All of the Focused Financial Series courses are designed for working professional audiences. All of the listed courses are modified for each client depending upon industry, audience and objectives. All courses are offered in 2, 3, or 4 day length, depending on depth of coverage desired. Student manuals containing a full description of all topics covered and solutions to all problems and mini cases presented during the seminar are included.  We also provide modified versions of these classes  for individuals working in or with developing economies.  If you would like us to contact you about these or other custom designed economic or financial courses just use our brief Information Request Form .

SEE A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF

	Capital Markets and Institutions
	Financial Markets and Institutions
	Understanding Financial Statements – Introductory/Intermediate
	Understanding Bank Financial Statements - Introductory/Intermediate
	Understanding Insurance Company Financial Statements – Intro/Intermediate
	Portfolio Investment Management – Intermediate/Advanced
	Bond Markets, Analysis, and Strategies – Intro/ Inter/ & Advanced
	Security Markets, Analysis, and Strategies – Intro/ Inter/ & Advanced
	Financial Management – Introductory
	Financial Management – Intermediate/Advanced
	Financial Risk Management and Hedging Risks – Introductory/Intermediate
	Derivative Securities – Intermediate/Advanced
	Corporate Valuation – Intermediate/Advanced
	A note about the developing economies versions of the above courses.

Instructors for the Focused Financial Series courses hold Ph.D.’s. Most also have extensive industry experience. Vitae are provided on request.
All seminars are priced at $3500 per day plus business class travel and accommodations. A $1500 per day non-refundable retainer is required 30 days in advance of scheduled seminars. 
We will provide enhanced course descriptions on request but these are still rather general in nature. More detailed course descriptions are only available under a non-disclosure agreement. 

 


FINANCIAL/CAPITAL MARKETS and INSTITUTIONS

Capital Markets and Institutions
Coverage of the operations and growth of capital markets and institutions. The seminar includes the nature and scope of the capital markets, institutions of the market, the capital formation process, and sources and uses of funds. Institutions covered include commercial and the Federal reserve banks, non-bank thrift institutions, insurance companies, pension and retirement plans, investment companies and real estate trusts, the federal securities market, the market for state and local government bonds, the market for long-term corporate debt, the corporate stock market, and the mortgage market.

Financial Markets and Institutions
Coverage includes financial markets, financial institutions, and financial management of institutions. The seminar emphasizes understanding the market setting within which the institutions operate, the framework for comprehending and thinking about financial markets and institutions, for applying the techniques of financial management. The course is divided into four parts: (1) financial claims and interest rates, (2) financial intermediaries, (3)government’s role, and (4) managing financial intermediaries.

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND ANALYSIS

Understanding Financial Statements – Introductory/Intermediate
Coverage of the conceptual background and analytical tools necessary to understand and interpret business financial statements, including the balance sheet, the income statement and statement of retained earnings, and the statement of cash flow. The analysis of statements includes objectives, sources of information, tools and techniques, and analyzing the data.

Understanding Bank Financial Statements - Introductory/Intermediate
Coverage of the conceptual background and analytical tools necessary to understand and interpret bank financial statements, including the balance sheet, the income statement and capital accounts statement, and the funds-flow statement. The conceptual background includes the impact of government policy, bank regulations, and the organization and structure of banks and the industry. The analysis includes the measurement and evaluation of bank performance.

Understanding Insurance Company Financial Statements – Intro/Intermediate
Coverage of the conceptual background and analytical tools necessary to understand and interpret insurance company financial statements, including the balance sheet, the income statement and changes in stockholders’ surplus, and the cash-flow statement. The conceptual background includes the impact of government policy, accounting, rate, and investment regulations, and the organization and structure of insurance companies and the industry. The analysis includes performance measurement and evaluation.

INVESTMENTS

Portfolio Investment Management – Intermediate/Advanced
Coverage includes modern portfolio concepts, portfolio analysis, techniques for computing efficient portfolios, portfolio selection models, and the evaluation of portfolio performance. The management of stock, bond, money market, and derivative security portfolios are treated individually and in combination. Active management, indexing, liability funding, and hedging techniques are also treated in the seminar.

