¶¡ÏãÔ°AV

Please note:

To view the current Academic Calendar, go to www.sfu.ca/students/calendar.html

| ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV Calendar | Summer 2023

Finance

Master of Science

The master of science in finance program at the Segal Graduate School equips students with the tools needed to manage investments and risk in a rapidly changing world. Designed to meet the increasing global demand for skilled risk management and investment management professionals, the program provides a unique blend of rigorous training and real-world experience. World-class researchers and visiting finance professionals combine strong theoretical finance foundations with practical applicability. Students also have an unparalleled opportunity to gain hands-on experience by managing Canada's largest student-led investment portfolio. Its assets under management are $20 million.

Applicants should also refer to the program website .

¶¡ÏãÔ°AV Requirements

Applicants must satisfy the University admission requirements as stated in Graduate General Regulations 1.3 in the ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV Calendar. An undergraduate degree in business, commerce, economics, mathematics, physics, or other suitable quantitatively oriented programs is required. Candidates holding a professional designation such as a PRM or FRM and evidence of strong mathematics competency would also be ideal candidates. Students with a strong mathematical aptitude who have completed the graduate diploma in business administration offered by the University would be qualified for admission consideration.

Program Requirements

This program consists of course requirements for a minimum of 51 units. Students complete the core courses and choose either the investment management stream or the risk management stream, and additional electives. Other graduate courses may be substituted for the courses listed at the discretion of the academic director.

Students must complete all of

BUS 579 - Professional Development (0)

Through experiential and applied learning opportunities, students will understand and experience the fundamental components of a job-search and career progression skills for securing employment and achieving career objectives. Co-curricular opportunities will compliment and build upon the learning experience, and contribute to overall development and personal branding. Graded on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis.

Section Instructor Day/Time Location
TBD
TBD
BUS 700 - Orientation (0) *

Intensive program for ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV Beedie graduate students to meet each other and develop both individual and group strategies for academic success. Through experiential learning and team-building activities students develop a deeper understanding of the skills and knowledge that contribute to an effective team-based learning environment. Students will also learn about program-specific academic expectations, academic and administrative resources, and supports available at ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV. Graded on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis.

BUS 733 - Negotiations (2)

Negotiation is the art of and science of securing agreements between two or more parties that are interdependent and who are seeking to maximize their outcomes. The central issues of this course deal with understanding the behaviour of individuals, groups and organizations in the context of competitive situations. Graded on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis.

Section Instructor Day/Time Location
TBD
May 13 – May 20, 2023: Sat, 9:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
May 27, 2023: Sat, 9:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
Burnaby
Surrey
TBD
Jul 8, 2023: Sat, 9:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
Jul 15, 2023: Sat, 9:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
Jul 22, 2023: Sat, 9:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
Burnaby
Surrey
Surrey
BUS 798 - Accounting Foundations (0)

Introduces students to the fundamental concepts of accounting and financial statements. This course will be graded as satisfactory/unsatisfactory.

BUS 801 - Financial Modeling Tools (3)

An introduction to elements of mathematics and computational techniques employed in finance and financial risk management. An introduction to programming tools, e.g. VBA, Matlab, and an object oriented programming language (e.g. C++).

BUS 802 - Corporate Finance (3)

Discusses financial decision making under uncertainty. It examines financial economics in the context of corporate finance. Prerequisite: BUS 877 and BUS 878.

BUS 803 - Financial Econometrics (3)

Financial econometrics for testing asset pricing models and portfolio performance measurement.

BUS 810 - Advanced Fixed Income Analysis (3)

Builds on the fixed income insights and goes deeper in such subjects as the term structure of interest rates, fixed income returns, yield-spread analysis, sources of risk in fixed income securities, and embedded options.

BUS 823 - Advanced Equity Analysis (3)

Builds on subjects such as the valuation of equity securities, including company and industry analysis, financial statement analysis and valuation models.

BUS 825 - Financial Statement Analysis (3)

Provides an understanding of the linkages between financial statements such as annual reports and prospectuses including the three principal financial statements (balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement) and how useful information about a company can be extracted from them.

BUS 827 - Principles of Investments (3)

Provides students with the principles, theories and practices of Investing. The course surveys relevant investment theories as applied to different asset classes, focusing on the decision-making process it discusses applications in both traditional and alternative investments.

BUS 828 - Business Strategy, Ethics and The Regulatory Environment (2)

Examines how organizations create long term, sustainable, competitively differentiated value for shareholders and stakeholders by developing, enacting, monitoring and adjusting corporate and business unit strategies in a stringent regulatory and highly competitive environment.

BUS 861 - Managerial Communication (2)

Designed to assist students to improve their written and verbal communication skills in business settings.

BUS 877 - Mathematics for Finance (3)

Provides students with a review of the fundamentals of the mathematics that they will be expected to know to be successful in the broader M.Sc. in Finance program. Many of the examples and exercises used will be motivating using common problems encountered in portfolio construction and analysis, econometrics, and option pricing.

