Current Trends in Capital Markets

3 credit hours · Undergraduate

The purpose of this course is to provide a broad overview of the various financial instruments available and their role within investment strategies, as well as to examine current trends in the global capital markets. While some time will be allocated to the traditional asset classes (equities, bonds), the emphasis of the course is on the non-traditional, or alternative, assets classes that have recently been developed or gained popularity, such as mortgages backed securities and other fixed income securities, the myriad forms of swaps, other derivatives, real estate, private equity, etc. The emphasis is on the structure of these instruments and their risk-return characteristics. The usual context will be that of a large institutional investor such as a pension plan, insurance company or hedge fund. Also the linkages amongst the various markets in a global context will be discussed.