MGF 696LEC - Portfolio Theory and Strategy

The course covers sophisticated approaches to investing and it has an introduction and three main parts. The introduction covers measures of performance and risk and methods to calculate them in closed form or from historical data. The first part of the course covers investment strategies across several asset classes, from traditional ones such as value or growth investing to strategies employed by hedge funds, such as arbitrage, option trading and other quant strategies. The second part of the course addresses portfolio construction, from assessing a utility function to the investor to constructing an optimal portfolio maximizing that utility. Investor types covered are individuals saving for retirement, speculators, university endowments or foundations, or pension funds. Finally, the last part of the course addresses the topic of risk measurement and management, with an emphasis of risks faced by decentralized organizations, such as funds of funds, foundations, or pension funds.

Credits: 3

Term Typically Offered: Spring

Requisites: Co-Requisite: MGF 633.