The first part of the discussion should be fun. Many of you without a background in finance may have gotten your impression of the finance world from TV or movies. Even the highly prestigious Certified Financial Analyst (CFA) Institute has published Top 20 Films about Finance: From Crisis to Con Men.

Share what your impressions are based on a recent TV show or movie, or one of the movies from the CFA Institute’s list if you can find one of the movies online. If you haven’t watched anything finance-related lately, check out the one of these movies: The Big Short, Margin Call, or Wall Street (the original one, not the awful sequel). TV shows include Billions or some early episodes of Silicon Valley that involve getting finance for the new company. Post your thoughts in the first week of the module.

For the second week of the module, dig into the assignments and start to use Microsoft Excel. There are some videos on Excel in the background reading page, but find an additional video or two that helps you get started. Share the link with your classmate and discuss the usefulness of the video you found.

Module 1 – Background

Present Value and the Risk/Return Trade-Off

To begin the module, start off with these two videos to give yourself an overview of the main concepts covered in this module. The first video is from Professor Holthausen of the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. He explains the concept of the time value of money and also goes through some calculations using Microsoft Excel. The second video is from Professor Pinder of the University of Melbourne and covers some basic concepts of risk and return.

Holthausen, R. (2015). Time value of money. Coursera. Retrieved from: https://www.coursera.org/learn/wharton-decision-ma…

Pinder, S. (2017) Unsystematic versus systematic risk. Coursera. Retrieved from: https://www.coursera.org/learn/valuation/lecture/L…

A second video from Dr. Pinder on the capital asset pricing model is highly recommended but not required. A link to Dr. Pinder’s video is included under the optional reading list below.

Once you have finished viewing the videos, take a closer look at the concepts covered in the videos by reading through these book chapters. In addition to reading about the basic concepts, make sure to work through some of the numerical examples as these will help you with your assignments:

Gitman, L. (2005). Chapter 4: Time value of money. Principles of Managerial Finance. Pearson Education. Retrieved from: http://wps.aw.com/wps/media/objects/222/227412/ebo… [If the link is down click Important Financial Concepts or Important Financial Concepts for an alternative link.]

Gitman, L. (2005). Chapter 5: Risk and return. Principles of Managerial Finance. Pearson Education. Retrieved from: http://wps.aw.com/wps/media/objects/222/227412/ebo… [If the link is down click Risk and Return or Risk and Return for an alternative link.]

If you have any difficulty with the material above, it is highly recommended that you take a look at some of the optional readings below. The materials below cover the same material but sometimes concepts can be absorbed better if you see some explained in a different manner or see additional examples.

Finally, if you don’t have much experience with Microsoft Excel then please take a look at the following videos:

Davis, J. (2013). Present value of a single amount in Excel. Retrieved from:

Moy, R. (2014). Present value of multiple cash flows in Excel. Retrieved from:

Codible. (2012). Future value for a series of annual deposits. Retrieved from:

Optional Reading

Pinder, S. (2017). Capital asset pricing model (It’s all about the discount rate). Coursera. Retrieved from: https://www.coursera.org/learn/valuation/lecture/6…

Clifford, J. (2014). Time value of money. ACDC Leadership. Retrieved from:

Ross, S., Westerfield, R., & Jordan, B. (2007) Chapter 4: Introduction to valuation: The time value of money. Essentials of Corporate Finance. McGraw Hill. Retrieved from: http://novellaqalive2.mheducation.com/sites/dl/fre…

Ross, S., Westerfield, R., & Jordan, B. (2007) Chapter 11: Risk and return. Essentials of Corporate Finance. McGraw Hill. Retrieved from: http://novellaqalive2.mheducation.com/sites/dl/fre…

16 days ago