Course

Portfolio Management Techniques

Faculty
Commerce & Business Administration
Department
Finance
Course Code
FINC 4360
Credits
3.00
Semester Length
15 Weeks X 4 Hours per Week = 60 Hours
Max Class Size
35
Method(s) Of Instruction
Lecture
Seminar
Typically Offered
To be determined

Overview

Course Description
This course focuses on the business of investment decision making from the perspective of the portfolio manager with an emphasis on the delivery of sound investment advice and solid performance to investors. The course builds on earlier investment coursework and requires students to have taken a previous securities course. The course assesses the major components of the investment business from the client’s perspective and concentrates on the investment process, asset allocation and investment performance. In particular, the emphasis is on the job of managing a portfolio of securities within a mix of asset classes including equities, fixed income, and international alternatives. Learning tools and techniques include the use of Excel spreadsheets and the analysis of public data.
Course Content

1. Client objectives for diversified portfolios: risk and investor preferences.
2. Asset allocation: Portfolio analysis, Markowitz Risk-Return Optimization, Portfolio selection, delineation of efficient portfolios and techniques of calculating efficient frontiers.
3. The investment management process: Efficient market hypothesis and the key elements of the investment process.
4. Equity portfolio construction.
5. Fixed-income management.
6. Global investment opportunities.
7. Alternative investment classes.
8. Performance measurement and attribution.
9. Managing client relations.

Learning Activities

A combination of lectures, supplementary materials & presentations and class presentations.

Means of Assessment
Midterm exam(s)  30-40%
Portfolio Project(s)         20-30%
Presentation  10%
Final Exam  30%
Total 100%

Students may conduct research as part of their coursework in this class. Instructors for the course are responsible for ensuring that student research projects comply with College policies on ethical conduct for research involving humans, which can require obtaining Informed Consent from participants and getting the approval of the Douglas College Research Ethics Board prior to conducting the research.

Learning Outcomes

At the end of the course, the successful student should be able to:
1. evaluate and describe the techniques required to select an optimum portfolio;
2. describe various strategies of capital allocation to create optimal mix portfolios;
3. evaluate portfolio returns of a small, active portfolio;
4. explain the portfolio evaluation techniques of earning estimation and bond pricing techniques;
5. describe the valuation and uses of financial futures in the management of portfolios;
6. use real data of securities to estimate risk, estimate returns, and adjust the returns in accordance with inflation and money exchange rates;
7. select the appropriate asset mix for an investor’s profile;
8. estimate the capital allocation weights and asset allocation weights through the use of Excel spreadsheets in order to create an investment portfolio;
9. evaluate a portfolio’s performance and identify the main reasons that underlie its performance;
10. provide recommendations to clients (investors) to maintain an appropriate portfolio allocation.

Textbook Materials

Required: Stewart, S. D.; Piros, C. D.; Heisler, J. C. Running money: Professional Portfolio Management, McGraw-Hill Irvin, latest edition. (or other textbooks as approved by the department).

Only Faculty of Commerce and Business Administration approved calculators may be used for tests and examinations. (Texas Instruments BA II Plus, or Hewlett Packard 10B)

Requisites

Prerequisites

(FINC 3350 or FINC 3390) with a grade of “C” or Instructor permission

Corequisites

No corequisite courses.

Equivalencies

Courses listed here are equivalent to this course and cannot be taken for further credit:

  • No equivalency courses

Course Guidelines

Course Guidelines for previous years are viewable by selecting the version desired. If you took this course and do not see a listing for the starting semester / year of the course, consider the previous version as the applicable version.

Course Transfers

These are for current course guidelines only. For a full list of archived courses please see https://www.bctransferguide.ca

Institution Transfer Details for FINC 4360
Athabasca University (AU) AU FNCE 3XX (3)
Camosun College (CAMO) CAMO FIN 221 (3)
Capilano University (CAPU) CAPU BFIN 3XX (3)
Coast Mountain College (CMTN) CMTN BADM 1XX (3)
College of the Rockies (COTR) COTR ACCT 4XX (3)
Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) KPU ACCT 2XXX (3)
Langara College (LANG) LANG BUSM 2XXX (3)
Simon Fraser University (SFU) SFU BUS 2XX (3)
Thompson Rivers University (TRU) TRU BBUS 3XXX (3)
Trinity Western University (TWU) TWU BUSI 3XX (3)
University Canada West (UCW) UCW FNCE 301 (3)
University of British Columbia - Vancouver (UBCV) UBCV COMM_V 2nd (3)
University of Northern BC (UNBC) UNBC COMM 421 (3)
University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) UFV BUS 433 (3)
University of Victoria (UVIC) UVIC COM 4XX (1.5)
Vancouver Island University (VIU) VIU FNCE 3rd (3)

Course Offerings

Winter 2024

CRN
Days
Dates
Start Date
End Date
Instructor
Status
CRN
13493
Tue
Start Date
-
End Date
Start Date
End Date
Instructor Last Name
Yamamoto
Instructor First Name
Cleusa
Course Status
Full
Section Notes

FINC 4360 050 - This is a synchronous hybrid course that incorporates both face-to-face and online instructions.

Max
Enrolled
Remaining
Waitlist
Max Seats Count
35
Actual Seats Count
35
0
Actual Wait Count
0
Days
Building
Room
Time
Tue
Building
Anvil Office Tower
Room
808
Start Time
18:30
-
End Time
21:20