Bond Markets, Analysis, and Strategies – Introductory, Intermediate or Advanced
Coverage of the securities available in the market, their investment characteristics, the technology for valuing them, and portfolio strategies using them. Securities included in the seminar are Treasury securities, agency securities, corporate bonds, municipal bonds, international bonds, mortgages, and mortgage-backed securities. Strategies included are active, indexing, and liability funding strategies.

Security Markets, Analysis, and Strategies – Introductory, Intermediate or Advanced
Coverage of the securities available in the market, their investment characteristics, the technology for valuing them, and portfolio strategies using them. Securities included in the seminar are common stocks, preferred stocks, international stocks, and stock indexes. Strategies included are market timing, security selection,, and indexing strategies.

CORPORATE FINANCE

Financial Management – Introductory
Coverage includes valuation concepts, strategic investment decisions, strategic financing decisions, sources of long-term financing, and working capital management and financing. The goal is to provide an enduring understanding of the basic tools and fundamental principles upon which the practice of finance is based. The mathematics of finance (i.e., the time value of money) is taught throughout the seminar.

Financial Management – Intermediate/Advanced
Coverage includes valuation concepts, strategic investment decisions, strategic financing decisions, sources of long-term financing, working capital management and financing, and special topics (derivatives, bankruptcy, and mergers). The goal is to provide students with a current and complete operational knowledge of finance. The course shows how specific techniques and decision rules can be used to help maximize the firm’s value.

DERIVATIVES AND RISK MANAGEMENT

Financial Risk Management and Hedging Risks – Introductory/Intermediate
Coverage includes identifying and managing financial risk, quantifying financial risk (i.e., developing a risk profile), the tools for managing financial risk (forward contracts, future contracts, swap contracts, and option contracts), managing exposure using the tools, and financial engineering. Emphasis is placed on a simple understanding of the financial instruments for managing financial risk and viewing these financial instruments as building blocks (with the basic component a forward contract) for managing financial risk. Coverage also includes simple examples of using the tools to hedge interest rate, foreign exchange, credit risk, and portfolio risk.

Derivative Securities – Intermediate/Advanced
Coverage includes the concepts, strategies, and applications of derivative securities including options, futures, and other derivatives. The seminar covers diverse areas such as equity and index derivatives, foreign currency derivatives, commodity derivatives, interest rate derivatives, and exotic options. Further, the seminar is a useful guide for pricing and hedging any form of derivative security. Two key modeling paradigms are explored: 91) the discrete time binomial model and (2) the continuous time models of Black-Scholes and Heath-Jarrow-Morton. The issue of how to incorporate credit risk into the pricing and risk management of derivatives is also addressed. Basic statistics and calculus are used, but sections using calculus can be omitted without loss of continuity.

COMPANY VALUATION

Corporate Valuation – Intermediate/Advanced
Coverage includes the concepts and applications of general, two-stage, and multi-stage economic valuation models for valuing the firm and the firm’s equity. All aspects of the valuation process are covered, including estimation of cash flows and growth rates, estimation of equity and debt equivalents, estimation of discount rates, the relationship between cash flows and the cost of capital, valuing a firm/firm’s equity, performance evaluation, the dynamics of the models, and special cases (cyclical firms, firms in financial distress, firms with product options, and private firms).

INTERNATIONAL VERSIONS

A note about the developing economies versions of the above courses.
All of these courses are available in formats applicable to the economies and finance of emerging capital markets.  For example, the extensive use of data and methods for determining a company's weighted average cost of capital in well established, broad and deep capital markets are amended for practical application and use in emerging markets.  The typical stumbling blocks for applying accepted financial principals to problems in corporate finance, investment valuation, security valuation, etc. are addressed and alternative methods for practical real world use are demonstrated.