SECTION FOR ATTENDANT STUDENTS

• Syllabus --> see link above; Attendants Trading Game (2025); Class-Calendar; 

• Zoom Link: Topics Zoom Link (this link will always be the same for the entire course and will be used to form and interact with the in-class group teams for projects & laboratories)

Welcome to the "TOPICS IN FINANCE" course, focused on Advanced Applied Finance, specifically related to Investment Decisions and Neurofinance. It is organized with a series of sequential and applied laboratories.  

• CHARACTERISTICS: Undergraduate (III Year) -  Area: Finance; Credits: 6; H 48 

• GOALS: The course is an advanced course in Applied Finance. The purpose of the course is to discuss innovative topics in Finance, especially regarding investor behavior and investment decisions, from an economic and neuroscience perspective.

• PREREQUISITES: This course is an optional course, specifically designed for students in the third year of their bachelor's degree in ECONOMICS, MANAGEMENT or BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (who already have gained previous knowledge in some essential basic topics: 

  • • • economics, 

      • financial mathematics, 

      • statistics, 

      •  financial analysis, 

      • corporate finance (MANDATORY - You must take this exam BEFORE)

      • Also, a Fluent level of English (spoken and written) is REQUIRED

• METHODS: The course follows a LABORATORY APPROACH.  As such, attendant students are required to ACTIVELY PARTAKE in EACH CLASS (EVEN IF tHEY ARE ONLINE). No passive participation. The Active participation (even if online) must be in real-time (with the class, and NOT after class). Students are required to read the theoretical material (available in the book) BEFORE class so that in class students will have the opportunity to apply and discuss it with the rest of the class or team members. 

Other information for attendant students:

• Turn-it-in software

• Video tutorials (WallStreetMojo) 

• Previous Years: Attendants (2023-24); Factset activation link --> Factset video guide (pw will be given in class)

Books

• For attendant students, there is a personalized E-book creaded specifically for the attendant students of this course. The personalized e-book for the course is the following:  Topics in Finance,  course taught by Zambelli 2021, ISBN 9781307688139,  click here to get the ebook version (for the print version, please look at the closest bookshop and/or amazon).

--> LIBRERIA UNIVERSITARIA : book available at this link 

--> IBS- FELTRINELLI - book available at this link

--> FELTRINELLI - book are available at this link

• For non attendant students: Bodie Kane Marcus, Investments, McGraw Hill 

• For the Basis Review, here is a very interesting book on Principle on Finance (online version)

The course follows the main parts of the book: Bodie Kane Marcus, Investments, McGraw Hill (see the official syllabus for the specific parts. This entire book is especially recommended for non-attending students (The customized version of the above book is recommended for attending students willing to actively attend all classes).

The course includes the following parts:

• Introduction to Financial System (BKM Part 1)

• Portfolio Theory and Practice (BKM Part 2)

• Equilibrium in Capital Markets (BKM Part 3)

• Applied Portfolio Management (BKM Part 7)

CONDITIONS AND PREREQUISITES 

• Please, before deciding whether to add  this course in your study plan, please note that all classes of this course are laboratory-based and require you to actively partake in discussions, presentations, and simulations. Please be prepared -  no passive participation is recommended. For organizational purposes, ACTIVE PARTICIPATION (IN REAL-TIME) is essential (NO PASSIVE PARTICIPATION).  

• NO LATE ENROLLMENT IS RECOMMENDED!! It is compulsory to attend the first class. 

•  For non-attendant students, the book is Bodie Kane Marcus, Investments, McGraw Hill (see the official syllabus for the specific parts). For attendant students (willing to actively partake to ALL classes, discussions and laboratories) there is a personalized E-book created specifically for the attendant students (see below).

• Theoretical material (included in the personalized e-book for the course) must be studied weekly. Sometimes you will be requested to read some book chapters  BEFORE class, as in class you will apply the theory and discuss it with the rest of the class. Please be aware of that: there is no point for you to enter class if you are not willing to partake (actively). 

