Course detail

Financial investments

FP-IfinPAcad. year: 2021/2022

The course enables acquirement of theoretical knowledge and practical skills with respect to all spheres of activities on a financial market. The course deals with the individual types of existing financial institutions and financial instruments as well as with the most important types of financial transactions carried out on financial markets. The course provides students also with the fundamentals of financial mathematics.

Language of instruction

Czech

Number of ECTS credits

5

Mode of study

Not applicable.

Learning outcomes of the course unit

Students will acquire theoretical and practical knowledge and skills from all spheres connected with functioning of a financial market. They will understand the significance of the financial market for the economy of every state and will have a grasp of the function and mission of each institution and subject operating on the financial market. They will learn to differentiate financial tools and to use them in practice. Students will also learn how to plan and carry out basic financial operations using existing investment instruments in the corporate practice as well as for personal finances management.

Prerequisites

The course is a follow-up to the knowledge of theory of market economy, monetary theory, and ways of pursuing of expansive and restrictive monetary and fiscal policy in an open economy, basic activities of banking system institutions.

Co-requisites

Not applicable.

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

The course is taught through lectures explaining the basic principles and theory of the discipline. Exercises are focused on practical topics of financial mathematics.

Assesment methods and criteria linked to learning outcomes

Completion of the subject:
Credit is awarded on the basis of successful completion of prescribed written tests, the content of which is the mathematics discussed in the exercises. The tests consist of five examples, of which for each correctly calculated example the student can get a maximum of 5 points. The student can get a maximum of 25 points from the test, while the minimum number of points for which credit can be awarded is 35 points. The first two tests are part of the exercise, the credit test then allows you to complete the required number of points. Credit is a condition of admission of a student to the oral exam. In the final evaluation of the course, the results of the credit test are taken into account by 30%, the results of the oral exam by 70%.

Completion of the course for students with individual study:
The conditions are the same, only credit is awarded only on the basis of a credit test, which contains 10 examples, of which for each correctly calculated example the student can get a maximum of 5 points.

Completion of the course in distance form:
The conditions for granting the credit are the same as for students with individual study. The exam will take the form of a test that will contain 20 multiple-choice questions, some of which may be correct. For each correct answer the student will receive a point, for each incorrect answer the point will be deducted. Unchecked answers will not be evaluated. The condition for successful passing of the exam is the achievement of at least 70% of possible points (evaluation by classification level E). Upon reaching 75% of the possible points, it will be graded D; when 80% of the possible points are reached by grade C; when 85% of the possible points are reached by grade B and when 90% of the possible points are reached by grade A.

Course curriculum

1) Financial markets, their definition and function in the economy
2) Banking system, banking institutions, banking operations, trades and products
3) Other non-banking institutions of the financial system
4) Theory of interest rates and their effect in the financial system
5) Theory of financial investments
6) Basic distribution of financial and real investment instruments
7) Corporate (corporate) shares
8) Bonds
9) Developments in financial markets in the individual phases of the business cycle
10) Forward derivative instruments of the forward, futures and swap contracts type
11) Option contracts and synthetic (compound) financial derivatives
12) Securities of investment property, resp. mutual funds
13) Structured products

Work placements

Not applicable.

Aims

The main objective of the course is to teach students how to understand ding financial system as the integral part of an economic system as well as its role, substance and importance of its functioning. Students will learn how to actively participate in standard types of financial operations with individual types of financial investment tools, from the corporate financial transactions point of view as well as from the personal finances management point of view. Also dealt with are the fundamentals of financial mathematics necessary for financial practice.

Specification of controlled education, way of implementation and compensation for absences

The control of participation is fully in teacher’s competence. Active participation in lessons, control of knowledge in seminars.

Recommended optional programme components

Not applicable.

Prerequisites and corequisites

Not applicable.

Basic literature

REJNUŠ, Oldřich. Finanční trhy: učebnice s programem na generování cvičných testů. První vydání. Praha: Grada Publishing, a.s., 2016. 380 stran. ISBN 978-80-247-5871-8.
ŠOBA,O., ŠIRŮČEK, M.: Finanční matematika v praxi. 2., aktualizované a rozšířené vydání, Grada, Praha, 2017. ISBN 978-80-271-0250-1.
Meluzín, T. Finanční trhy-cvičení. Brno: CERM, 2005. 1. vyd. ISBN 80-214-3048-6.
Mishkin, Frederic S. The economics of money, banking, and financial markets. Twelfth edition. Harlow, England: Pearson Education, 2019. 738 stran. ISBN 978-1-292-26885-9.

Recommended reading

Rejnuš, Oldřich. Finanční trhy. 4., aktualiz. a rozš. vyd. Praha: Grada, 2014. 760 s. Partners. ISBN 978-80-247-3671-6.
Jílek, Josef. Finanční a komoditní deriváty. 1. vyd. Praha: Grada, 2002. 624 s. ISBN 80-247-0342-4.
Jílek, Josef. Deriváty, hedžové fondy, offshorové společnosti. 1. vyd. Praha: Grada, 2006. 260 s. Finanční trhy a instituce. Finance. ISBN 80-247-1826-X.
Valach, Josef a kol. Investiční rozhodování a dlouhodobé financování. 3., přeprac. a rozš. vyd. Praha: Ekopress, 2010. 513 s. ISBN 978-80-86929-71-2.
Kislingerová, Eva a Hnilica, Jiří. Finanční analýza: krok za krokem. 2. vyd. Praha: C.H. Beck, 2008. xiii, 135 s. C.H. Beck pro praxi. ISBN 978-80-7179-713-5.
Rose, Peter S. a Marquis, Milton H. Money and capital markets: financial institutions and instruments in a global marketplace. 10th ed. Boston: McGrawHill, 2009. xxxviii, 767, [33] s. The McGraw-Hill/Irwin series in finance, insurance, and real estate. McGraw-Hill International Edition. ISBN 978-0-07-126881-3.
Giddy, Ian H. Global financial markets. Lexington: D.C. Heath, ©1994. xix, 583 s. ISBN 0-669-24605-0.

Classification of course in study plans

  • Programme MGR-IM Master's, 1. year of study, winter semester, compulsory-optional

Type of course unit

 

Lecture

26 hours, optionally

Teacher / Lecturer

Syllabus

Financial markets, their definition and function in the economy
- Introduction to the theory of financial markets
- Fundamentals of investment and basic ways of their classification
- Financial market division
- Stock market structure
- Factors of integration of individual segments of the financial market
Financial institutions, their products and services
- The banking system, banking institutions, banking transactions, bank products
- Other non-banking financial system institutions
The theory of interest rates and their effect in the financial system
Theory of financial investments
- The definition of "investment," their distribution and basic characteristics
- Supply and demand in investment financial instruments
- Basic factors of investment strategies for investor
- The interdependence of investment factors
The financial investment tools
Classic Securities
- Business (corporate) shares
- Bonds
- Developments in the financial markets in the different stages of the economic cycle
Term derivative instruments
- Definition of spot and futures
- Fixed-term contracts, forwards and futures
- Swap contracts
- Option contracts
- Synthetic (composite) financial derivatives
Securities investment property, respectively. mutual funds
- Classical collective investment funds
- Exchange Traded Funds
- Hedge Funds, respectively. qualified investor funds
Structured products
- Structured deposits
- Structured debt securities
- Securities of structured funds
- Structured leveraged derivatives

Exercise

13 hours, optionally

Teacher / Lecturer

Syllabus

- Simple and compound interest
- Saving and pensions
- Amortisation
- Securities valuation
- Exchange trading of shares
- Trading of bonds, foreign currencies and commodities
- Credit test