Welcome to Seminar in Finance

The Program Learning Objectives and course learning outcomes are below:

1. PLO1 Macro Environment: Understand the Macro Environment related to the financial markets.
2. PLO2 Security Selection: Determining Which sectors are in favor related to the macro environment and which stocks are included in each of the 11 Sector SPDR ETFs
3. PLO3 Portfolio Management: Build portfolios following "Towards a Simplified CAN SLIM Model" and benchmark their success against the SP500 by interpreting their risk/return statistics. The portfolios are from the investment criteria of Warren Buffet, Benjamin Graham, Joel Greenblatt and Bill O'Neil. The fifth portfolio is unique to "Towards a Simplified CAN SLIM Model."
4. PLO4 Portfolio Performance: Analyze the passing stocks for each portfolio using Sharpe Ratio, Standard Deviation, Maximum Draw Down, Total Return and Average Annualized Return.
5. PLO5 Portfolio Synthesis: Understand the stocks that overlap each portfolio across the 11 Sectors.
6. PLO6 Portfolio Optimization: Determine how to combine the portfolios for improved performance, including optimized Sharpe Ratio.
7. PLO7 Relative Valuation and DCF: Determine which relative multiples valuation models best approximate each portfolio including P/E, EV/Sales, EV/EBIT, EV/EBITDA, P/FCF, and the Discounted Cash Flow 'DCF' model. Also interpret technical factors that may be added. 
8. PLO8 Factor Analysis: Interpret the factors that best improve the performance across each of the 11 sectors or which sectors should be invested in over the next 3-12 months and why by combining the factors. 

By the end of the course, students will be able to ... 

CLO1: Understand how to re-build fundamentally driven portfolios and create stock recommendations following "Towards a Simplified CAN SLIM model."

CLO2: Apply the portfolio recommendations to new time-series using Portfolio123.com and interpret the portfolio rules from the paper Appendix 1. 

CLO3: Perform Macro Economic Analysis on the Global Economy and U.S. stock market including the 11 SP Sectors and determine which sectors and securities may be in favor to invest over the next 3-12 months using Bloomberg or Optuma. 

CLO4: Apply the portfolio rules to make investment decisions in each of the 11 SP Sectors using Bloomberg. 

CLO5: Interpret and Understand performance and risk measurements of portfolios and understand how to optimize the Sharpe Ratio. 

CLO6: Understand how the portfolios can improve the performance in each of the 11 SP Sectors by analyzing the themes of risk and return. 

CLO7: Understand which relative valuation models best summarize each portfolio. 

CLO8: Apply factor analysis to the portfolios and create new portfolio rules for optimal investing. 

CLO9: Create portfolios and investment decisions to participate in the 'CMT' simulated trading competition.