BUS 878 - Statistics for Financial Economics (3)

Provide students with a review of the fundamentals of random variables and statistics that they will be expected to know to be successful in the broader M.Sc. in Finance program. Covering topics such as regression, estimation, simulation and hypothesis testing, the course examples and exercises provide a foundation on which to build a greater understanding of economic analysis and forecasting.

and nine units of electives from the list of electives or another graduate business course with program director approval

Electives

BUS 870 - Research Project (3)

A research project in the areas of investment management, risk management or a closely related field of inquiry. Project may be done individually or in pairs. Graded on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis.

Section Instructor Day/Time Location
TBD
BUS 876 - Special Topics (3)

Special topics for business administration.

Section Instructor Day/Time Location
TBD
Jul 31 – Aug 18, 2023: Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, 8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.

BUS 888 - Special Topics (3)

Special topics related to fundamentals in finance, asset pricing, market risk management and credit risk management.

Section Instructor Day/Time Location
Jul 10 – Jul 28, 2023: Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, 8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.

BUS 889 - Special Topics (3)

Special topics related to fundamentals in finance, asset pricing, market risk management and credit risk management. This course will be graded as satisfactory/unsatisfactory.

and the requirements from investment management, risk management or research stream

Investment Management Stream

BUS 816 - Strategic Asset Allocation (3)

Assumptions underlying the Capital Asset Pricing Model are relaxed to allow for specific views on asset returns, and to allow for the expected future consumption needs of a given investor to be considered at a strategic level.

BUS 826 - Portfolio Theory and Asset Pricing (3)

Four main topics are covered: portfolio theory, asset pricing, market efficiency, and performance measurement. The first two are cornerstones of financial economics, as, for the most part, portfolio selection models form the basis of models of asset pricing. The third cornerstone is the efficient markets hypothesis, which asks whether prices reflect information. Finally, asset pricing models provide the basis for many risk-adjusted measures of the performance of mutual, pension, and hedge funds.

BUS 829 - Investment Banking and Private Equity (3)

Mixes financial theory with concrete applications in investment banking and private equity settings. Main areas of study are around Corporate Finance, Equity Valuation and Investments that are of importance to investment bankers and private equity professionals.

Risk Management Stream

BUS 818 - Advanced Derivatives (3)

Technical course that provides the participants with the necessary knowledge to address more complex risk management problems.

BUS 864 - Credit Risk Management (3)

Credit risk management with emphasis on portfolio models, including probability of default and loss given default models, credit capital allocation, active portfolio management, credit derivatives, and structured transactions.

BUS 865 - Market Risk Management (3)

Value at risk, advanced market risk models, statistical models, stress testing, scenario analysis, and risk-adjusted performance measurement.

Research Stream

BUS 870 - Research Project (3)

A research project in the areas of investment management, risk management or a closely related field of inquiry. Project may be done individually or in pairs. Graded on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis.

Section Instructor Day/Time Location
TBD
BUS 890 - Research Methods I (3)

Econometrics and statistics provide the tools of choice to carry out quantitative research. With a focus on laying the groundwork for industry as well as academic applications, much stress is placed on fostering a good understanding of the uses, limitations and potential pitfalls of the most commonly employed methods. Prerequisite: Students need permission from academic unit.

Section Instructor Day/Time Location
TBD
BUS 891 - Theory of Financial Markets (3)

Continuous time is used for the celebrated Black-Scholes Model for pricing derivatives and is also often the most intuitive way to tackle asset pricing, term structure theory and portfolio selection. Through first laying the foundations in discrete time to illustrate the basic mechanisms, continuous time is gently introduced by working out its analogs that form a cornerstone of much of modern finance. Prerequisite: Students need permission from the program before entering the research stream.

* BUS 700 is a prerequisite for all courses in this program

Program Length

Students are expected to complete the program requirements within four terms.

Other Information

Student Investment Advisory Service (SIAS)

Students have the opportunity to acquire real world investment, risk management and compliance experience through an optional course called the Student Investment Advisory Service. Students must be enrolled in BUS 880 no later than the second term of enrollment and throughout the program in order to complete the course.

BUS 880 - Student Investment Advisory Service Practicum (0)

Students in this course will manage the Student Investment Advisory Service (SIAS) fund which includes $10 million of the university's endowment portfolio, funded by contributions from HSBC Bank Canada and Lohn Foundation. SIAS fund follows a value investing mandate set by the client (¶¡ÏãÔ°AV) through a conservative investment policy statement. The fund is composed of four actively managed asset classes: Cash, Canadian Equity, Global Equity and Fixed Income. SIAS fund reports monthly compliance and performance to the client and faculty advisors. Additionally, performance review presentations are held on a quarterly basis. Students must be enrolled in BUS 880 no later than the second term of enrollment and throughout the program in order to successfully complete the course. Graded on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis.

Section Instructor Day/Time Location
TBD

Academic Requirements within the Graduate General Regulations

All graduate students must satisfy the academic requirements that are specified in the Graduate General Regulations, as well as the specific requirements for the program in which they are enrolled.