Syllabus FINA—6223, Section 10, Professor Klock
MBA Investments, Fall 2012
Funger 220, R 7 :10-9 :40
Vital statistics: Office hours T 1:00-3:30 & R 11:00-12:30 and 6:00-7:00, Funger 503
Phone: 994-8342
Email: msk20@gwu.edu
URL: http://savickas.net/cgi-bin/GWfinance/viewfaculty.cgi?fn=16
My curriculum vita can be found here containing my educational background, experience,
hobbies, and publications. I like to believe that many of my publications contain concise and
coherent explanations about finance, microeconomics, and statistics.
Course materials Text: Investments, 9th ed. by Bodie, Kane, and Marcus. A financial or
scientific calculator is also required.
Recommended: 1) Schaum’s Outline for Investments by Taylor and Francis
2) A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Malkiel
Course objective: The objective of this course is to learn the terminology of modern
investing, the theory of valuation and portfolio management and develop an understanding of
how real financial markets work. Emphasis is placed on developing and improving critical
analytical skills.
Brief description of finance: Microeconomics is primarily about markets for physical
assets. Finance is simply microeconomics applied to financial assets. What makes financial
assets interesting is that they are the embodiment of legal rights and obligations that provide
possibly uncertain costs and benefits in the future. Benefits can be very precise such as the
right to a specific sum of money on specific dates (a debenture). They can also be very
vague such as the right to a pro rata share of whatever profits (if any) the management
decides to distribute (if any) (this describes a share of common stock). This course
emphasizes the more vague contracts (equity securities).
Code of Academic Integrity: The code is strictly enforced in my classes. You are
responsible for knowing and understanding the code. Refer to
http://www.gwu.edu/~ntegrity/code.html
Classroom policies: Students are expected to read and prepare before class and participate
during class. I will call on volunteers and may occasionally call on randomly selected
students. Please turn off cell phones. There is a final exam during the exam period. Make
your holiday travel plans accordingly. You can only make up the final for those situations in
which the university requires me to give a make-up (a physician’s medical excuse or a
conflict in the university exam schedule).
Evaluation of Performance:
Your grade will be determined solely by your performance on the examinations and term
paper. The exams are closed book. You will need your calculator. The three assignments
will be equally weighted. If you miss the midterm exam the weight of your final exam will
be increased accordingly.
ADA Policy Statement:
GWU is committed to providing an educational environment that is accessible to all students.
In accordance with this policy, students in need of accommodations due to disability should
contact the DSS office for verification and determination of reasonable accommodations as
soon as possible.
Term Paper: Every student must write a paper for this class which will be weighted as one
third of your semester grade. You have your choice of writing a paper on a topic of your
choice that is related to investing. Suitable topics could be: Market Efficiency, Timing the
Market, Identifying Superior Money Managers, Regulation of Hedge Funds, Regulation of
Mutual Funds, Insider Trading, Arbitrage Pricing Theory, Black-Scholes option pricing
formula, Stock-Index Futures, Program Trading, etc. If you are uncertain about your topic
you should ask me. All papers should be 10-15 pages, double spaced.
I will be using Turn-It-In.com plagiarism software. I will post an announcement on
Blackboard containing detailed instructions about how to submit your term paper.
Tentative Schedule:
Date
Topic
8/30
Introduction, Chapter 1 & review of discounting and statistics
9/6
Chapters 2 & 3
9/13
Chapters 4 & 5
9/20
Chapters 6 & 7
9/27
Chapter 9
10/4
Chapters 10 & 11
10/11
Chapters 12 & 13
10/18
MIDTERM EXAM chapters 1-13 excluding 8
10/25
Chapter 14
11/1
Chapters 15 & 16
11/8
Chapters 17 & 18
11/15
Chapters 19 & 20
11/22
No class for Thanksgiving holiday
11/29
Chapter 21
12/6
Chapter 22, PAPER DUE
Comprehensive Final Examination will be December 13 -- No early make-ups
STUDENT INFORMATION SHEET—next page. Please print out, fill out, and bring to
class to pass in, or email it to me.
STUDENT INFORMATION SHEET
Fall 2012 MBA INVESTMENTS
NAME_________________________________
Class (MBA, MS Accountancy, Elliot School, etc.)
Major (if any)
Previous courses taken in finance and economics
Concurrent classes being taken in finance and economics
Plans after graduation
Interests/hobbies
Concerns/comments