units

BFF5270

Faculty of Business and Economics

18 September 2017 19 April 2024

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This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2016 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

Monash University

6 points, SCA Band 3, 0.125 EFTSL

Postgraduate - Unit

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

Faculty

Business and Economics

Organisational Unit

Department of Banking and Finance

Offered

Caulfield

  • First semester 2016 (Evening)
  • Second semester 2016 (Evening)

Synopsis

This unit focuses on funds management styles and philosophies; approaches to implementing investment strategies for funds design and decision making; practical allocation of assets across and within different markets (industries); market sector volatilities and risk management; and performance measurement. Current academic research and trends in the industry are also considered from local and global funds management perspectives.

The topics include:

  • portfolio investment styles, philosophies, mandates and policies
  • capital market expectations
  • asset allocation and portfolio optimisation
  • management of fixed income portfolios
  • international diversification
  • alternative investments
  • quantitative portfolio factor models
  • portfolio monitoring and rebalancing
  • portfolio performance, attribution and evaluation.

Outcomes

The learning goals associated with this unit are to:

  1. demonstrate knowledge of the global funds management industry, its management philosophies, strategies and styles
  2. compare and contrast approaches to funds design and decision making in terms of fund allocation, portfolio optimisation and portfolio monitoring, along with current trends in the funds management industry
  3. develop skills of summarising, critically analysing and assessing, ranking, reporting and, presenting the current performance of funds managers
  4. develop the capability to work effectively in a group and demonstrate effective research and problem solving skills to produce quality investment portfolio analysis
  5. demonstrate in an individual summative assessment task the acquisition of a comprehensive understanding of the rudiments of fund management both in theory and in practice as detailed in the unit.

Assessment

Within semester assessment: 50%
Examination: 50%

Workload requirements

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. Independent study may include associated readings, assessment and preparation for scheduled activities. The unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.

See also Unit timetable information

Chief examiner(s)

Dr Jayasinghe Wickramanayake

Co-requisites

Students must be enrolled in course 0504, 2619, 3189, 3818, 3850 or 4412 to undertake this unit.

Prohibitions

AFF5270