This course is designed to familiarise students with the components of the financial system as well as to introduce them to the three basic ideas underpinning finance: the time value of money, diversification, and arbitrage. The aim of the course is to provide students with introductory exposure to financial transactions, institutions and markets including money markets, stock markets, foreign exchange, derivative markets and contracts. It provides students with a solid foundation for later studies in finance.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion, students will have the knowledge and skills to:

1. Explain in detail financial transactions, institutions and markets, including money markets, stock markets, foreign exchange, derivatives markets and contracts;
2. Discuss in detail the concept of time value of money and calculate the value of cash flows relating to a number of financial instruments;
3. Explain in detail the concept of diversification, including the risk and return relationship and calculate optimal weights for a portfolio comprising of two financial assets; and,
4. Discuss in detail concepts of arbitrage, and utilise derivatives for risk management purposes.

Research-Led Teaching

Students undertaking this course will be taught fundamental skills in Finance that will be applied to real life applications. Students will also be shown how these techniques are applied to research today.

Additional Course Costs

The only additional course costs are a non-programmable scientific calculator (not a financial calculator).

Examination Material or equipment

The mid-semester and final examination will be available through Wattle. Please see the Wattle course site for information on examination material. For the mid-semester exam this will be released by the end of week 4 and for the final exam this will be released by the end of week 10.

Centrally scheduled examinations through Examinations, and will be timetabled prior to the examination period. Please check ANU Timetabling for further information

Required Resources

No required textbook.

Recommended Resources

Titman, S., Martin, T., Keown, A., and J. Martin, Financial Management: Principles and Applications, 8th Edition, Pearson Education, 2019.

Note that the textbook readings from this recommended resource are optional. In addition, this textbook is available to students as a 2 hour loan from the ANU library, and an e-book can be accessed from: https://library.anu.edu.au/record=b5640022.

Staff Feedback

Students will be given feedback in the following forms in this course:

• Interactions with lecturer and tutor(s) in consultations and live tutorials/workshops/lectures.
• Through assessments where the lecturer and tutors will provide specific feedback.

Student Feedback

ANU is committed to the demonstration of educational excellence and regularly seeks feedback from students. Students are encouraged to offer feedback directly to their Course Convener or through their College and Course representatives (if applicable). Feedback can also be provided to Course Conveners and teachers via the Student Experience of Learning & Teaching (SELT) feedback program. SELT surveys are confidential and also provide the Colleges and ANU Executive with opportunities to recognise excellent teaching, and opportunities for improvement.

Other Information

Scaling

You final mark for the course will be based on the raw marks allocated for each of your assessment items. However, your final mark may not be the same number as produced by that formulate, as marks may be scaled. Any scaling applied will preserve the rank order of raw marks (i.e. if your raw mark exceeds that of another student, then your scaled mark will exceed or be the same as the scaled mark of that student), and may result in a score that is either higher or lower than the raw mark calculated.

Support for Students

The University offers a number of support services for students. Information on these is available online from http://students.anu.edu.au/studentlife/

Communication

If necessary, the lecturer and tutor(s) for this course will contact students on their official ANU student email address. Information about your enrollment and fees from the Registrar and Student Services' office will also be sent to this email address. Students are expected to check the Wattle site for announcements about this course, e.g. changes to timetables or notifications of cancellations.

Assessment Requirements

As a further academic integrity control, students may be selected for a 15 minutes individual oral examination of their written assessment submissions.

Any student identified, either during the current semester or in retrospect, as having used ghost-writing services will be investigated under the University's Academic Misconduct Rule.

Class Schedule

Week/Session	Summary of Activities	Assessment
1	Topic: Course Admin and an Intro to Financial Mathematics Activity: Lecture/Workshop Reading: Lecture Notes 1
2	Topic: Time Value of Money – Dividends and Valuing Shares Activity: Lecture/Workshop/Tutorial (Tutorial 1 Questions) Reading: Lecture Notes 2
3	Topic: Time Value of Money – Valuing Debt Instruments Activity: Lecture/Workshop/Tutorial (Tutorial 2 Questions) Reading: Lecture Notes 3	Practice Quiz 1
4	Topic: Time Value of Money – Making Investment Decisions Activity: Lecture/Workshop/Tutorial (Tutorial 3 Questions) Reading: Lecture Notes 4	Practice Quiz 2
5	Topic: Diversification – Defining Risk and Understanding its Relationship with Return Activity: Lecture/Tutorial (Tutorial 4 Questions) Reading: Lecture Notes 5	Practice Quiz 3
6	Topic: Diversification – Portfolio Theory Activity: Lecture/Tutorial (Tutorial 5 Questions) Reading: Lecture Notes 6
7	Topic: Diversification – The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), the Required Rate of Return for Risk and the Cost of Capital Activity: Lecture/Workshop/Tutorial (Tutorial 6 Questions) Reading: Lecture Notes 7	Practice Quiz 4
8	Topic: Arbitrage – Futures Contracts Part (A) Activity: Lecture/Workshop/Tutorial (Tutorial 7 Questions) Reading: Lecture Notes 8
9	Topic: Arbitrage – Futures Contracts Part (B) and Options Contracts Part (A) Activity: Lecture/Workshop/Tutorial (Tutorial 8 Questions) Reading: Lecture Notes 9	Practice Quiz 5
10	Topic: Arbitrage – Options Contracts Part (B) Activity: Lecture/Workshop/Tutorial (Tutorial 9 Questions) Reading: Lecture Notes 10	Practice Quiz 6
11	Topic: Arbitrage – Forwards, Futures and Options Contracts as Tools for Risk Management Activity: Lecture/Workshop/Tutorial (Tutorial 10 Questions) Reading: Lecture Notes 11
12	Topic: Lecture 12 and Final Review Activity: Lecture/Tutorial (Tutorial 11 Questions) Reading: Lecture Notes 12

