Finance (FINN)

FINN 5100V. Special Topics in Finance. 1-6 Hour.

Explore current events, concepts and new developments relevant to practitioners of Finance not available in other courses. Topics vary depending on the instructor. Prerequisite: Graduate standing in the Master of Science in Finance program. (Typically offered: Fall and Spring) May be repeated for up to 6 hours of degree credit.

FINN 51103. Corporate Financial Management. 3 Hours.

Financial analysis, planning and control; decision making and modeling for financial managers; and financial policies for management. Prerequisite: Graduate standing in the Master of Science in Finance program. (Typically offered: Spring)

FINN 51203. Valuing New Ventures. 3 Hours.

This course is for students who wish to begin careers in valuing new ventures with VCs and Angel funds, for investors interested in new ventures as an asset class, for members of startup teams who focus on acquiring and managing capital, and for R&D and innovation teams within existing large firms. The course will also add valuable techniques to those performing private equity valuations of growing firms or firms facing large strategic options, even if those firms are not technically startups. Prerequisite: Graduate standing in the Master of Science in Finance program. (Typically offered: Fall and Spring)

FINN 51303. Financial Derivatives. 3 Hours.

Survey of options, futures, forwards, and swaps with emphasis on no-arbitrage pricing, hedging, and market mechanics. Students analyze strategies for speculation, risk transfer, and arbitrage across major asset classes. Prerequisite: Graduate standing in the Master of Science in Finance program. (Typically offered: Fall and Spring)

FINN 51403. Impact Investing. 3 Hours.

Students will gain skills for investing for social impact such as the ability to source, screen, and structure investment deals. Students will engage with industry leaders and explore areas of socially responsible investing, strategic or venture philanthropy, social enterprise and social entrepreneurship, and the history of social finance and microfinance. Prerequisite: Graduate standing in the Master of Science in Finance program. (Typically offered: Spring)

FINN 51703. Energy Finance and Risk Management. 3 Hours.

This course provides an advanced introduction to energy finance, defined as the application of finance principles to energy, energy service, and related industries, concerning all aspects of the energy value chain. Topics include: (1) physical fossil fuel markets; (2) physical electricity markets; (3) financially traded energy products; and (4) credit, counterpart, country, and enterprise risk. It also introduces students to business valuation and investment banking applications in the energy industry vertical. Prerequisite: Graduate standing in the Master of Science in Finance program. (Typically offered: Fall)

FINN 52103. New Venture Finance. 3 Hours.

The course is a deep dive into the legal contracting and governance issues around early stage financing. This course provides students with exposure to the startup finance ecosystem. Students will learn about the forms of early stage funding and the players offering those funding sources, how to prepare for due diligence when seeking funding, and the issues that arise about governance and control when seeking funding. Prerequisite: Graduate standing in the Master of Science in Finance program. (Typically offered: Irregular)

FINN 52203. Financial Markets & Valuation. 3 Hours.

Analysis of financial information by capital markets in the determination of security values with specific applications to retail and logistics companies. This course views these and other companies from the point of view of the capital markets. Prerequisite: Graduate standing in the Master of Science in Finance program. (Typically offered: Spring)

FINN 52303. Advanced Corporate Finance. 3 Hours.

Addresses complex and multifaceted issues and problems in financial decision-making. Graduate degree credit will not be given for both FINN 42303 and FINN 52303. Prerequisite: Graduate standing in the Master of Science in Finance program. (Typically offered: Irregular)

FINN 52403. Digital Innovation in Financial Markets. 3 Hours.

The evolving role and operations of financial markets and institutions in an increasingly digital-oriented economy. The impact of technological innovations such as blockchain, nonbank financial technology firms, and machine learning on markets as it relates to investors, firms raising capital, and financial entrepreneurs. Prerequisite: Graduate standing in the Master of Science in Finance program. (Typically offered: Irregular)

FINN 53003. Advanced Corporate Financial Management. 3 Hours.

Focus on financial policy issues using real situational cases. Topics include cost of capital, capital budgeting and long-term planning, value-based management, real options, as well as project financing and valuation. Prerequisite: Graduate standing in the Master of Science in Finance program. (Typically offered: Irregular)

FINN 53103. Advanced Commercial Banking. 3 Hours.

This course focuses on advanced risk management strategies commonly implemented at regional and large commercial banks. Topics include financial statement analysis of banks and holding companies, credit analysis of global cash flow, Basel III capital requirements and stress testing, interest rate risk measurement and management, and interest rate hedging with derivatives. Prerequisite: Graduate standing in the Master of Science in Finance program. (Typically offered: Fall and Spring)

FINN 53203. Financial Data Analytics I. 3 Hours.

