Financial Markets

General information

Type:	OB	Curs:	1	Period:	S semester
ECTS Credits:	3 ECTS

Teaching Staff:

Group	Teacher	Department	Language
Sec: A	Anna Bayona Font	Economía, Finanzas y Contabilidad	ENG

Group	Teacher	Department	Language
Sec: B	Anna Bayona Font	Economía, Finanzas y Contabilidad	ENG

COURSE CONTRIBUTION TO PROGRAM

Financial Markets is a core course in the MSc. in International Management, which will provide a foundation for subsequent and parallel courses, such as Corporate Finance and Firms, Economics and the Global Environment. In addition, the course will encourage participants to connect theoretical concepts and their real-world applications.

Course Learning Objectives

This course will cover the essential concepts that are necessary to understand financial markets (e.g. asymmetric information, supply and demand, arbitrage, asset market equilibrium, market efficiency, risk, conflicts of interest, etc.). It will combine these foundational concepts with managerial, institutional and policy perspectives which are relevant to real-world applications. In addition, the course will relate the lectures to changes that the financial system has experienced in the last few years.

CONTENT

1. Overview of the financial system and financial institutions
2. Monetary policy, central banks, and interest rates
3. Portfolio theory
4. Are financial markets efficient?
5. Money markets and bond markets
6. Mortgage markets
7. Equity markets
8. Foreign exchange markets
9. Derivative markets
10. Financial crises and regulation

1. Overview of the financial system and financial institutions

2. Monetary policy, central banks, and interest rates

3. Portfolio theory

4. Are financial markets efficient?

5. Money markets and bond markets

6. Mortgage markets

7. Equity markets

8. Foreign exchange markets

9. Derivative markets

10. Financial crises and regulation

Methodology

The course is based on a combination of lectures, class discussions, presentations, cases, and practical problems.

Assessment criteria

Ordinary Evaluation. The evaluation criteria has four components:

Class participation (5%)
Intermediate in-class tests (15%)
Group assignments (20%)
Final exam (60%)

A minimum score of 5 is required both in the final exam and in the average (applying
the weights mentioned above) in order to pass the course. The grading criteria can be
summarised as follows: if both the final exam grade and the overall average grade are
above 5 then the final grade is the average grade. Otherwise, the final grade is the
minimum of the final exam grade and the overall average grade.

Retake:
If a retake exam is needed (only in cases where the student failed the ordinary evaluation), the final course grade will be
- In case the student received an APZ (it means that the previous exam was postponed but justified by medical or familiar reason and approved by Programme Management) the original breakdown must be maintained.
- In case the student received a NP (it counts 0; not justified absence in the previous exam) or FAIL, the retake will count 100% the grade of the course.

Bibliography

Howells, P., and Bain, K., (2008), The Economics of Money, Banking and Finance: a European Text, Financial Times/ Prentice Hall.

Mishkin, F. S., and Eakins, S. G., (2015), Financial Markets and Institutions, Pearson.

Ritter, L. S., Silber, W. L., Udell, G. F., (2009), Principles of Money, Banking & Financial Markets, Pearson.

Timetable and sections

Group	Teacher	Department
Sec: A	Anna Bayona Font	Economía, Finanzas y Contabilidad

Timetable Sec: A

Group	Teacher	Department
Sec: B	Anna Bayona Font	Economía, Finanzas y Contabilidad

Financial Markets (19CI35866)