Dr. P.V. Viswanath

pviswanath@pace.edu

EDHEC: Financial Innovation Summer 2007

July 9 to July 17 at the New York campus, Rm W505/ W514
Email: pviswanath@pace.edu Tel: (212) 618-6518
Webpage: http://webpage.pace.edu/pviswanath
Blackboard: http://blackboard.pace.edu

Course Objectives

The primary objective of this course is to familiarize students with recent (and not so recent) financial innovations (sometimes termed financial engineering) and provide him/her with the conceptual tools to analyze them, as well as develop them.

Course Text

Required Text: There is no required text. I will have notes available, which can be found on my website. Also, you should have access to a good Corporate Finance textbook, such as the one below:

• Corporate Finance: Theory and Practice, 2nd edition, by Aswath Damodaran, John Wiley and Sons.
• Solutions to end-of-chapter Problems (password for site can be found at the Blackboard site).

You should also have access to the Wall Street Journal.

Computer Use and E-mail Policy:

Check your e-mail on a regular basis.  This will enable you to get the maximum from the course. I am available for consultation by e-mail at pviswanath@pace.edu. I check my e-mail practically every day, and, in most cases, you should get a speedy response to any questions.  

We will also be using Blackboard as a gateway for some aspects of the course.  Please log in to Blackboard at the earliest opportunity.    Blackboard login procedures can be found on the appropriate Blackboard site.  Essentially, your login ID for Blackboard will be your email ID, and your password will be your 9-digit social security number (for more details, go to the Blackboard site).  

Course Requirements

Class Attendance and Participation

Class attendance is mandatory and is highly recommended.  I also require that you read the Wall Street Journal on a regular basis. Some exam questions will be based on current newspaper and magazine articles that are related to course material. Hence you should cultivate and improve your ability to read newspaper articles critically. 

Presentation and Working with Teams

On the penultimate day of class, you will be making a presentation based on a selected article. Several articles have been provided for you to choose from and can be found on Blackboard in the Documents Section under Part II of Finance. You will have to work in teams, with at least six persons per team. There will not be a lot of extra time, so make sure you have thought out and structured your presentations well. You must also provided a two-page summary of the article that you will be presenting.

Assignments

In addition to the presentation, I may assign extra readings.  The main purpose of these assignments is to make sure that you understand the material and to provide perspective on the concepts discussed in class.  Details regarding assignments will be provided during the course; check Blackboard on a regular basis, as well. Assignments that are required to be turned in should be typed.

Academic Integrity and Library Resources

Any student taking this course is presumed to agree to abide by the statement on academic integrity, as described in the latest Graduate Catalog. You can get a copy of the Catalog from Lubin Undergraduate Academic Advisement. If you have any doubts as to what plagiarism is, please go to http://appserv.pace.edu/library/pages/apollo/. You will need to create a login name and password to begin. However, this resource is very useful, not only to understand what plagiarism is, and how to avoid it, but also how to use library resources.

Disability Policy

School policy regarding disabilities can be found on the school website. The Coordinator of Disability Services for the New York City campus, Dr. Richard H. Raskin, may be contacted at the Counseling Center at 156 William Street, 12th floor, New York, New York 10038, 212-346-1526 or by e-mail.

Exams

There will be one exam at the end of the course. Exams are closed book -- no help sheets. If you miss the exam without being excused, I cannot give you any credit.  University policy allows make-ups only for serious personal illness or death in the family, for which documentation may be required.  Please bring your own calculators to the exams; PDAs, however, are not allowed.  Get in touch with me regarding any question you may have regarding the exams, or the course in general.

Study Aids

Media Articles

On my webpages, you will find recent media articles.  From time to time, I will add to this list.  There are several reasons why you should look regularly at these pages.  

• I will be posting interesting and recent articles to this page.  As such, it will be a useful way for you to keep abreast of topical issues (in addition to your regular perusal of the Wall Street Journal.)
• I will pose questions on the subject matter of several of the articles.  These questions will be good preparation for the media article based questions on the exams.
• You can draw on the articles for classroom discussions.
• These articles and the appended questions are useful preparation for job interviews.
• Some of these articles may be required reading, to be followed up by Blackboard postings.

The password, necessary to access the Media Articles section will be announced in class, and can also be found at the Blackboard website, under Course Information. In case of emergency, you can contact me for the password.

Grades

Your grade will be determined based on your contribution to class discussions, on your presentation, and on the final exam.

Note that the minimum and maximum quantitative scores for plus and minus refinements to the letter grades will be at my discretion. These will be partly determined by the distribution of student scores within each letter grade category.   I place a high value on effort; at my discretion, I will raise your grade one notch if I feel that you have tried hard to satisfy all the requirements of the course.