FIN 301 – Investments and Asset Pricing
General Information
The course “Investments and Asset Pricing (FIN301)” will be held by Dr. Stefan Scharnowski and Prof. Dr. Oliver Spalt. The course addresses the investment decision problem in corporations. The course addresses the following topics: present value calculus, capital budgeting, portfolio theory, Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) and market efficiency.
Faculty
Lecture
Dr. Stefan Scharnowski (he/him)
Business School
L 9, 1–2 – Room 201
68161 Mannheim
Fax: +49 621 181-1519
E-mail: scharnowskiuni-mannheim.de
Web: Personal Website
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-3755-1821
by appointment
Prof. Dr. Oliver Spalt
Business School
L 9, 1–2 – Raum 307
68161 Mannheim
Exercise Sessions
- Dr. Thomas Johann
- Dr. Jiri Tresl
- Student Assistants
Course Structure
Lecture
A weekly lecture will be offered in 2 identical in-class slots:
- Tuesdays B1, 8:30–10:00, SO108
- Tuesdays B2, 10:15–11:45, SN163
You only need to attend one of the two slots.
The lecture is taught by Dr. Stefan Scharnowski (first half of the semester) and Prof. Dr. Oliver Spalt (second half of the semester).
Online Quiz
Together with the lecture we will offer online quizzes for every week. Those quizzes allow students to check their understanding of the topics right after the lecture with some basic questions. Those quizzes are not graded. They can be taken multiple times and will be online until the end of the semester.
Exercise
The lecture is accompanied by a weekly exercise (starting from week 2). Every week, we will upload a new exercise sheet. One week later, the solution to the exercise will be presented by a member of the FIN 301 team in one of 12 exercise sessions. All exercise sessions in a given week are identical with respect to their contents and thus you only need to visit one of them. You do not need to register for the exercises and you can freely switch between exercises if room capacities allow for it.
11 exercises are offered in-class, while one exercise will be offered as live zoom session. This session is specifically dedicated to students who can not attend in-class sessions for health related reasons.
With regard to content both exercise formats are identical. You could thus visit only one of them or profit from a combination both.
ILIAS Forum
The ILIAS forum is our main channel for communication. We will use it to share any relevant information concerning the course and the exam.
Further Information
Language
The course is taught in English. All materials and the exam will be in English.
Assessment
Students will receive one final grade for this course. The final exam will make up 100% of the final grade. The exact date of the exam will be announced during the semester. The exam will be written as classical in-class closed-book exam. The examination time is 90 minutes. The exam may cover all materials discussed in the first and second part of the lecture, as well as during exercise sessions.
Materials
The course will be based on the textbook „Principles of Corporate Finance“ by Richard A. Brealey, Stewart C. Myers, Franklin Allen and Alex Edmans (McGraw Hill)(14. International Edition). The book also contains practice questions and quizzes for self-study and a link to a website with further materials.
Lecture slides and problem sets will be published online on the course's ILIAS page. The site provides the course materials and the course forum.
ILIAS
All the communication takes place through ILIAS. All material from the lecture and the exercise sessions will be uploaded to ILIAS. To join the ILIAS-group you have to register for the lecture via the Portal2 system.
Teaching Evaluations