Introductory description

The module aims to expand students' knowledge and understanding about the cross-domain nature of financial institutions. In particular, the module aims to highlight the necessity of understanding the social, technological and political dimensions of financial institutions when analysing and operating in today’s economy.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

The organisation and practices of asset trading.
Analysing the analysts: How financial analysts and financial managers operate.
Ties that matter: Social connections in financial markets and their impact on market behaviour.
Measuring and making things happen: the impact of financial models on market behaviour.
Programmes that run markets: Algorithmic trading.
Making things tradable: Organisational aspects of securitisation.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Describe the process of securitisation and explain its importance.
• Explain the organisational, social and cognitive environments in which stock analysts operate and how these effect their outputs.
• Describe how social ties among between investors and between them and other market actors affect decision-making and assess you the characteristics of these patterns of ties contribute to risks.
• Describe and explain different algorithmic trading strategies, how they interact with one another and with exchanges' matching engines and the impact of these settings on price behaviour.
• Critically assess theories related to organisational and technological aspects of markets.
• Explain key theoretical models and reflect critically on the limitations of those models and the assumptions that underpin them.
• Interpret empirical evidence and offer coherent critique of concepts presented in the literature.
• Communicate complex ideas effectively, both verbally and in writing.

Indicative reading list

Benner, M. J. (2007). The incumbent discount: Stock market categories and response to radical technological change. Academy of Management Review, 32(3), 703-720.
MacKenzie, D., & Millo, Y. (2003). Constructing a market, performing theory: the historical sociology of a financial derivatives exchange 1. American journal of sociology, 109(1), 107-145.
Pardo-Guerra, Juan Pablo, 'Creating flows of interpersonal bits: the automation of the London Stock Exchange, c. 1955-90', Economy and Society, 39: 1, (2010) , 84 — 109
Scott, S. V, & Zachariadis, M. (2012). Origins and development of SWIFT, 1973-2009. Business History, 54(3), 462–482.
Shipilov, A. V., & Li, S. X. (2008). Can you have your cake and eat it too? Structural holes' influence on status accumulation and market performance in collaborative networks. Administrative Science Quarterly, 53(1), 73-108. White, L. J. (2010). Markets: The credit rating agencies. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 24(2), 211-226.

Subject specific skills

Write informed critiques of key issues in financial economics and behavioural finance.
Analyse short case studies and construct arguments to support particular analyses.

Transferable skills

Use elements from financial theory and sociological concepts to analyse the process of securitisation and explain its importance.
Analyse, using elements from relevant theoretical approaches the organisational, social and cognitive environments in which stock analysts operate and how these effect their outputs.
Calculate relevant SNA measures that describe how social ties among between investors and between them and other market actors change dynamically and assess, using relevant theories, how such networks of ties affect decision-making and assess you the characteristics of these patterns of ties contribute to risks.
Analyse, using economic and organisational theories the impact of different algorithmic trading strategies on price behaviour.