BE300-4-FY-CO:
Quantitative Methods and Finance

The details
2015/16
Essex Business School
Colchester Campus
Full Year
Undergraduate: Level 4
Current
30
20 January 2003

 

Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)

 

BE311, BE312, BE313, BE314, BE317, BE334, BE339, BE610, EC251, EC252, EC322, EC368, EC371, EC372, EC383, MA212

Key module for

BSC N400 Accounting,
BSC N401 Accounting (Including Foundation Year),
BSC N402 Accounting (Including Year Abroad),
BSC N404 Accounting (Including Placement Year),
BSC N420 Accounting and Finance,
BSC N422 Accounting and Finance (Including Placement Year),
BSC NN43 Accounting and Finance (Including Foundation Year),
BSC NNK3 Accounting and Finance (Including Year Abroad),
BSC NN24 Accounting and Management,
BSC NN27 Accounting and Management (Including Placement Year),
BSC NN42 Accounting and Management (Including Foundation Year),
BSC NNK2 Accounting and Management (Including Year Abroad),
BSC N4L1 Accounting with Economics (Including Foundation Year),
BSC NKL1 Accounting with Economics (Including Year Abroad),
BSC NL41 Accounting with Economics,
BSC NL44 Accounting with Economics (Including Placement Year),
BSC N390 Banking and Finance,
BSC N392 Banking and Finance (Including Placement Year),
BSC NH90 Banking and Finance (Including Year Abroad),
BSC N200 Business Management,
BSC N201 Business Management (Including Foundation Year),
BSC N202 Business Management (Including Year Abroad),
BSC N204 Business Management (Including Placement Year),
BSC N300 Finance,
BSC N301 Finance (Including Foundation Year),
BSC N302 Finance (Including Year Abroad),
BSC N304 Finance (Including Placement Year),
BSC NN25 Management and Marketing,
BSC NN2M Management and Marketing (Including Placement Year),
BSC NNF5 Management and Marketing (Including Year Abroad),
BA L148 Financial Economics and Accounting,
BA L149 Financial Economics and Accounting (Including Year Abroad)

Module description

The aim of the first part of this module is to provide an introduction to the subject of quantitative methods and their applications in finance, accounting and management. The module is designed to provide a sound foundation for your future studies. The topics covered include maths revision, the time value of money, rates of change (calculus), statistics, probability distributions and simple regression.

The second part of this module is designed to give you an introduction to the finance subject area. In particular, the module gives an overview of the financial system, instruments and markets and ideas about finance concepts and problems. The topics covered include investment companies, return and risk, and behavioural finance. Throughout the module, extensive use will be made of Excel for applying statistical techniques.

MODULE AIMS

QUANTITATIVE METHODS
1. To develop and transmit knowledge about and proficiency in quantitative methods and their applications in finance, accounting and management, at an introductory level.
2. To give students an appreciation of the role that quantitative methods play in finance, accounting and management subject areas.
3. To provide students with a firm foundation for further studies in finance, accounting and management.

FINANCE
1. To develop and transmit knowledge about the financial system, instruments and markets and ideas about finance concepts and problems at an introductory level.
2. To make students aware, at an introductory level, of different ways of thinking about and analysing financial phenomena.
3. To give students an appreciation of the role which finance plays in society.
4. To provide students with a firm foundation for further studies in finance.


MODULE LEARNING OUTCOMES

QUANTITATIVE METHODS
After completing this part of the module students should be able to:
1. Solve a variety of algebraic problems;
2. Understand and apply the concepts of compounding and discounting;
3. Apply calculus techniques to solve problems in finance and economics;
4. Understand and solve problems involving descriptive statistics and probabilities;
5. Understand and apply significance tests and regression analysis.

FINANCE
After completing this part of the module students should be able to:
1. Discuss the various traditions, concepts and techniques within finance as a subject discipline;
2. Describe the major features of the financial system including markets and institutions;
3. Understand the relationship between risk and return and the concept of diversification;
4. Understand the role of present value in bond and equity valuation models and describe the role of derivative markets;
5. Have an appreciation of the issues underlying the efficient market hypothesis and the role of the City of London

Module aims

No information available.

Module learning outcomes

No information available.

Module information

No additional information available.

Learning and teaching methods

The module material will be delivered in the following way: a) 2-hour lecture each week b) 1-hour weekly class or computer workshop You will be assigned to a class and you must attend that class. Your class attendance will be monitored! The workshops will be held in the PC Labs where you will have uninterrupted and supervised practical sessions on Excel to complete the class exercises. It is very important that you complete all the readings immediately after each lecture because these are an integral part of the module.

Bibliography

(none)

Assessment items, weightings and deadlines

Coursework / exam Description Deadline Coursework weighting
Coursework   ASSIGNMENT     50% 
Written Exam  AUTUMN TEST     50% 
Exam  Main exam: 180 minutes during Summer (Main Period) 

Additional coursework information

The summer exam will cover Finance

Exam format definitions

  • Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
  • In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
  • In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
  • In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary, for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.

Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.

Overall assessment

Coursework Exam
50% 50%

Reassessment

Coursework Exam
0% 0%
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Hardy Thomas, Sam Astill, Andrew Wood, Anna Sarkisyan
Email: ebsugcol@essex.ac.uk

 

Availability
No
No
No

External examiner

No external examiner information available for this module.
Resources
Available via Moodle
No lecture recording information available for this module.

 

Further information
Essex Business School

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