• If you desire to "sit" in class be prepared to talk, discuss, present, work in a team, and partake in all the class discussions organized  (do not passively sit and listen). :-)  Sporadic attendance is NOT recommended as well (because each laboratory is sequential and your sporadic attendance will damage your team)

**** FOR ORGANIZATIONAL REASONS, OVER  WEEK 2, ALL  GROUPS ARE FORMED  AND,   AS SUCH, NO MORE NEW ENTRANTS   AS ATTENDANT STUDENTS ARE ALLOWED INSIDE EACH GROUPS

The final exam consists of a written project: detailed information are provided  on the first class of the course. So please attend the first class, because otherwise, you will not capture important information on the course (and I will not have the possibility to repeat them during the rest of the course. 

• Evaluation (for all students): Written final project on your portfolio management report (on 15 stocks selected and analyzed by you), and the theoretical innovative contribution (selected in accordance with me). The final full project must be sent via email to the following addresses:  simona.zambelli@unifi.it  within the scheduled date (for attending students) and the exam section dates (for non attending students).

• Instructions: carefully follow the instructions reported below (otherwise your project will be ignored).

  1.  In the subject of the email write "TOPICS",  otherwise, your email will be automatically placed in the wrong folder.

  2.  Inside the email and in the front page of the word-document write: the title of the project, your names and id number, otherwise, your project will be automatically deleted.

•  All students (auditing and non-auditing) are kindly requested to attend the first class (where I provide all information about the course, study material, evaluation, paper suggestions, evaluation requirements, evaluation instructions).

• For attending students, the specific study material is indicated class by class in this web-link (this study material is necessary only for students who decide to follow the course).

• For non-attending students:  please refer to the BOOK suggested in the syllabus available at the University of Florence webpage and if you have some questions, please attend the first class of the course (anyway). 

TO THINK ABOUT 

Series of Videos-Documentaries (to help you think about the topics to select in your class project): 

• New Frontiers in NEUROECONOMICS & NEUROFINANCE  --> new Articles  in Neurofinance;  Neuroscientific Clinical Tools to evaluate behavioral biases

• Video in Eng on Behavioral Biases in investments (video in IT);  Video 1 on Herding biases (line experiment) Video 2 (herding bias ); 

• Videos --> On Neuroscience &  Neural Plasticity by Dr. Andrew Huberman

• --> Behav Finance link

• -> Other papers on specific issues: Neuroscience and financial planning; 

•        ---> Neuroscience and financial decisions -- Book; -->  video of the Author (Dr Reyna) - Cornell Uni

• Video --> Bitcoins

• Video --> On the Aftermath of the fin. crises (Harvard Lecture) by Niall Ferguson

• Video  --> On the importance of Empathy in business now!

• Videos on On the origin of money, credit & debt: 

• Video--> The Ascent of Money (2008) by Niall Ferguson; book review description by Sarah Dorst

TRADING GAME CONTEST: RULES AND CONDITIONS!!!!

Imagine you work for a famous investment bank (position: Junior Portfolio Manager). 

Goal: you have to manage 100.000 € by investing in  a diversified portfolio  aimed at delivering a positive return for your "big" clients.

You have 100.000 to invest in the worldwide stock market for 3 weeks.

1) Duration: 3 weeks

2) Start-date: set in class with attendant students (Monday).

3) Ending-date: set in class (Friday).---> Remember; at the end of the expiration date,

you are requested to do a screenshot of the portfolio you have created. You have to keep this screenshot

and present it within your final class project.

