3 good reasons to study Finance and Investment Management at Salford
- Prepare for a managerial, consulting or operational role within this area of specialism
- Industry focused, covering modern finance and investment theory and practice
- This course is informed by the most up-to-date academic research
This course provides insight into modern finance and investment theory, helping you set solid foundations and practical business techniques so that you are fully aware of the implications and assumptions in use. You will learn to critically appreciate the limitations of modern finance and investment methodologies and to apply them in different contexts.
The programme is industry-focused and makes extensive use of real-world examples to examine the application of your learning. In the final semester, you will work on the Industry Collaboration Project, a live industry brief either for your own employer or with another organisation. You will choose one of four options to look at a real industry problem and provide researched solutions, helping you put your learning into practice.
Duration
MSc (Minimum 12 months, maximum three years)
Course Details
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Risk, Portfolio and Investment Analysis
Risk Portfolio and Investment Analysis aims to help you understand and apply the general principles behind modern risk management approaches. In this module, you will devise strategies to use modern portfolio management approaches and critically evaluate the limitations of modern statistical techniques in making financial decisions.
Indicative Syllabus Outline
- Modern portfolio theory
- Managing individual and family investment portfolios
- Managing institutional management portfolios
- Alternatives methods of selecting investment managers
- Economic analysis of capital markets
- Impact of taxation on portfolio set up
- Asset allocation
- Portfolio construction and re-adjustment of portfolios
- Performance evaluation of portfolios
- Risk reward relationship
- Ways of measuring risk
- Market risk
- Credit risk
- Interest rate risk
- Hedging risk
- Statistical methods to measure risk
Corporate and Quantitative Finance
In this module, you will critically assess modern corporate governance in light of the recent financial crisis and review the ethical issues in running modern firms. You will also critically assess modern capital structure theory, the risks and opportunities involved in mergers and acquisitions and the limitations and applications of statistical methods in finance.
Indicative Syllabus Outline
- Corporate governance
- Professional standards and practice
- Ethical practices
- Dividend policy
- Capital investment decisions
- Business and financial risk
- Capital structure decisions
- Working capital management
- Mergers and acquisitions
- Corporate restructuring
- Probability distributions and descriptive statistics
- Sample and estimation
- Hypothesis testing
- Correlation and regression
- Time-series analysis
- Introduction to simulation analysis
Fixed Income and Derivative Securities Analysis
This module aims to help you understand and apply the general principles behind the valuation of fixed income and derivative securities. You will devise strategies to solve problems facing institutional investors, governments and transnational bodies.
Indicative Syllabus Outline
- TBD
Equity Valuation and Financial Analysis
This module involves the evaluation of the theoretical basis of modern equity valuation and the concepts behind financial reporting. You will examine the impact of market and accounting based factors on the performance of firm equity value and devise strategies to minimise the risks associated with equity valuation.
Indicative Syllabus Outline
- Different category of equity securities and their characteristics
- Equity markets: characteristics and institutions
- Types of fixed-income securities and their characteristics
- Fixed-income markets: characteristics and institutions
- Equity portfolio benchmarks
- Valuing of individual equity securities
- Fundamental analysis by sector, industry and company
- Closely held companies and thinly traded securities
- Equity market valuation and return analysis
- Equity portfolio management strategies
- Financial reporting system
- Analysis of principal financial statements
- Financial reporting quality
- Analysis of inventories and long-lived asset
- Analysis of taxes and debt
- Analysis of off-balance-sheet assets and liabilities
- Analysis of pensions, stock compensation, and other employee benefits
- Analysis of inter-corporate investments
- Analysis of business combinations and global operations
- Ratio and financial analysis
Business Innovation Project
Dissertation: a conventional dissertation of 12,000 to 15,000 words, consisting of research question, aims and objectives, rationale for undertaking the study, literature review, research methodology, analysis of findings, conclusions and recommendations