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FINC403 Studies in Capital Markets

Aspects of investment and portfolio management and financial institutions and markets. Includes directed reading and seminars related to the functioning of capital markets.

This paper aims at providing a good understanding of the existing literature (scientific research) on financial markets. For students who are planning further academic careers, it will serve to provide an understanding of the main paths of scientific inquiry and/or debate in existing literature and to help them acquire the necessary skills to conduct research on financial markets. For students who plan a professional career in financial markets, it will serve as a collection of state-of-the-art findings of scientific inquiry that can be utilised in real/professional life. While these two functions are separate, we will strive to combine them as I am a strong believer in combining theory, research and practice. We will have a very comprehensive coverage of the research published in high-quality academic journals on the following topics: asset pricing, return predictability and market efficiency, foreign exchange markets, the interaction between the real economy and financial markets, market microstructure, behavioural finance and a number of smaller topics.

The topics will be logically linked together, so it will not be reading randomly-selected papers. The paper builds on a good level of understanding of financial markets concepts and terminology and econometrics/statistics, which are prerequisites of this paper. (Students who do not readily have these prerequisites should consult with me to fix the gap in a realistic way.) This paper will also serve as a bridge between coursework and research, specifically the BSNS 501 and BSNS 580 papers, for which I will act as a Co-ordinator.

Paper title Studies in Capital Markets
Paper code FINC403
Subject Finance
EFTS 0.1667
Points 20 points
Teaching period Semester 1 (On campus)
Domestic Tuition Fees (NZD) $1,163.90
International Tuition Fees Tuition Fees for international students are elsewhere on this website.

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Recommended Preparation
FINC 302
Contact

Dr Olena Onishchenko

Teaching staff

Dr Olena Onishchenko

Paper Structure
Some of the topics covered include:
  • Asset Pricing
  • Efficient Markets Theory Anomalies
  • The interaction between real economy and capital markets
  • Foreign Exchange Markets
  • Market Microstructure
  • Co-movement of national stock markets
  • Econometric Applications
  • Behavioural Finance
Textbooks

Recommended textbook: The Econometrics of Financial Markets, by Campbell, Lo and MacKinlay.

Course outline
View the most recent Course Outline
Graduate Attributes Emphasised
Global perspective, Communication, Critical thinking, Information literacy, Self-motivation, Teamwork.
View more information about Otago's graduate attributes.
Learning Outcomes

Students who successfully complete this paper should:

  1. Become familiar with all important paths of the academic literature on financial markets
  2. Be able to critically evaluate a research paper's methodology, hypotheses and the implications of its findings
  3. Be able to replicate basic formal or empirical work
  4. Be able to evaluate the significance and contribution of a potential research project in the perspective of existing literature
  5. Know how to access data sources and prepare data for econometric analysis
  6. Be able to solve a real/professional-life problem with the guidance of academic literature

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Timetable

Semester 1

Location
Dunedin
Teaching method
This paper is taught On Campus
Learning management system
Blackboard

Computer Lab

Stream Days Times Weeks
Attend
A1 Monday 12:00-13:50 16-18
Thursday 09:00-10:50 16-18

Lecture

Stream Days Times Weeks
Attend
L1 Monday 12:00-13:50 9-14, 19-22
Thursday 09:00-10:50 9-14, 19-22