Investments Analysis And Management

[Brittany Bhadd]

TheStephen L. Hawk Center for Investment Analysis helps deliver a comprehensive educational experience for graduate and undergraduate students at the Wisconsin School of Business. The Center directly supports the Wisconsin MBA concentration in Applied Security Analysis Program (ASAP), where students use real world tools to manage in excess of $25 million in portfolios of equity, investment-grade, high-yield, and Treasury-bond portfolios. Established in 1970, ASAP is one of the oldest running student managed investment programs in the world.

A core strength of our program is the significant support we receive from alumni and other industry supporters. A network of over 700 alumni serve as weekly class speakers, mentors, employers, and advisory board members and offer students firm visits, conference opportunities, and events. Students often choose our program for these enriching experiences and the competitive advantage they provide to help launch careers in investment research and portfolio management.

This class for Juniors and Seniors focuses on business model analysis, valuation approaches, and preparing a professional stock pitch. Taught by successful institutional investors, the course prepares you for a career in investment management.

Gifts to the Hawk Center support exceptional education by helping cover our staffing costs, providing students with world-class research resources, and providing additional support to students through scholarships and travel opportunities. Please consider making a pledge or gift today.

The concentration in Investment Analysis provides an opportunity to learn sophisticated portfolio management approaches, including quantitative techniques for portfolio optimization and rebalancing. You will apply analytical methodologies within the overall investment process and utilize the critical elements, such as asset allocation and security selection, including specialized portfolios like ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) focused investments. Along with learning about services provided by mutual funds and developing the ability to construct portfolios with different risk levels, you will learn how to value a firm using constant growth or multistage dividend discount models, financial statements, and financial ratio analysis.

Students must complete the degree core courses, Investment Analysis concentration requirements, and electives. CFA Charterholders may waive two courses (8 credits), including Corporate Finance (MET AD 731) and one elective course.

Introduction to the concepts, methods, and problems of financial and managerial accounting. Includes data accumulation, accounting principles, financial statement analysis, measurement and disclosure issues, cost analysis, budgeting and control, production costs, and standard costs. [ 4 cr. ]

Financial Regulation and Ethics is a course designed to thoroughly review the important topics of financial regulations, policies, and ethics. The course will explore an overview of the financial systems, their history, problems, and issues for the purpose of understanding the enactment of regulations as a method to protect the financial systems and investors. Also, regulators and their authority will be identified, both domestically and internationally.

Ethics, an extremely important aspect of finance will be discussed and explored. Ethics is a difficult topic to define and can be impacted by social norms. During the ethics portion of the course, students will study where ethics have failed and caused major issues for the financial marketplace and individual companies. [ 4 cr. ]

Finance is a highly competitive and dynamic industry that demands quantitative oriented professionals. This course will equip students with the empirical techniques which are used in the analysis of financial markets with a strong focus on financial applications using actual data.

The goal of this course is to provide students with a number of econometric techniques which are used in the analysis of financial markets based on asset pricing and corporate finance models. In particular, the emphasis will be on classical linear regression models, time series analysis, and limited dependent variable models applied to the following topics: predictability of asset returns; event study analysis; econometric tests of the CAPM and multifactor models; volatility modelling, etc. [ 4 cr. ]

Emphasizes issues of accounting, finance, and economics that are important in most management contexts. Stresses understanding financial statements, planning and control, cost and benefit evaluation, cash flow analysis, and capital budgeting. [ 4 cr. ]

Prereq AD 630, AD731

This course develops a framework for understanding the various types of financial decision making faced by financial managers and provides students with analytical tools for evaluating portfolio construction and management problems in a systematic manner. Includes analysis and determination of securities values. Problems of investment policy are approached through studies of portfolio selection methods and the valuation of special classes of securities. It offers quantitative strategies for portfolio diversification and risk management. [ 4 cr. ]

Prereq: MET AD 630, MET AD 731

This course covers the nature and analysis of fixed income securities and an in-depth examination of some of the particular features of some major classes of fixed income instruments, valuation, sensitivity to risks, and management of fixed income portfolios. [ 4 cr. ]

Prereq: MET AD630, MET AD731

This course involves utilizing analytical methods for financial forecasting, cost of capital calculation, rate of return analysis, use of derivatives instruments, business growth management, discounted cash flow analysis, corporate valuation, mergers & acquisitions, and evaluation of bankruptcy proceedings. [ 4 cr. ]

Prereq: MET AD630, MET AD731

Investigation and analysis of organization, structure, and performance of U.S. money and capital markets, and institutions. Examines regulation of the financial industry and the role of financial instruments. [ 4 cr. ]

Prereq: MET AD630, MET AD731

This course examines the corporate valuation process by which takeovers and other corporate control transactions take place. It includes financial forecasting, based on expectation models, scenario analysis, and due diligence. Of particular interest will be the defensive measures by management against hostile bids, buyout transactions, the relation of takeovers to capital structure changes, and the insider trading in takeover contests. [ 4 cr. ]

Prereqs: AD 630, AD731

Applies the concepts of corporate finance and risk mitigation to the problems of multinational financial management. Major topics include foreign exchange risk, and construction of hedging strategies using derivative instruments such as forwards, futures, and swaps to reduce multinational corporate risk. Addresses international financial flows and their impact on foreign exchange rates, capital flows, speculation, analysis of alternative foreign investments, analysis of sources and uses of corporate funds abroad, multinational tax and profit. [ 4 cr. ]

Select two from the following list:

MET AD 528 Blockchain FinanceCryptocurrencies and the underlying distributed ledger technology (blockchain), have exploded into public consciousness over the last few years, with many industry practitioners arguing that the blockchain technology has the potential to disrupt business and financial services in the way the Internet disrupted off-line commerce. This course covers digital currencies, blockchains, and related topics in the FinTech area using the analytical tools provided by economics, investments and corporate finance. [ 4 cr. ]

This course expands upon the foundations of finance theory with interdisciplinary approaches from statistical physics and machine learning. The course equips the students with the Python tools to tackle a broad range of problems in quantitative financial analysis and combines the study of relevant financial concepts with computational implementations. Students will learn to use packages like Numpy, Pandas, Statsmodels and Scikit, which are commonly used in research and in the industry. Prerequisites: MET AD 685 or PY 355 or equivalent or consent by the instructor. [ 4 cr. ]

This course will provide students with the analytical tools to analyze, manage, and improve manufacturing, service, and business processes. Coverage includes various options to lower operational costs and improve responsiveness to customers' needs, including operating system design, product & service design, capacity analysis & buffering, waiting line optimization, and process quality analysis using statistical approaches. Quantitative methods include application of stochastic simulation, analysis of random outcomes, statistical analysis routines (confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, machine learning), system reliability analysis, and statistical process control. The Deming philosophy of management, Lean operations principles, and Six Sigma process improvement methodologies form the underlying foundation of the course coverage. [ 4 cr. ]

This overview course examines the management issues involved with assessing the security and risk environments in both the private and public sectors in order to assure continuous system-wide operations. The course studies the elements of operational and technological risk assessment and operational continuity using a project management framework and quantitative risk metrics. Students are exposed to the role of the firm in crisis response and management as well as the terms, systems, and interactions necessary to assure continuous operations. Topics include: the role and need for comprehensive assurance strategy and planning; information security; an overview of the system-wide structure; the social and emotional impact on the workforce as well as its effect on productivity; and the organizational infrastructure relating to national, regional, and international compliance. [ 4 cr. ]

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