04521 - Business Finance

Academic Year 2008/2009

  • Docente: Emilio Tomasini
  • Credits: 6
  • SSD: SECS-P/09
  • Language: Italian
  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in Internet Sciences (cod. 0100)

Learning outcomes

The course provides an education in the field of the corporate finance decisions not only theoretical but practical with a focus on the critical side of corporate finance. This course is entailed into the broader cultural spectrum which the student in this Faculty has a clear vocation to: Internet economics, computer science and mathematics. This is why a wide room will be dedicated to the trading system design, development, testing and optimization. Trading system is an algorithm that buys and sell automatically financial instruments and goes under the more sophisticated name of quantitative finance. Today trading systems are more and more used to manage the cash of big industrial and financial corporation. The software house Traderlink will offer to the students for free a complimentary subscription to its financial data service in real time and to its programming software Visual Trader (www.visualtrader.it). A deep emphasis will be dedicated to the derivative products like options and futures and a practical seminar will be held on the most effective option strategies.

Course contents

The Firm and the Financial Manager

Who Is the Financial Manager?

The Time Value of Money

Future Values and Compound Interest

Level Cash Flows: Perpetuities and Annuities

Inflation and the Time Value of Money

Financial Planning

Accounting and Finance

The Balance Sheet

Book Values and Market Values

The Income Statement

Profits versus Cash Flow

The Statement of Cash Flows

Working Capital Management and Short-Term Planning

Cash Budgeting

Cash and Inventory Management

Credit Management and Collection

Valuing Bonds

Valuing Stocks

Reorganization

The Dividend Discount Model

Introduction to Risk, Return, and the Opportunity Cost of Capital

Net Present Value and Other Investment  Criteria

Using Discounted Cash-Flow Analysis to Make Investment Decisions

Risk, Return, and Capital Budgeting

Why the CAPM Works

The Security Market Line

How Well Does the CAPM Work?

Using the CAPM to Estimate Expected Returns

The Cost of Capital

An Overview of Corporate Financing

Mergers, Acquisitions, and Corporate

Foreign Exchange Markets

Interest Rates and Exchange Rates

The derivative markets: futures and options

How to trade with options, the calendar spread strategy

Design, test an optimization of a trading system

Readings/Bibliography

SUGGESTED READING: “Principi di Finanza Aziendale”, Brealey – Myers – Allen, McGraw Hill, Chapters 1-9, 12-20, 22-24, 26-32, ITALIAN VERSION (not the English one).

Teaching methods

Attendance is recommended to the students.

Assessment methods

A written text with 30 questions

Teaching tools

All the students will get a password to download and use for free the financial platform www.visualtrader.it

Links to further information

http://www.emiliotomasini.com

Office hours

See the website of Emilio Tomasini