Who is it for?
You are an ambitious recent graduate looking to develop a full range of skills to help launch your career in finance or accounting. This is a highly practical master's course in Investment Management so you’ll need to possess a high level of quantitative skills.
Your coursework will involve you in examining accounting and finance from the perspective of those who use financial reports to evaluate company and managerial performance.
Objectives
*You might still see us referred to as Cass Business School. Find out more about our name change.
This one-year, full-time, expertly structured Investment Management postgraduate programme will provide you with the real-world accounting and finance expertise that leads to a wide range of rewarding international roles.
You will acquire a sound knowledge of the theoretical foundations that underpin modern investment and risk management techniques.
These principles are applied in practice via case studies and the use of online databases such as Bloomberg and simulators.
The practical aspect is delivered with extensive input from City of London institutions. Many leading practitioners teach on the course, providing a vital link between theory and practice.
The MSc in Investment Management is a demanding course. During the course you will cover the traditional syllabus of a general master's degree in finance and develop extensive expertise in a range of specialised areas such as:
- The management of equity and bond portfolios
- Trading techniques
- Asset-liability management
- Risk management
- Alternative investments
- Structured products
- Portfolio optimisation.
An advisory panel of senior practitioners ensures that the course remains at the forefront of developments within financial markets and reflects topical and technical developments in the marketplace.
Structure
What will you learn?
On the Investment Management master’s degree, you will:
- Acquire a comprehensive grasp of the principles and applications of investment and risk management
- Develop your range of technical and conceptual skills
- Gain broad experience of quantitative techniques
- Develop your understanding of a wide range of investment and risk management issues across all industry sectors
- Network with your peers and senior finance industry professionals in the City of London
- Gain a highly valuable international, multicultural perspective
- Acquire a flexible qualification suitable for a wide range of roles in global investment and risk management.
Induction weeks
All of our MSc courses start with two compulsory induction weeks which include relevant refresher courses, an introduction to the careers services and the annual careers fair.
Term 1
Core modules:
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Equity and fixed income analysis
Understanding how to analyse and value financial securities is one of the most important and challenging jobs for anyone working within the finance domain.
For that reason, equity and fixed income analysis must be viewed within the context of the investment decision-making process.
One key characteristic of the course is its integrative framework, bringing the investment–valuation–strategy trilogy together into one place for the analyst to refer to in the quest for consistent value-maximising investment recommendations.
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Portfolio Theory
The main objective of the course is to give you a thorough understanding of modern portfolio theory and its implications for the pricing of assets.
The course provides you with a unified approach to portfolio diversification, optimal portfolio construction and asset pricing models.
There will be practical exercises in asset pricing and portfolio construction, and you will be using specialised databases and software packages to gain practical experience.
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Quantitative Methods for Investment Management
This module gives an understanding of the quantitative methods involved in risk assessment and time series modelling, which are essential in testing the practice of key financial decisions involving various financial instruments.
This module will provide you with the tools required for modelling financial data ranging from the classical linear regression model to nonlinear volatility modelling. Value at Risk (VaR) analysis will also be introduced as a tool for measurement and management of risks in the financial markets.
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Research Methods for Finance Professionals
The module will utilise specific training in a financial modelling package in order to provide a strong foundation for the in-depth and specialist teaching and learning of terms two and three of your course.
You will also learn how to gather information through database research, which you will be able to use to support your learning, substantiate your arguments and make assessments about the nature of the evidence you are using.
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Macroeconomics for investment managers
Any investment manager needs to understand the likely behaviour of the macroeconomy going forward as this will affect the types of securities that he chooses to include in his portfolio.
The behaviour of the macroeconomy is heavily affected by how the government intervenes in the economy and that is why it is important for an investment manager to understand how governments can intervene in the economy and the likely impact of their intervention.
Term 2
Core modules:
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Advanced Financial Statement Analysis
This module aims to introduce you to the measurement and recognition principles underlying financial statements.
The main objectives are to (i) develop a solid understanding of the content and measurement and recognition principals of financial statements from the perspective of users of accounting information; (ii) develop the ability to analyse financial statements from the perspective of analysts and investment managers. In so doing, the module will develop fundamental skills that are important for successful security analysis.
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Alternative Investments
Over the past 20 years investors have increasingly looked beyond traditional asset classes (stocks and bonds) to alternative asset classes as both a source of return and diversification.
In this course, we will introduce you to two of these alternative asset classes, namely hedge funds and private equity, highlighting their pros and cons, and the role they can play in a diversified investment portfolio.
This module will provide you with all the insights needed to make well-informed decisions with regard to today’s complex investment management environment.
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Portfolio Management
The main objective of the module is to give you a thorough understanding of practical application of modern portfolio theory and asset pricing theories.
The course provides you with a unified approach to asset management and risk management.
There will be practical simulations in portfolio construction and evaluation, examples of style investing, long/short portfolio construction, market timing and asset allocation strategies and discussion of fixed income investment strategies.
The coursework will be empirical, based on a simulated portfolio construction and evaluation so that you can gain practical experience. The software(s) used for this simulation may change.
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Structured Products
The aim of the course is to develop your understanding of structured products from the point of view of both issuers and investors.
A strong emphasis will be placed on understanding the factors that drive the prices of futures, forwards, options and swaps in both vanilla and exotic forms which will then be used to reverse engineer structured products.
By the end of the course you should understand how existing products are structured, how they will perform in the secondary market and be capable of structuring your own products.
Term 3
You may choose from the three options in your final term.
- Option one: Students can opt to write a 10,000-word Business Research Project (40 credits) and take one specialist elective module (1 x 10 credits).
- Option two: Students can opt to write a 3,000–5,000-word Applied Research Project (20 credits) and take three specialist elective modules (3 x 10 credits)
- Option three: Students can take five specialist elective modules (5 x 10 credits).
Projects
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Business Research Project
It is important for aspiring professionals to demonstrate, on an individual basis, their ability to apply concepts and techniques they have learned in an in-depth study of a topic of their choice and to organise their findings in a report, all conducted within a given time limit.
To train you to undertake individual research and provide you with an opportunity to specialise in a contemporary business or finance topic related to your future career aspirations, you are required to submit a project of approximately 10,000 words on any subject area covered in the rest of the programme.
Typical projects can involve any of the following: extracting data from electronic databases or by hand; statistical analysis of large or small populations; interviews; case studies of an industry or a sector or of a business / finance issue in a particular country setting.
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Applied Research Project
The aim of this module is to enable you to demonstrate how to integrate your learning in core and elective modules and then apply this to the formulation and completion of an applied research project.
You will be required to demonstrate the skills and knowledge that you have acquired throughout your MSc study.
You will undertake a short piece of applied research on a question of academic and/or practical relevance.
Guidelines will be provided in order to help you identify the research question.
Based on your chosen topic, you must write a report of around 3,000–5,000 words that summarises and critically evaluates your method and your findings.
Electives offered in 2018
- Advanced Applied Equity Investment
- Advanced Company Valuation
- Behavioural Finance
- Corporate Restructuring
- Credit Risk Management
- Energy Markets
- Ethics, Society and the Finance Sector - BLOCK
- Financial Statement Analysis & Valuation in Banks
- Foreign Exchange
- Hedge Funds
- Mergers & Acquisitions
- Trading and Market Microstructure
- Visual Basics in Finance
International electives
- Investment Strategy (taught in New York, USA)
- Project Finance and Infrastructure Investment (taught in Madrid, Spain)
