Credits: 20
Teaching: 43 hours, which is split between lectures and workshops
Assessment: class test (30%) and final examination (70%)

The aim of this class is to provide you with an understanding of the basic principles of financial accounting and financial analysis, the ability to interpret financial statements and their use in assessing the financial position and performance of companies.

This class provides an introduction to the principles of accounting and the analysis of financial statements. It will enable you to prepare financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and to interpret and analyse these statements. Particular emphasis is placed on the accounting concepts and information employed in financial analysis and decision taking.

You'll develop the ability to prepare and interpret financial statements and construct cash forecasts. In addition, you'll develop an understanding of the demand and supply for accounting information; an appreciation of the role of financial analysis and analysts; and an awareness of the statistical characteristics of accounting numbers.

Credits: 10
Assessment: final examination (50%) & individual assessment (50%)

This class aims to bridge the gap between theoretical finance and practical data analytics, preparing you for an increasingly data-driven financial services sector by equipping you with essential data analysis skills.

You will develop predictive models and use advanced tools such as machine learning, while learning how to present output as concise and interpretable visualisations. Emphasis will be placed on developing critical thinking as well as technical proficiency, with discussions concerning the treatment of incomplete data, the appropriate model and technique to use given different scenarios, and the ethical and privacy concerns of using large, novel datasets and machine learning models.

You will be required to effectively interpret and apply data insights across various contexts, including risk management, forecasting interpretation of accounts, and financial technology applications.

Credits: 20
Teaching: 33 hours of lectures supplemented by 10 one-hour workshops
Assessment: class test (30%) and final examination (70%)

This class will provide an introduction to financial decision-making, and much of the relevant analysis will be developed from the standpoint of corporate finance. It'll explain how a company should decide on the investments to be undertaken to meet its objectives, generally assumed to be the maximisation of its value. It will be demonstrated that this will require a rate of return on its investments in excess of the return available in the capital market on equally risky financial investments. As a result, it will be necessary to develop an understanding of the capital market risk-return relationship. This will require an appreciation of the nature of risk and how this can be managed by the development of portfolios.

Even though the focus of the class will be on corporate finance, it'll also require an appreciation of how the risk-return tradeoff is determined in the capital market.

Credits: 20
Teaching: 43 hours, which is split between lectures and workshops
Assessment: class test (30%) and final examination (70%)

This class aims to provide an introduction to statistical techniques that are commonly used in finance, a basic understanding of econometric analysis, and an appreciation of the general role of quantitative methods in finance. The class will focus on the application of statistical techniques to examine empirical issues in finance, such as corporate finance and stock price analysis.

The class aims to give you an understanding of the practice of external financial reporting in the context of the quoted company. It emphasises the role of professional judgement in preparing financial statements. Financial reporting lies at the heart of corporate governance.

This is a vitally important area that creates opportunities for debate and discussion. The ongoing globalisation of accounting regulations means that it is possible to conduct such a discussion with an international audience. This class provides an introduction to the preparation and analysis of financial statements in a form suitable for publication. It builds upon the semester 1 class Accounting and Financial Analysis.

The emphasis will be on the forces that have driven the development of standards and regulations, and on the issues arising from the application of accounting standards.

Credits: 20
Teaching: 30 hours of lectures supplemented by 10 one-hour workshops
Assessment: class test (30%) and final examination (70%)

The aim of this class is to discuss the different ways in which firms can raise funds, internally and externally, and the role of capital markets in determining the terms on which funding will be available. The costs and risks of difference sources of financing and the role of taxation will also be covered.

The class will cover the capital structure of companies, and their ability to raise finance through initial and seasoned equity capital issues. It will also examine mergers and acquisitions as major investments undertaken by companies, the firm’s working capital policy, and their payout policy in the form of dividends and stock market buybacks.

Credits: 10
Assessment: final examination (50%) & individual assessment (50%)

This class aims to equip you with the skills and knowledge necessary to leverage unstructured textual data in a financial context. As the financial services sector increasingly makes use of data-driven insights, you will be taught methods through which textual information from sources such as corporate reports, news articles, and social media can be analysed.

You will gain hands-on experience with basic qualitative software such as NVivo, before covering traditional textual analysis methods (such as dictionary and machine learning methods) before more recent and advanced natural language processing (NLP) is introduced, including transformer-based models such as BERT and large language models (LLMs). Through these methods, you will be able to extract sentiment, detect trends, and identify key patterns in financial texts, evaluating the relative benefits and drawbacks of each approach (for example, more recent methods lack explainability but offer greater accuracy).

The module will place emphasis on developing both technical and analytical skills, encouraging you to critically evaluate the accuracy, relevance, and limitations of textual data analysis in decision-making processes. Additionally, the module will address ethical considerations and challenges related to bias, transparency, and data privacy in text analytics, specifically in relation to relevant UK guidelines and regulation.

