Course

Stock Market Simulation

Faculty
Commerce & Business Administration
Department
Finance
Course Code
FINC 4460
Credits
3.00
Semester Length
15 Weeks X 4 Hours per Week = 60 Hours
Max Class Size
35
Method(s) Of Instruction
Lab
Seminar
Typically Offered
To be determined

Overview

Course Description
The objective of this course is to construct equity portfolios for Shanghai A and B Boards and actively assess the impact of various dynamic portfolio strategies in a simulated environment. The simulation will be competitive and will integrate the application of all the portfolio theories previously covered in the Program. The competing teams will be required to examine macro-economic factors, term structure slope, and all the capital market theories into portfolio construction and management through monthly detailed portfolio performance reports.
Course Content
  1. Review of portfolio management and performance theories.
  2. Portfolio construction techniques.
  3. Introduction of the software package and Excel portfolio tracking templates.
  4. Review of Shanghai Board A and B shares and the index valuations.
  5. Introduction of the portfolio simulation rules and requirements.
  6. Weekly portfolio updates (buys, sells and changes in the portfolio mix).
  7. Weekly performance reports (Investment strategies vs. Actual portfolio performance).
  8. Monthly portfolio performance report (to be submitted to instructor for evaluation).
  9. Construction of simple statistical and econometric methods to implement portfolio models of Active Asset Allocation.
Learning Activities

Material will be presented with a seminar and distance monthly group reporting format.

Students will be divided into "simulation groups" and will act as "portfolio managers’ responsible for all aspects of tracking and assessing and reporting.

Means of Assessment
Monthly comprehensive portfolio reports
     including charts, some technical and statistical analysis            		   50%
Investment Objectives Report  
     Due withing the first 4 weeks of the semester		   10%
Midterm Progress Report
     Defined investment objectives vs Actual performance		   10%
Term End Final Report/Presentation
     consoldiation of all the semester's work		   30%
 Total  100%

The instructor will define the exact format and the criteria for assessment of all the reports required.

Students may conduct research as part of their coursework in this class. Instructors for the course are responsible for ensuring that student research projects comply with College policies on ethical conduct for research involving humans, which can require obtaining Informed Consent from participants and getting the approval of the Douglas College Research Ethics Board prior to conducting the research.

Learning Outcomes

At the end of the course, the successful student should be able to:

 

  1. define and explain the tasks and responsibilities of a portfolio manager
  2. describe and differentiate between the various portfolio management and performance tracking strategies
  3. demonstrate a broad understanding of the capital markets in China within which a portfolio manager must operate
  4. demonstrate a broad understanding of all the factors, economic or otherwise, which contribute to the behaviour of capital markets
  5. explain the determinants of pricing of all types of equity stocks and market fluctuations in the Shanghai Stock Exchange
  6. explain and compute the basic statistical measures of variability and demonstrate their general use in valuing risky stocks
  7. demonstrate a broad understanding of the concepts, principles, procedures and practices involved in constructing portfolios
  8. describe the key elements of investment objectives and benefits of the portfolio management and tracking process and be able to compute rates of return on the portfolio mixes
  9. be able to construct, monitor and weekly assess the portfolio values and portfolio management strategy changes based on investment objectives.
Textbook Materials

Textbooks and Materials to be Purchased by Students

As chosen by instructor from:

  • Bodie et al.  Investments, Latest Canadian Ed.  McGraw-Hill Ryerson.
  • Cunningham, R.T., Portfolio Tracker, Kolb Publishing, 1992
  • Reilly, F. & K. Brown.  Investment Analysis:  Portfolio Management, Latest Ed.  Thompson-South-Western.
  • Excel based templates will also be introduced by the instructor for performance tracking
  • A package of journal articles to be provided.
  • All students are expected to read a daily financial newspaper and be aware of important news events.

Requisites

Prerequisites

4th year standing in Financial Markets and Investment Management Program

Corequisites

No corequisite courses.

Equivalencies

Courses listed here are equivalent to this course and cannot be taken for further credit:

  • No equivalency courses

Course Guidelines

Course Guidelines for previous years are viewable by selecting the version desired. If you took this course and do not see a listing for the starting semester / year of the course, consider the previous version as the applicable version.

(Current)

Course Transfers

These are for current course guidelines only. For a full list of archived courses please see https://www.bctransferguide.ca

Institution Transfer Details for FINC 4460
Langara College (LANG) LANG BUSM 2XXX (3)

Course Offerings

Winter 2025