Foundational courses are intended for students who do not have training or prior coursework in accounting, finance and statistics. A course in business writing and communication is also required.

FIN 500 Financial and Managerial Accounting
This course will develop accounting analysis useful for managerial decision-making purposes. Topics will include an introduction to elements of financial accounting, cost-profit-volume analysis, manufacturing costs and elements of cost accounting, special decision analysis, budgeting, variances, and controllability and responsibility accounting.

FIN 523 Financial Management
This course covers the fundamental principles of finance. The primary concepts covered include the time value of money, principles of valuation and risk. Specific applications include the valuation of debt and equity securities as well as capital budgeting analysis, financial manager’s functions, liquidity vs. profitability, financial planning, capital budgeting, management of long term funds, money and capital markets, debt and equity, management of assets, cash and accounts receivable, inventory and fixed assets.

MGT 506 Economics for Managers
This course introduces managers to the essence of business economics – the theories, concepts and ideas that form the economist’s tool kit encompassing both the microeconomic and macroeconomic environments. Microeconomic topics include demand and supply, elasticity, consumer choice, production, cost, profit maximization, market structure, and game theory while the Macroeconomic topics will be GDP, inflation, unemployment, aggregate demand, aggregate supply, fiscal and monetary policies. In addition the basic concepts in international trade and finance will be discussed.

MGT 506 Managerial Economics
This course introduces managers to the essence of business economics — the theories, concepts and ideas that form the economist’s tool kit. Microeconomic topics include demand and supply, elasticity, consumer choice, production, cost, profit maximization, market structure, and game theory; macroeconomic topics will be GDP, inflation, unemployment, aggregate demand, aggregate supply, and fiscal and monetary policies. In addition, basic concepts in international trade and finance will be discussed.

MGT 700 Econometrics
An introduction to the science of designing statistical models of economic processes. Students will be required to build and estimate a number of models during the term. Topics include regression theory, statistical difficulties in regression analysis, advanced topics in single-equation regression, models of qualitative choice and simultaneous equation estimation. Prerequisites: MGT 503

FIN 629 Fixed Income Analysis
This course addresses money flows and the cost of credit for major money market institutions, including banks, bank holding companies and the “shadow banking” system. It entails a broad survey of the structure and financial condition of the banking industry. The course provides a theoretical and practical understanding of why these markets exist and who the key players are, how the markets work, the rules governing their operation, and how they are evolving. We will spend considerable time in discussing regulation of the financial markets and financial services industry.

FIN 627 Investment Management
This course takes a practical approach to managing investments. It covers a wide variety of investment vehicles, from pure equity and debt offerings to complex derivatives and options. Various investment strategies are presented which are focused on the different fundamental approaches and tactics used by leading investors to achieve their financial goals. The course also focuses on investment styles, including momentum, growth, income, distressed, asset allocation and vulture investing. Students participate in real-time simulation experiences to create viable portfolios of stocks, bonds and other investments, tracking their performance against the overall market and the class on a weekly basis.

FIN 638 Corporate Finance
This course serves as a second semester sequence in corporate finance. Among the topics covered are: leverage on the balance sheet and weighted average cost of capital; bankruptcy, turnarounds, and recapitalizations; international currency hedging; stock options; private equity valuation; mergers and acquisitions; and the issuance of public and private securities.

FIN 510 Financial Statement Analysis
This course deals with interpretation of financial statements, evaluation of the alignment between business strategies and financial performance, identification of potential business risks, and comparison of the performance of different companies. The course introduces business analysis and valuation techniques and uses real data to help students comprehend financial statement analysis tools. 

FIN 628 Derivatives
This course covers the fundamentals of financial derivatives, including the basic properties and pricing of futures, options and swaps. It also explores trading and hedging strategies involving financial derivatives. Special topics, such as exotic options and credit derivatives, are explored. The course provides the foundation of financial derivatives and lays the ground for a rigorous risk management course and other advanced quantitative courses, such as stochastic finance.

FE 511 Introduction to Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters
The focus of this course will be on equity, futures, FX, options, swaps, CDSs, interest rate swaps and so on. As part of the course, students become Bloomberg certified. The course also covers the Thomson Reuters Tick History data.

FE 515 Introduction to R
Upon completion of this course, students will understand the programming syntax of R, and should be able to use it in future courses.
Upon completion of this course, students will understand the programming syntax of R, and should be able to use it in future courses.

FE 517 SAS for Finance
This course teaches the basics of SAS programming using financial data and applications. The course provides an introduction to programming, graphics and data analysis using SAS software. The course concentrates on fundamental components of SAS: data processing; managing SAS libraries; graphical and statistical procedures; and creating, formatting and exporting reports.

FE 520 Introduction to Python for Financial Applications
This course covers the basis syntax rules, modules, importing packages, data visualization and introduction to machine learning on Python. Upon completion of this course, students will be able to complete a simple project with Python.

FIN 530 Investment Banking
The course provides an overview of Investment Banking both from a transactional and regulatory perspective. Students will explore the structure of global markets, players, risks, motives and opportunities that make transactions happen and study lessons learned from remarkably successful stories and spectacular failures. The instructor will provide various case studies to help students understand market dynamics, transaction complexities, governance and approvals, deal sourcing - origination, due diligence, pricing, distribution as well as regulatory compliance and supervision of investment banks.

