FIN 4200
Financial Models
Fall 2008

Professor:

Timothy R. Mayes, Ph.D.

Office:

WC 247 F

e-mail:

mayest2@comcast.net or
mayest@mscd.edu

Phone:

303-556-3776 (office)

Class home page:
My other site:

http://clem.mscd.edu/~mayest/
http://www.tvmcalcs.com/

Office
hours:

Tues/Thurs 1:30 – 2:30, 4:00 – 5:30
Wed 3:00 – 4:00

Available by
Appointment Only:

Tues/Thurs 12:00 – 1:30
Wed              1:00 – 3:00

Prerequisites:

FIN 3300, FIN 3600, CMS 2010, CMS 2300. Prerequisites will be enforced.  In addition to these prerequisites, students are expected to have good algebra skills and some understanding of basic statistics and investments.

Textbook:

Required: Financial Analysis with Microsoft Excel, 4th ed. by Mayes and Shank.
Recommended: Intermediate Financial Management (any edition) by Brigham and Daves.

Computer
Usage:

Computer usage is required throughout this course.  Basic familiarity with Microsoft Windows, word processing, and the Internet (Web and e-mail) is assumed.  Spreadsheet skills are taught throughout the course so pre-existing skills are not required.  In fact, we will start by assuming that you know little or nothing about spreadsheets.  You should have some sort of portable storage (I recommend a USB thumb drive).  You are also expected to backup your work regularly.  You must regularly check your campus e-mail account on MetroConnect as well as my Web site for the course.

Purpose:

The purpose of this course is to learn how to build spreadsheets to solve complex financial problems.  The topics covered will include the basic financial statements, cash budgeting, time value of money, capital budgeting, Monte Carlo simulation, regression analysis, non-linear programming, modern portfolio theory, and more.

Format:

This course is both lecture and hands-on, and we will spend most of our time building spreadsheets.  The contents of the textbook shall in no way limit the content of the course.  I reserve the right to include additional content or to expand on the content in the textbook.  For this reason it is very important that you attend class.

Exams and Projects:

Each of the exams will consist of several problems which must be worked in Excel.  The final exam will be cumulative.  If there is even a hint of cheating, I will take the appropriate measures against those involved.  I use many techniques to discover cheating, and you are not likely to get away with it.
In addition to exams, there will be individual homework projects from each chapter.  The projects will require the use of Excel and, sometimes, the Internet.  These are individual projects, and getting help from other students is considered to be cheating.
Students are expected to complete exams and homework at the scheduled times.  Make-up exams will not be given except in extreme situations and with prior notification. 

Week of

Chapters

Weight

Grades :

6 October

Exam 1: Ch. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

40%

8 December

Exam 2: Ch. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and cumulative

50%

Each class period

Homework (assigned problems on Web)

10%

Total

100%