors for hedging or speculating on significant increases or decreases in stock price using derivatives.