By the end of the module, you will be able to apply text analysis techniques to real-world business scenarios, enhancing your ability to provide data-driven insights and solutions within various professional finance settings.

The aim of this class is to develop the ability to capitalise on the potential use of Excel for financial analysis and financial modelling. The class will develop the ability of students to structure (non-financial) business problems and make use of quantitative analysis in the resolution of such problems. It is also expected to develop the students' general understanding of the potential use of programming techniques in developing business models and plans.

Taught by: Lijie Yu
Credits: 10
Teaching: 15 hours of lectures
Assessment: assignment (30%) and final examination (70%)

The class aims to examine the Markowitz (1952) approach to optimal portfolio selection. The class explores issues relating to optimal portfolio choice and issues in passive and active fund management through the lens of the nature of variance, covariance, risk and return. The class introduces practical applications and an extension of basic theory.

Credits: 10
Teaching: 15 hours of lectures
Assessment: class test (30%) and group assignment (70%)

This class focuses on equity valuation. The aim is to equip students with the knowledge and tools required for analysing the financial performance of firms and measuring their value. Students will be skilled in reviewing financial statements, estimating and assessing financial ratios and relevant accounting and economic data, and use this data for making forecasts and performing equity valuations. In addition, the module will cover the theoretical background for each valuation method and its application with real-life examples and case studies. Also, the module will examine the advantages and disadvantages of the main valuation models. Finally, the ultimate goal is for students to be able to perform and deliver an equity analysis report for any publicly listed firm.

Credits: 10
Teaching: 15 hours of lectures
Assessment: class test (30%) and final examination (70%)

While fixed income securities (bonds) have been traded for a far longer time than equities, it's only recently that the trading volume of these instruments has exceeded that of equities in many of the economies with highly developed capital markets. The bond markets for the last 25 years or so have been characterised by rapid innovation and the range of bonds now being traded is quite diverse. Any graduate of an MSc programme in Finance is expected to be familiar with the nature of the valuation of bonds.

This class will put the MSc courses at Strathclyde in a position to provide students with the opportunity to analyse bonds and the markets in which they are traded in more depth than is possible at the moment.

For this project, you will be supplied with data relating to some issue in finance or accounting, and a preliminary list of hypothesis or questions to be addressed. You will be expected to expand the range of hypotheses to be considered and ways in which the hypothesis can be tested. Whilst all members of the class will consider the same issue the data sets will differ from one person to another.

By providing the data, and a broadly defined research agenda, the research project allow considerably more time to be spent on the analysis of the data and interpretation of results than is feasible in the context of a more conventional dissertation. While the challenge of identifying a research topic and the development of an appropriate data set are to a large extent eliminated it does allow the analytical work to be developed in more depth. The introductory class will review briefly the analysis and techniques that will be relevant for the research work to be undertaken.

This project requires that you undertake a financial analysis of a company from the standpoint of a potential investor and provide an evaluation of the investment potential of the company’s shares. An assessment should be undertaken of the company’s financial position and performance on the basis of both its financial statements and stock market performance. The discussion should also bring out clearly the financial policies of the company and how these impact on the company’s performance. 

This will require an evaluation of its capital expenditure programme, the form of financing adopted by the company, including an evaluation of its capital structure and its sources of equity and debt funding. You should differentiate between the use of internal sources of funding, in the form of retentions, and the new issues of equity, and also discuss the company’s dividend policy to the extent that this is not covered by the discussion of its retention policy. In some companies it may be difficult to identify a consistent policy perspective on some of these issues – this can be documented and its implications assessed. The project should also provide an assessment of the company’s recent stock market performance to put the current share price into context. 

The returns achieved on the company’s shares should be evaluated using an appropriate benchmark as well as the standard market ratios – the earnings yield, dividend yield, etc. The final objective of the project is an assessment of the value of the company and the investment value of its shares. Even the most experienced and capable security analysts find this a very difficult task, even though they may be monitoring a company’s performance and prospects on a continuing basis. You are simply expected to build on the financial information and analysis you have undertaken to produce some tentative assessments of value. As the focus is on the use of financial information you are expected, firstly, to undertake a “fundamental analysis” of the company. Secondly, you are expected to use the various valuation models to provide insights into the determination of the company’s market value.

This project provides you with the opportunity to choose a topic to study in some depth.  It can take the form of

• a review of the literature on some topic in finance (e.g. Some recent developments in the financial markets)
• a case study (e.g. the sub-prime crisis)
• a consideration of some area of controversy (e.g. the regulation of financial institutions)

In completing the third project you are expected to demonstrate an understanding of the concepts and analysis developed on the course, a comprehensive knowledge of the relevant literature on the chosen topic, and an ability to discuss issues in some area of finance or accounting on an informed basis.