Finance and Investment MSc

The MSc course comprises of four equally weighted modules in each of the first two terms, with three being compulsory and one optional. The dissertation carries one third of the marks for the course and is undertaken after the taught modules have been completed. The compulsory modules provide an excellent coverage of compulsory material in finance designed in a way that is applicable to the areas of finance and investment.

The MSc consists of compulsory modules, a typical selection can be found below. Modules can vary from year to year, but these offer a good idea of what we teach.

Taught modules are subject to change.

Essentials of Mathematics and Statistics: The aim of this module is to ensure that students have a systematic comprehension of the required minimum knowledge of mathematics and statistics to successfully meet the learning outcomes at postgraduate level. This module covers all the preparatory technical material needed to undertake the MSc in Finance and Investment, and feeds in to all assessed modules.

Financial Theory: This module is designed to provide students with a thorough knowledge of financial theory through the study of the interaction between firms, individuals and the macroeconomy. The module provides an opportunity for students to develop an understanding of capital markets through the study of portfolio theory, equilibrium asset pricing models and efficient market theory.

Financial Analysis or Business Finance Workshop: The module provides the analytical tools to evaluate financial securities and a critical understanding of the relevance of accounting information for security valuation. The role of accounting accruals is explored and their impact on earnings as a timely firm performance measure is considered. The module also examines how excess volatility arises in financial markets, its relationship with the theory of market efficiency and why some investment strategies yield positive excess returns over time.

Security Analysis and Funds Management: The aims of this module are to: 1) Provide an overview of securities traded in fixed income, stock and derivative markets and their characteristics along with the stylised facts of financial marketsm. 2) Introduce classical models used for portfolio selection and risk management.

Modelling Financial Markets and Forecasting: This Investment and Finance module aims to provide participants with the skills necessary to conduct their own empirical investigations of a range of economic and financial relationships. Students will also gain the knowledge necessary to understand the related academic and practical literature. The emphasis throughout is on the rationale of the econometric methods analysed and their use in practice to both model and predict economic and financial problems.

Macro and Financial Econometrics: This module provides a broad introduction to the theory and practice of econometrics. Econometrics is concerned with the systematic study of economic phenomena using observed data. The aim is to help students use statistical methods to estimate the parameters of economic models, and test economic hypotheses. The module provides a firm foundation in the theory and practice of econometric modelling of financial markets and is both theoretical and applied, and includes a number of empirical examples and applications.

Corporate Finance: This module is designed to provide students with a thorough knowledge of corporate finance through the study of the interaction between firms and the capital markets. This involves option pricing theory and applications, the firm’s capital structure decision, dividend policy,mergers and acquisitions decision, and decision to go public.

Derivative Securities: The module enumerates and describes the various securities and financial markets in a clear and concise manner that accurately blends theory and practice. This module describes the financial derivative securities that are used in modern finance, and outlines the principles behind their valuation. Finance and Investment MSc students are introduced to options, futures, swaps, bonds and the yield curve. This is followed by option pricing techniques, notably the continuous time no arbitrage pricing theory of Black and Scholes, and the lattice approach of Cox, Ross and Rubinstein, applied to options on stocks.

Risk Management: The main topics of study on this module are financial deregulation and how globalisation and technology have combined with advances in risk analysis to create the discipline of risk management. Students are introduced to the risk management of financial instruments portfolios using risk measures, such as conditional volatility models, value-at-risk and credit risk. The module concludes with an introduction to numerical methods.

Dissertation: A 60-credit dissertation is mandatory for all postgraduate students who undertake this course. Students are invited to select a research question which they investigate under academic supervision. Data support is provided by the Economics and Finance Department, including Bloomberg and Bankscope. Dissertations raise the employability of students by allowing them to choose research questions that are specific to their job market requirements. Recent examples of dissertations by students taking the Finance and Investment Master’s programme include:

• Modelling and forecasting risk using value-at-risk; evidence from 12 EU stock market indices
• How to deal with the pensions crisis in China
• The term structure of interest rate.

Read more about the structure of postgraduate degrees at Brunel and what you will learn on the course.