4) Presentation day: 

Useful LINKS to help you for the Trading simulation (More links will be added during the course)

* * If you need some help in selecting your stocks --> Stock Selector FT;  Best - Worst stocks of the day

* Best - Worst stocks of the day

* 5 things to know before the markets open

* Investing.com --> news, graphs, and analysis of graphs --also good for the calendar, & Beta of stocks --> if you want to calculate yourself the Beta, look at this video

* Tradingview --> for general information, charts, news, ecc

* Forexinfo.it --> news and graphical analysis of news

* Finviz -->  ratio analysis and fundamental analysis & Other useful information

* Portfolio visualizer -- useful for a back-test of a portfolio (to evaluate past trends and guess future)

* Yahoo Finance --> for basic information and ratio of your company

* if you need more help on fundamental analysis --> Ratios and Z score Risk assessment  

* Reuters --> comparison with the sector

* Proreal time --> Technical analysis

* Bloomberg.com --> Good  For news

* Traderpedia.it -->  financial education ( Italian) on technical analysis

* Investopedia.com --> financial education and info on technical analysis

* Trend-online.com -->  financial education

* Milanofinanza.it --> general economic information/ macroeconomics information on Italy

Team working

Teams will be formed over the first week of March (as such you need to enroll in the course before it starts)

OVER  WEEK 2, ALL  GROUPS ARE FORMED AND, AS SUCH, NO MORE NEW ENTRANTS  AS ATTENDANT STUDENTS ARE ALLOWED INSIDE EACH GROUPS

Course structure (For Attending Students only )

(This part will be updated week by week, for auditing students only-- Read it before and after each class). 

Non-auditing students are required to read the reference material highlighted above (if you need clarifications, do not wait until the last minute, but please contact me during the months of April-May in order to set an appointment with me for suggestions and clarifications)

12 classes of 4 h. = 48 H

Week 1: Introduction on the Course and the Main innovative Topics.

Summary: we have watched the first video-lesson  About Rationality and Irrationality..

very controversial on A Radom Walk Down Wall Street. I would like you to think about it 

for the next week!!

Week 2 : Focus on Trading Game, Financial system and Financial securities, as well as Fin. An. Review Laboratory on Fin. Statements.

• Presentation of Dabases & Resourses available in UNIFI

• Introduction on the Trading Simulation Rules (by using a Game Simulation Platform) 

• LAB 1 application (easy)

• Material (after class):  In Finance, it is important to classify Balance Sheets and Income Statements properly in order to implement a useful ratio analysis. In the following part, you will have a few samples.

  • • Balance Sheet: link 

    • Income Statement: link 

• Think about: 

  • • Video-1 investment suggestions & possible methods; investor biases 

    • Video-2 intelliget investors

Then we will focus on questions-answers (by using a contest platform).

week 3 : Focus on Fundamental Analysis and evaluating performance: Ratio Analysis

• LAB 2 (Gitman): Application on Ratio Analysis for investment decisions

  • • REVIEW: PE Ratio: Calculation, Meaning, and Exercises

    • REVIEW : Gordon Model

    • REVIEW: Net Working Capital: link

• Material: After Class: you can review chapter 1 of the book. 

• Description of the main Ratios

week 4 : Let's get ready for the Trading Game!!

• Risk and Return of risky securities. I thought you could appreciate these videos: (they represent a nice summary of what we did in the class and what you find in your book).

•  video-summary1 ;   video-summary2   It may be a good way to fix what we did in the class and to listen to some English videos. Enjoy and see you soon!! :-)

• Think about: Video-3 discussion about further suggestions on how to invest in stocks, to make you think about investing in stock markets. 

week 5: Portfolio Management

•  Risk and Return of portfolios & Portfolio management 

• Thought-provoking Videos on Asset Allocation: 

  • • Rational vs Irrational approach?

    • Can we beat the market?  Link

week 6 

•  CAPM 

• Applications

week 7: Review

•  Review of previous parts & Behavioral Biases

• Questions & Answers

• Project Works Laboratory 

week 8 : TRADING LAB

• Focus: Project Work Laboratory 

week 9 : TRADING LAB

• Focus: Project Work Laboratory 

week 10: TRADING LAB

• Focus: Project Work Laboratory 

week 11: TRADING LAB

• Focus: Last Project Work Laboratory 

week 12 : Conclusions & End of Course

• Focus: Final Class Presentation, Discussion & Conclusions

• Remember to send the final project via email on June 1