Tutorial Registration

Tutorials will be available on campus, live through scheduled Zoom sessions and as pre-recorded videos. ANU utilises MyTimetable to enable students to view the timetable for their enrolled courses, browse, then self-allocate to small teaching activities / tutorials so they can better plan their time. Find out more on the Timetable webpage (https://www.anu.edu.au/students/program-administration/timetabling)

Assessment Summary

Assessment task	Value	Due Date	Return of assessment	Learning Outcomes
Mid-Semester Examination	40 %	27/03/2023	28/04/2023	1,2,3,4
Final Examination	60 %	01/06/2023	29/06/2023	1,2,3,4
Practice Quizzes	0 %	06/03/2023	10/03/2023	1,2,3,4

* If the Due Date and Return of Assessment date are blank, see the Assessment Tab for specific Assessment Task details

Policies

ANU has educational policies, procedures and guidelines , which are designed to ensure that staff and students are aware of the University’s academic standards, and implement them. Students are expected to have read the Academic Integrity Rule before the commencement of their course. Other key policies and guidelines include:

• Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
• Student Assessment (Coursework) Policy and Procedure
• Special Assessment Consideration Guideline and General Information 
• Student Surveys and Evaluations
• Deferred Examinations
• Student Complaint Resolution Policy and Procedure
• Code of practice for teaching and learning

Assessment Requirements

The ANU is using Turnitin to enhance student citation and referencing techniques, and to assess assignment submissions as a component of the University's approach to managing Academic Integrity. For additional information regarding Turnitin please visit the Academic Skills website. In rare cases where online submission using Turnitin software is not technically possible; or where not using Turnitin software has been justified by the Course Convener and approved by the Associate Dean (Education) on the basis of the teaching model being employed; students shall submit assessment online via ‘Wattle’ outside of Turnitin, or failing that in hard copy, or through a combination of submission methods as approved by the Associate Dean (Education). The submission method is detailed below.

Moderation of Assessment

Marks that are allocated during Semester are to be considered provisional until formalised by the College examiners meeting at the end of each Semester. If appropriate, some moderation of marks might be applied prior to final results being released.

Participation

Course content delivery will take a hybrid format. The weekly lectures will be delivered on campus (recorded and available via echo360 on Wattle). Weekly workshops (available via echo360 on Wattle) will be pre-recorded and weekly tutorials will be delivered in hybrid format (on campus, live through scheduled Zoom sessions (not recorded) and also available as separate pre-recorded videos).

Examination(s)

Centrally scheduled examinations through Examinations, Graduations & Prizes will be timetabled prior to the examination period. Please check ANU Timetabling for further information.

The examinations for the course are open book and will not use Proctorio.

Assessment Task 1

Mid-Semester Examination

• The mid-semester examination will cover content contained in Lectures 1 through 4 inclusive.

• The mid-semester examination will be redeemable and is to be completed individually. 

• The mid-semester examination will be available through Wattle.

• The mid-semester examination will have a length of 120 minutes, there will be no on-line invigilation and will be open book.

• Details of the mid-semester examination will be provided by the end of Week 4 with all information also provided via Wattle.

• The mid-semester examination will be scheduled by ANU examinations and will occur in either Week 6 or Week 7.

Assessment Task 2

Final Examination

The final examination will be based on all the work covered throughout the duration of the semester. The final examination is worth 60% (if the mid-semester examination is not redeemed) of the overall course grade and is to be completed individually. The exam will include a mixture of theoretical and numerical questions. Students will be provided with further details regarding the final examination by the end of week 10.

• The final examination will cover content contained in Lectures 1 through 12 inclusive.

• The final semester examination will be available through Wattle.

• The final semester examination will have a length of 240 minutes, there will be no on-line invigilation and will be open book.

