Topic outline

  • Objectives of the Course:


    Security Analysis & Portfolio Management

    Objectives of the Course:

    This course aims to build understanding of the investment environment, recognize investment opportunities, and identify and manage an investment portfolio. It helps practitioners like portfolio managers, investment advisors, equity researchers, financial advisors, professional investors, first time investors to reason out investment issues for themselves and be better prepared when making real world investment decisions.   





  • Introduction

    Major topics covered in the course are: asset allocation decision, financial assets, securities and markets, measurement of portfolio risk and return, building and selecting portfolio, capital market theory, market inefficiency and market anomalies, equity valuation and strategies, bond portfolio management, modern portfolio theory, CAPM model, factor models and the APT, single index model, multi-index model, portfolio construction, portfolio diversification, performance measurement, performance analysis and performance attribution, stock market in Bangladesh etc.    


  • Lecture 1: Understanding Investments

    Lecture Contents:

    The nature of investments, The importance of studying investments, Understanding the investment decision process etc.

    Lecture Outcome:

    After studying this lecture, students will be able to:

    1. Understand why return and risk are the two critical components of all investing decisions.
    2. Appreciate the scope of investment decisions and the operating environment in which they are made.
    3. Follow the organization of the investment decision process as we progress through the text.
  • Lecture 2: Investment Alternatives

    Lecture Contents:

    Organizing financial assets, Nonmarketable, Money market, fixed income securities, types of bonds, Asset-backed, equity and derivative securities etc. 

    Lecture Outcome:

    After studying this contents, students will be able to:

    1. Identify money market and capital market securities and understand the important features of these securities. 
    2. Recognize important terms such as asset-backed securities, stock splits, bond ratings, and ADRs.
    3. Understand the basics of two derivative securities, options and futures, and how they fit into the investor’s choice set.
  • Lecture 3: The Returns & Risks from Investing

    Lecture Contents:

    Return, Sources of risk, Measuring returns, Measuring risk, Realized risk and return from investing etc.

    Lecture Outcome:

    After studying these contents, students will be able to:

    1. Calculate important return and risk measures for financial assets, using the formulation appropriate for the task. 
    2. Use key terms involved with return and risk, including geometric mean, cumulative wealth index, inflation-adjusted returns, and currency-adjusted returns. 
    3. Understand clearly the returns and risk investors have experienced in the past, an important step in estimating future returns and risk.

  • Lecture 4: Portfolio Theory

    Lecture Contents:

    Portfolio return & risk, Analyzing portfolio risk, Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT), Calculating portfolio risk, Efficient portfolio etc.

    Lecture Outcome:

    After studying these contents, students will be able to:

    1. Understand the meaning and calculation of expected return and risk measures for an individual security. 
    2. Recognize what it means to talk about modern portfolio theory.
    3. Calculate portfolio return and risk measures as formulated by Markowitz. 
    4. Understand how diversification works.

  • Lecture 5: Portfolio Selection & Asset Allocation

    Lecture Contents:

    Building portfolio, Efficient frontier, Asset allocation decision, The implication of portfolio model etc.

    Lecture Outcome:

    After studying these contents, students will be able to:

    1. Appreciate the significance of the efficient frontier and understand how an optimal portfolio of risky assets is determined. 
    2. Understand the importance of the asset allocation decision.
    3. Apply the Markowitz optimization procedure to asset classes and understand the practical implications of doing so. 
    4. Recognize how the total risk of a portfolio can be broken into two components

  • Lecture 6: Asset Pricing Models

    Lecture Contents:

    Capital Market Theory, Return-risk tradeoff, The security market line, Estimating the SML, Tests of the CAPM, APT ETC.  

    Lecture Outcome:

    1. Understand capital market theory as an extension of portfolio theory. 
    2. Recognize the capital market line, which applies to efficient portfolios, and the security market line, which applies to all portfolios as well as individual securities.
    3. Understand and use the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) equation to calculate the required rate of return for a security. 
    4. Recognize an alternative theory of how assets are priced, arbitrage pricing theory.


  • Mid Term Examination.

    Mid Term Examination Syllabus:

    1. Understanding Investment

    2. Investment Alternatives

    3. The Returns & Risks from Investing

    4. Portfolio Theory

    5. Portfolio Selection & Asset Allocation

    6. Asset Pricing Models


  • Lecture 7: Common Stock Valuation

    Lecture Contents: 

    Discounted cash flow techniques & relative valuation techniques etc.

    Lecture Outcome:

    After studying these contents, students will be able to:

    1. Understand the foundation of valuation for common stocks, discounted cash-flow techniques, and the concept of intrinsic value. 
    2. Use the dividend discount model to estimate the intrinsic value of a stock.
    3. Estimate target prices for stocks using the P/E ratio and EPS.
    4. Recognize the role of relative valuation metrics in the valuation process.

  • Lecture 8: Market Efficiency

    Lecture Contents:

    The concept of an efficient market, Forms of market efficiency, Evidence on market efficiency, Implications of the efficient market hypothesis, Evidence of market anomalies etc.   

    Lecture Outcome:

    After studying these contents, students will be able to:

    1. Analyze the efficient market hypothesis (EMH) and recognize its significance to investors. 
    2. Evaluate how the EMH is tested, and what the evidence has shown.
    3. Recognize the anomalies (exceptions to market efficiency) that have been put forward. 
    4. Understand the behavioral finance arguments being made today. 

  • Lecture 9: Portfolio Management

    Lecture Contents: 

    Portfolio Management as a process, Formulate an appropriate investment policy, Capital market expectations, Implementing investment strategies, Re-balancing the portfolio, performance measurement etc.   

    Lecture Outcome:

    After studying these contents, students will be able to:

    1. Organize the management of their portfolio in a logical, systematic manner. 
    2. Better understand some personal financial planning issues.
    3. Better assess some issues of major importance, such as asset allocation.


  • Lecture 10: Evaluation of Investment Performance

    Lecture Contents:

    Evaluating portfolio performance, Return and risk considerations, Risk-adjusted measures of performance, Problems with portfolio measurement etc. 

    Lecture Outcome:

    After studying these contents, students will be able to:

    1. Understand the issues involved in evaluating portfolio performance. 
    2. Evaluate popular press claims about the performance of various portfolios, such as mutual funds, available to investors.
    3. Understand concepts such as performance attribution and style analysis.


  • Final Examination Syllabus:

    1. Common Stock Valuation

    2. Market Efficiency

    3. Portfolio Management

    4. Evaluation of Investment Performance