Corporate Finance
A foundational course on financial principles, covering time value of money, capital budgeting, portfolio theory, asset pricing models, and an introduction to derivatives.
This course provided a comprehensive introduction to the fundamental principles of finance. We started with the core concept of the time value of money, learning to value annuities and perpetuities, which formed the basis for capital budgeting decisions. The curriculum then introduced risk and reward, leading into modern portfolio theory and the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) for pricing assets. We also explored market efficiency, the basics of derivative securities like options, and the broader context of international finance and financial crises, equipping me with a robust toolkit for financial analysis.
Instructor
Dr. Bikramaditya Datta, Assistant Professor, Department of Economic Sciences, IIT Kanpur
Course Schedule & Topics
The course is structured over 12 weeks, covering the core tenets of corporate finance and investment theory.
| Week(s) | Primary Focus | Key Topics Covered |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Introduction to Finance | An overview of financial markets, corporate finance, and key concepts. |
| 2 | Time Value of Money | Calculating Present Value, and valuing annuities and perpetuities. |
| 3 | Capital Budgeting & Risk | Rules for capital budgeting, time-varying rates of return, uncertainty, and default risk. |
| 4 | Investment & Uncertainty | Analyzing risk vs. rewards and making choices under uncertainty. |
| 5 | Portfolio Theory | Principles of diversification and constructing optimal investment portfolios. |
| 6 | Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) | Understanding and applying the CAPM for asset pricing. |
| 7 | Advanced Pricing Models | Exploring Factor Models and the Arbitrage Pricing Theory (APT). |
| 8 | Market Efficiency | Efficient Market Hypothesis, market imperfections, and applications to budgeting rules. |
| 9-10 | Derivative Securities & Options | Introduction to derivatives, and the fundamentals of options theory. |
| 11 | International Finance | Foreign exchange markets and the international financial system. |
| 12 | Financial Crises | Analysis and discussion of historical and theoretical financial crises. |