Unit convenor and teaching staff |
Unit convenor and teaching staff
Unit Convenor
Colin Zhang
Contact via colin.zhang@mq.edu.au
E4A 227
Refer to iLearn
Lecturer
Han Li
E4A 724
Refer to iLearn
Angela Chow
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Credit points |
Credit points
3
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Prerequisites |
Prerequisites
(15cp at 100 level or above) including (ACST101 and (STAT150 or STAT170 or STAT171))
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Corequisites |
Corequisites
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Co-badged status |
Co-badged status
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Unit description |
Unit description
This unit explores some basic concepts of finance, in particular: price; yield; the relationship between price and yield; interest rate risk; reinvestment risk; duration and its uses; volatility; the contingent payments approach; arbitrage pricing theory; pricing forwards; futures and options. To achieve understanding, this unit uses financial mathematics (the techniques learned in ACST101 are developed further here) to analyse transactions involving commonly used financial instruments in the context of the markets in which they are traded. At the same time, students develop skills in solving problems; in explaining financial ideas in simple language; in constructing spreadsheet models; and in working as part of a team. A range of assessment tasks are provided, some to generate feedback on how well the understanding and skills are developing, and others to determine the standard of understanding and skills attained.
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Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
No extensions will be granted. Students who have not submitted the task prior to the deadline will be awarded a mark of zero for the task, except for cases in which an application for special consideration is made and approved.
Gradebook
It is the responsibility of students to view their marks for each within session assessment on iLearn within 20 working days of posting. If there are any discrepancies, students must contact the unit convenor immediately. Failure to do so will mean that queries received after the release of final results regarding assessment marks (not including the final exam mark) will not be addressed.
Assessment criteria
Assessment criteria for all assessment tasks will be provided on the unit iLearn site.
Name | Weighting | Hurdle | Due |
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Take-home Quiz | 20% | No | 23/3/18 and 18/5/18 |
Spreadsheet Project Task | 14% | No | Various |
Class Test | 6% | No | Various |
Final Examination | 60% | No | Exam period |
Due: 23/3/18 and 18/5/18
Weighting: 20%
You will use iLearn to submit your solutions (in a PDF file) to two class tests. For each class test, you will be given 48 hours to submit your solution. Question will be released on iLearn two days before the deadline.
You will use iLearn's peer assessment tool to mark the work of your classmates (due 3/4/18 and 28/5/18).
Please use the first take-home quiz as an indicator of whether you are progressing satisfactorily in the unit. If you are having difficulties, please see the Unit Convenor and consider withdrawing before the census date on Friday of Week 04.
No extensions will be granted. Students who have not submitted the task prior to the deadline will be awarded a mark of 0 for the task, except for cases in which an application for special consideration is made and approved.
Due: Various
Weighting: 14%
You will use iLearn to submit Excel spreadsheets you used to solve a variety of problems.
There are four project tasks.
Task 1 is an individual task which is due on 6/4/18. Your Excel files must be submitted electronically via iLearn.
Task 2 is an individual task which is due on 4/5/18. Your Excel files must be submitted electronically via iLearn.
Task 3 is a group task. Task 3 is due on 7/5/18. You will be assigned to a group to work on this Spreadsheet Project tasks. Your Excel files must be submitted electronically via iLearn. You will use iLearn's assignment tool to report on the successful location of all group members (due 20/4/18).
Task 4 is an individual task You will use iLearn's peer assessment tool to mark the work of your classmates (due 21/5/18).
No extensions will be granted. Students who have not submitted the task prior to the deadline will be awarded a mark of 0 for the task, except for cases in which an application for special consideration is made and approved.
Due: Various
Weighting: 6%
There are two class tests.
The first test will be held in week 7 tutorials. Students must attend the tutorial in which they have registered. No changes to tutorials may be made.
