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Module Catalogue

IB949-15 Investment Management

Department
Warwick Business School
Level
Taught Postgraduate Level
Module leader
Qian Wang
Credit value
15
Module duration
10 weeks
Assessment
25% coursework, 75% exam
Study location
University of Warwick main campus, Coventry

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Introductory description

The module aims to provide students with an in-depth understanding of and key skills in investment management.

Module aims

The module aims to provide students with an in-depth understanding of and key skills in:

  1. The course investigates how to manage the trade-off between maximising expected return and minimising risk for portfolios of securities.
  2. Issues to be considered include valuation of bonds and equities, selection of securities and optimal portfolio strategies through time, and portfolio performance measurement and attribution
  3. Issues relating to the institutional details of trading in difference asset classes will also be discussed.

While the theoretical underpinnings will not be neglected, the emphasis of the course will be on implementation of the theory i.e. investment management in practice.

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.

  • Introduction: Markets, "Players", Asset Classes
  • Bonds I: Prices, Yield, Duration and Convexity
  • Bonds II: Interest Rate / Credit Risk, Strategies
  • Equity: Valuation, Financial Statements
  • Factor Models
  • Portfolio Mgt I : Portfolio Construction (Mean-Variance Optimization )
  • Portfolio Mgt II: Market neutral portfolios
  • Trading, transaction costs and market microstructure
  • Performance Measurement / Attribution
  • International Investing
    The underlying importance of ethics in investment management will also be discussed.

Learning outcomes

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

  • Demonstrate an understanding and recognition of the vital importance of portfolio construction and diversification of risk.
  • Demonstrate a deep understanding of the theory and practice of optimally combining securities into portfolios, institutional understanding of security markets, and some of the issues that a fund manager faces in put-ting theory into practice.
  • Demonstrate knowledge of the theoretical and applied literature on modern portfolio management and investment analysis.
  • Evaluate the relevance and practical application of established paradigms and theories.
  • Critically appraise the concept of market efficiency and its implication for investment professionals.

Indicative reading list

Bodie, Zvi, Alex Kane, and Alan J. Marcus, 2011. Investments, 9th edition, McGraw-Hill [BKM].
Chincarini, Ludwig, and Daehwan Kim, 2006. Quantitative Equity Portfolio Management, McGraw-Hill [CK].

Subject specific skills

  • Intelligently discuss issues pertaining to investment management
  • Demonstrate how better investment decisions can be made
  • Specify simple portfolio optimization problems considering the trade-offs between different measures of return and risk, as well as various constraints (e.g. pertaining to short-selling, transaction costs, diversification etc)
  • Perform basic data
    manipulations and analyses relevant to portfolio investing in statistical software such as STATA and MatLab

Transferable skills

Upon completing this module students will be able to:

Develop team-working skill

Study time

Type Required
Lectures 10 sessions of 1 hour (13%)
Seminars 9 sessions of 1 hour (12%)
Other activity 10 hours (13%)
Private study 48 hours (62%)
Total 77 hours

Private study description

Private study to include preparation for lectures, seminars and practical classes

Other activity description

1 hr per week will be either a face to face lecture or asynchronous tasks with either online or face-to-face support

Costs

No further costs have been identified for this module.

You do not need to pass all assessment components to pass the module.

Assessment group D4
Weighting Study time Eligible for self-certification
Assessment component
Class Test 25% 18 hours No
Reassessment component is the same
Assessment component
In-person Examination 75% 55 hours No
  • Answerbook Green (8 page)
  • Students may use a calculator
Reassessment component is the same
Feedback on assessment

Feedback via My.WBS

Past exam papers for IB949

Post-requisite modules

If you pass this module, you can take:

  • IB9EL-15 Practice of Investment Management

Courses

This module is Core for:

  • Year 1 of TIBS-N300 MSc in Finance