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.
- Review of portfolio management and performance theories.
- Portfolio construction techniques.
- Introduction of the software package and Excel portfolio tracking templates.
- Review of Shanghai Board A and B shares and the index valuations.
- Introduction of the portfolio simulation rules and requirements.
- Weekly portfolio updates (buys, sells and changes in the portfolio mix).
- Weekly performance reports (Investment strategies vs. Actual portfolio performance).
- Monthly portfolio performance report (to be submitted to instructor for evaluation).
- Construction of simple statistical and econometric methods to implement portfolio models of Active Asset Allocation.
At the end of the course, the successful student should be able to:
- define and explain the tasks and responsibilities of a portfolio manager
- describe and differentiate between the various portfolio management and performance tracking strategies
- demonstrate a broad understanding of the capital markets in China within which a portfolio manager must operate
- demonstrate a broad understanding of all the factors, economic or otherwise, which contribute to the behaviour of capital markets
- explain the determinants of pricing of all types of equity stocks and market fluctuations in the Shanghai Stock Exchange
- explain and compute the basic statistical measures of variability and demonstrate their general use in valuing risky stocks
- demonstrate a broad understanding of the concepts, principles, procedures and practices involved in constructing portfolios
- 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
- be able to construct, monitor and weekly assess the portfolio values and portfolio management strategy changes based on investment objectives.
| 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.
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.
4th year standing in Financial Markets and Investment Management Program
Courses listed here are equivalent to this course and cannot be taken for further credit:
- No equivalency courses