The second test will be held randomly in tutorials between week 8 and week 13. Students must attend the tutorial in which they have registered. No changes to tutorials may be made. The second test will be undertaken in a random fashion. Questions will be similar to those for that week's tutorial.
No extensions will be granted. Students who have not submitted the task prior to the deadline will be awarded a mark of 0 for the task, except for cases in which an application for special consideration is made and approved.
Due: Exam period
Weighting: 60%
A three hour final examination for this unit will be held during the University Examination period.
You are permitted ONE A4 page of paper containing reference material printed on both sides. The material may be handwritten or typed.
The page will not be returned to you at the end of the final examination.
You do NOT have to buy a printed textbook. You may find these books useful as additional references for some topics in ACST201:
The recommended texts are available in the reserve section of Macquarie University Library.
For those wishing useful reference material on using Microsoft Excel, you may wish to buy a SIMnet online account http://mq.simnetonline.com.
Calculators
You may use a calculator in the class tests and at the final exam provided that it is portable, silent and battery operated, but you must show clearly the steps involved in every calculation. In the final exam you may NOT use any calculators that have a text-retrieval capacity, whether or not they have a full alphabet on the keyboard. Calculators may be checked at the commencement of the final exam, and the make/model may be recorded.
Software
Many of the problems you will encounter in this unit can be solved easily with the spreadsheet program, Excel. You can use this spreadsheet program to verify your solutions to many of the problems you are solving. You will need to use Excel to do the Spreadsheet quizzes and the Group Spreadsheet Project. In addition, students in ACST201 will be given access to the financial industry data platform, FactSet. This can be accessed through a web browser. You will use the data from FactSet to complete a number of the assessment tasks in the unit.
Take-home quizzes
You need to electronically submit your solutions (using iLearn) to the class tests as PDF files. Some possibilities to produce these files are: scan your handwritten solutions to a PDF file; use WORD (or similar software) to type out your solutions and save your work as a PDF file. For each class test you can only submit one PDF file; it must contain all the pages of your solution (so make sure, if your scanner produces separate PDF pages, that you can combine them into one file).
Week | Topic |
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1 | Simple interest and short-term financial instruments, compound interest and bonds |
2–3 | Short-term financial instruments and bond prices |
4 | Bond prices, bond yields and zero coupon bonds |
5 | Re-investment risk and TRCY |
6 | Horizon analysis |
7 | Horizon analysis, bond duration |
Semester break | |
8 | Bond duration |
9-10 | Contingent payments, forward contracts |
11 | Forward contracts |
12 | Option pricing |
13 | Revision |
Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central (https://staff.mq.edu.au/work/strategy-planning-and-governance/university-policies-and-procedures/policy-central). Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:
Undergraduate students seeking more policy resources can visit the Student Policy Gateway (https://students.mq.edu.au/support/study/student-policy-gateway). It is your one-stop-shop for the key policies you need to know about throughout your undergraduate student journey.
If you would like to see all the policies relevant to Learning and Teaching visit Policy Central (https://staff.mq.edu.au/work/strategy-planning-and-governance/university-policies-and-procedures/policy-central).
Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/study/getting-started/student-conduct
Results shown in iLearn, or released directly by your Unit Convenor, are not confirmed as they are subject to final approval by the University. Once approved, final results will be sent to your student email address and will be made available in eStudent. For more information visit ask.mq.edu.au.
Supplementary Exams
Information regarding supplementary exams, including dates, is available at:
Macquarie University provides a range of support services for students. For details, visit http://students.mq.edu.au/support/
Learning Skills (mq.edu.au/learningskills) provides academic writing resources and study strategies to improve your marks and take control of your study.
Students with a disability are encouraged to contact the Disability Service who can provide appropriate help with any issues that arise during their studies.
For all student enquiries, visit Student Connect at ask.mq.edu.au
For help with University computer systems and technology, visit http://www.mq.edu.au/about_us/offices_and_units/information_technology/help/.
When using the University's IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use of IT Resources Policy. The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students.
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