Introduction to Python with a focus on structured financial data. Topics include basic syntax, data types, control flow, and practical skills for importing, cleaning, transforming, visualizing, and analyzing tabular data using libraries such as pandas and NumPy. Prerequisite: Graduate standing in the Master of Science in Finance program. (Typically offered: Fall and Spring)

FINN 53303. Investment Theory and Management. 3 Hours.

Integration of theory, practice of investments with solution of individual and institutional portfolio management problems; risk management; Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts' Problems. Prerequisite: Graduate standing in the Master of Science in Finance program. (Typically offered: Fall and Spring)

FINN 53403. Financial Data Analytics II. 3 Hours.

Continuation of Financial Data Analytics I with quantitative applications in finance. Students use financial data application programming interfaces (APIs) and Python tools to run statistical tests, build and evaluate regression models, apply time series methods, and perform portfolio construction and optimization. Basic machine learning methods are introduced with attention to validation and reproducibility. Prerequisite: Graduate standing in the Master of Science in Finance program. (Typically offered: Fall)

FINN 5410V. Shollmier Investment Project. 1-3 Hour.

Provide students with the opportunity to design and apply complex investment strategies used in institutional portfolio management on the Shollmier MBA Fund that can involve fixed income and equity securities as well as derivatives. Students will use top down asset allocation models, bottom up security selection, and hedge fund strategies. Prerequisite: Graduate standing in the Master of Science in Finance program. (Typically offered: Fall and Spring) May be repeated for up to 9 hours of degree credit.

FINN 54303. Real Estate Finance and Investment. 3 Hours.

Consideration of professional aspects of the real estate field. Emphasis is placed upon finance techniques and investment analysis. The focus is on commercial real estate. Brokerage, property management, appraisal, property development and current problems are also addressed. Students prepare a feasibly study on a commercial development project. Graduate degree credit will not be given for both FINN 44303 and FINN 54303. Prerequisite: Graduate standing in the Master of Science in Finance program. (Typically offered: Spring)

FINN 54503. Advanced Financial Modeling. 3 Hours.

Design and construction of financial models in Microsoft Excel. Students build integrated three-statement projection models and extend them to valuation and transaction cases: comparable company analysis, precedent transaction analysis, discounted cash flow (DCF), mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and leveraged buyouts (LBO). Topics include model structure, scenario and sensitivity analysis, and documentation. Prerequisite: Graduate standing in the Master of Science in Finance program. (Typically offered: Fall and Spring)

FINN 5500V. Independent Study. 1-3 Hour.

Permits students on an individual basis to explore selected topics in finance, with the consent of instructor. Graduate degree credit will not be given for both FINN 4500V and FINN 5500V. Prerequisite: Graduate standing in the Master of Science in Finance program. (Typically offered: Irregular)

FINN 60403. Finance Theory. 3 Hours.

Provides a conceptual understanding of key theoretical developments in the field of financial economics, including firm decisions under risk within a world of uncertainty. (Typically offered: Irregular)

FINN 61303. Seminar in Investment Theory. 3 Hours.

Study advanced literature in field investments, with special reference to theory of random walks, stock valuation models, portfolio management. (Typically offered: Spring)

FINN 62303. Seminar in Financial Management. 3 Hours.

Financial management of firm with emphasis on financial theory or firm, quantitative methods used in financial analysis, planning. (Typically offered: Irregular)

FINN 63303. Empirical Research in Finance. 3 Hours.

A study of recent empirically based research in finance. (Typically offered: Irregular)

FINN 67303. Seminar in Financial Markets and Institutions. 3 Hours.

Recent developments in the literature of financial markets and institutions. Participants will be involved in the extensive study of existing theories and empirical tests of the theories. (Typically offered: Irregular)

FINN 6830V. Contemporary Issues in Doctoral Colloquium. 1-3 Hour.

To explore and evaluate contemporary research issues in finance. Course content to reflect the most recent developments in theory and empirical research methodologies. Prerequisite: Doctoral student status and instructor consent. (Typically offered: Fall, Spring and Summer) May be repeated for up to 18 hours of degree credit.

FINN 7000V. Doctoral Dissertation. 1-18 Hour.

Doctoral Dissertation. Prerequisite: Candidacy. (Typically offered: Fall and Spring) May be repeated for degree credit.