• Details of the final examination will be provided by the end of Week 10 with all information also provided via Wattle.

• Centrally scheduled examinations through Examinations, Graduations & Prizes will be timetabled prior to the examination period. Please check ANU Timetabling for further information.

Assessment Task 3

Practice Quizzes

6 practice quizzes will be released throughout the semester to enable students to receive feedback on their learning and understanding of the material. This quizzes will not count towards the assessment for the course, but will rather assist students in assessing their learning and understanding of the material covered. The practice quizzes will be released as per the schedule in the class overview. Please note the quiz will be released at the beginning of the week via Wattle, with solutions posted on Wattle by the end of the week. Solutions will also be discussed in either the lecture or workshop.

Academic Integrity

Academic integrity is a core part of the ANU culture as a community of scholars. The University’s students are an integral part of that community. The academic integrity principle commits all students to engage in academic work in ways that are consistent with, and actively support, academic integrity, and to uphold this commitment by behaving honestly, responsibly and ethically, and with respect and fairness, in scholarly practice.

The University expects all staff and students to be familiar with the academic integrity principle, the Academic Integrity Rule 2021, the Policy: Student Academic Integrity and Procedure: Student Academic Integrity, and to uphold high standards of academic integrity to ensure the quality and value of our qualifications.

The Academic Integrity Rule 2021 is a legal document that the University uses to promote academic integrity, and manage breaches of the academic integrity principle. The Policy and Procedure support the Rule by outlining overarching principles, responsibilities and processes. The Academic Integrity Rule 2021 commences on 1 December 2021 and applies to courses commencing on or after that date, as well as to research conduct occurring on or after that date. Prior to this, the Academic Misconduct Rule 2015 applies.

 

The University commits to assisting all students to understand how to engage in academic work in ways that are consistent with, and actively support academic integrity. All coursework students must complete the online Academic Integrity Module (Epigeum), and Higher Degree Research (HDR) students are required to complete research integrity training. The Academic Integrity website provides information about services available to assist students with their assignments, examinations and other learning activities, as well as understanding and upholding academic integrity.

Online Submission

There are no assignments in the course.

Hardcopy Submission

There are no hardcopy submissions in the course.

Late Submission

No late submission of assessment tasks will be permitted. If an assessment task is not submitted by the due date and time, a mark of 0 will be awarded.

Referencing Requirements

The Academic Skills website has information to assist you with your writing and assessments. The website includes information about Academic Integrity including referencing requirements for different disciplines. There is also information on Plagiarism and different ways to use source material.

Extensions and Penalties

Extensions and late submission of assessment pieces are covered by the Student Assessment (Coursework) Policy and Procedure. Extensions may be granted for assessment pieces that are not examinations or take-home examinations. If you need an extension, you must request an extension in writing on or before the due date. If you have documented and appropriate medical evidence that demonstrates you were not able to request an extension on or before the due date, you may be able to request it after the due date.

Privacy Notice

The ANU has made a number of third party, online, databases available for students to use. Use of each online database is conditional on student end users first agreeing to the database licensor’s terms of service and/or privacy policy. Students should read these carefully. In some cases student end users will be required to register an account with the database licensor and submit personal information, including their: first name; last name; ANU email address; and other information.
In cases where student end users are asked to submit ‘content’ to a database, such as an assignment or short answers, the database licensor may only use the student’s ‘content’ in accordance with the terms of service – including any (copyright) licence the student grants to the database licensor. Any personal information or content a student submits may be stored by the licensor, potentially offshore, and will be used to process the database service in accordance with the licensors terms of service and/or privacy policy.
If any student chooses not to agree to the database licensor’s terms of service or privacy policy, the student will not be able to access and use the database. In these circumstances students should contact their lecturer to enquire about alternative arrangements that are available.

Distribution of grades policy

Academic Quality Assurance Committee monitors the performance of students, including attrition, further study and employment rates and grade distribution, and College reports on quality assurance processes for assessment activities, including alignment with national and international disciplinary and interdisciplinary standards, as well as qualification type learning outcomes.

Since first semester 1994, ANU uses a grading scale for all courses. This grading scale is used by all academic areas of the University.

Support for students

The University offers students support through several different services. You may contact the services listed below directly or seek advice from your Course Convener, Student Administrators, or your College and Course representatives (if applicable).

• ANU Health, safety & wellbeing for medical services, counselling, mental health and spiritual support
• ANU Access and inclusion for students with a disability or ongoing or chronic illness
• ANU Dean of Students for confidential, impartial advice and help to resolve problems between students and the academic or administrative areas of the University
• ANU Academic Skills and Learning Centre supports you make your own decisions about how you learn and manage your workload.
• ANU Counselling Centre promotes, supports and enhances mental health and wellbeing within the University student community.
• ANUSA supports and represents undergraduate and ANU College students
• PARSA supports and represents postgraduate and research students