Prof Konstantinos Zachariadis

This course is compulsory on the BSc in Accounting and Finance. This course is available on the BSc in Data Science, BSc in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics, BSc in Economics, BSc in Management, BSc in Mathematics, Statistics and Business and Diploma in Accounting and Finance. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit and to General Course students.

Students must have completed Principles of Finance (FM212) OR Principles of Finance (FM213).

In 2025/26, students must have completed FM210 and FM211 OR FM214 and FM215.

This course is intended for third-year undergraduates and will be a broad-based follow-up to Principles of Finance. The goal is to broaden, and selectively deepen, students' understanding of finance, building on their existing knowledge of financial economics. The course will cover a broad range of topics, with both a theoretical and an empirical emphasis. These include topics in investments and performance evaluation and international finance.

The first component provides students with a way of thinking about investment decisions by examining the empirical behaviour of security prices. We first study the empirical evidence of the CAPM and other asset pricing models, and then analyse different tests of market efficiency focusing on event studies and investment anomalies. We also study the main empirical findings in behavioural finance. We then learn how to measure the performance of a portfolio manager and to attribute it to different types of skill. Finally, this section of the course introduces the foundations of international finance and explores issues related to international portfolio management.

20 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the AT.

Students are expected to complete weekly problem sets for classes and to make positive contributions to class discussion.

Detailed course programmes and reading lists are distributed at the start of the course. Illustrative texts include: Bodie, Kane & Marcus, Investments (Irwin) and Grinblatt & Titman, Financial Markets and Corporate Strategy (Irwin, McGraw-Hill).

Exam (100%, duration: 1 hour and 30 minutes) in the January exam period.