FIN 620 Advanced Financial Econometrics
This course introduces the main concepts of data analysis and econometrics applied to financial problems. The course explores data analysis techniques; time series models; and multivariate, factor and Bayesian models, which are applied to high-frequency trading, volatility forecasting, risk management, portfolio optimization and asset pricing. Students will work with historical databases, conduct their own analysis, and test trading and investment strategies based on the techniques reviewed during the class.Prerequisite: BIA 652 or MGT 700

FIN 688 Mergers, Acquisitions and Other Corporate Restructuring
This course develops the “architecture and science” of optimal strategic decision-making by building upon the basic corporate financial theory to cases of financial policies like initial public offering, debt issuance, seasoned equity offers. This course analyzes investments decisions like merger and acquisition, and divestitures decisions like spinoffs and carve-outs. corporate bankruptcy and restructuring, and other advanced models of corporate valuation. The classes are structured to maximize the synergy between advanced topics in corporate finance theory and case-based practical applications, providing students with portable, durable and marketable tools for their careers.

FIN 626 Venture Capital and Private Equity
This course addresses the fundamentals of venture capital, which includes the venture capital industry, the structure of venture capital firms and venture capital investments. It addresses in some detail the relationship between venture risk and return, the cost of venture capital, and the valuation of high-growth companies. The course covers a variety of valuation methods as well as analysis of company capital structure.

FIN 648 International Finance
The course covers a sequence of important topics such as the fundamentals of international financial management, the financial environment in which the multinational firm and its managers must function, and foreign exchange management and financial management in a multinational firm. Since the courses specifically addresses the financial management aspect of international business, considerable attentive will be directed to specific issues of international finance such as foreign exchange markets, managing exchange rate risk and various other risk management issues.

Complete at least 4 of the following courses:

FIN 526 - Private Equity and Venture Capital (3)

This course addresses the fundamentals of venture capital, which includes the venture capital industry, the structure of venture capital firms and venture capital investments. It addresses in some detail the relationship between venture risk and return, the cost of venture capital and the valuation of high growth companies. The course covers a variety of valuation methods as well as analysis of company capital structure or “cap tables”.

FIN 530 Investment Banking (3)

The course provides an overview of Investment Banking both from a transactional and regulatory perspective. Students will explore the structure of global markets, players, risks, motives and opportunities that make transactions happen and study lessons learned from remarkably successful stories and spectacular failures. The instructor will provide various case studies to help students understand market dynamics, transaction complexities, governance and approvals, deal sourcing - origination, due diligence, pricing, distribution as well as regulatory compliance and supervision of investment banks.

FIN 540 - Sustainable Finance (3)

This course introduces students to sustainable finance. In this course, sustainable finance is understood as the process of ensuring the inclusion of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations into corporate decisions. A sustainable corporation will make their investment decisions that consider not only financial returns but also its social impact. Our textbook provides a clear and masterful discussion of the principles of sustainable business based on “growing the pie” principle. By focusing on “growing the pie” as a corporate objective, the sustainable businesses are able to create shareholder values as well as stakeholder value.

FA 542 - Time Series with Applications to Finance

In this course the students will learn how to estimate financial data model and predict using time series models. The course will cover linear time series (ARIMA) models, conditional heteroskedastic models (ARCH type models), non-linear models (TAR, STAR, MSA), non-parametric models (kernel regression, local regression, neural networks), non-parametric methods of evaluating fit such as bootstrap, parametric bootstrap and cross-validation. The course will also introduce multivariate time series models such as VAR.

FIN 640 - Renewable Energy Finance (3)

This course provides an in-depth knowledge for students in the range of established practices, procedures and tools in finance that can be used to address the adverse effects of climate change on corporations from both an investor, bank, and corporate perspective. The goal of this course is also to increase the understanding of graduate students of the financing and investment decisions as they relate to renewable energy projects and renewable energy companies. As a result, graduate students will learn about the key topics in renewable energy finance such as the access to renewable energy, the business case for clean energy, project finance, and valuation of renewable energy firms. This course will provide the graduate students a solid foundation and introduction to this most important topic. Students taking this course will not only have the knowledge about renewable energy finance they need, but the understanding to put that knowledge to practical use.

FIN 648 International Finance (3)

The course covers a sequence of important topics such as the fundamentals of international financial management, the financial environment in which the multinational firm and its managers must function, and foreign exchange management and financial management in a multinational firm. Since the courses specifically addresses the financial management aspect of international business, considerable attentive will be directed to specific issues of international finance such as foreign exchange markets, managing exchange rate risk and various other risk management issues.

FIN 688 Mergers, Acquisitions and Other Corporate Restructuring (3)

This course develops the “architecture and science” of optimal strategic decision-making by building upon the basic corporate financial theory to cases of financial policies like initial public offering, debt issuance, seasoned equity offers. This course analyzes investments decisions like merger and acquisition, and divestitures decisions like spinoffs and carve-outs. corporate bankruptcy and restructuring, and other advanced models of corporate valuation. The classes are structured to maximize the synergy between advanced topics in corporate finance theory and case-based practical applications, providing students with portable, durable and marketable tools for their careers.

FIN 678 - Asset Allocation Practicum (3)

This course provides students hands-on, real experience in managing a portfolio of risk assets in a live (not paper/simulated trading) investment account holding funds that are part of Stevens Institute of Technology’s endowment. The course employs a Global Macro-Strategy Approach, i.e., a focus on overall macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions at the global and regional level driving the expression of investment views through long and short exposures in asset classes such as equities, fixed income, currencies, precious metals, commodities real estate and other asset classes. Investment decisions are made at the asset class level and implemented using Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) that represent exposures to broad asset classes. Applying asset management theories and techniques at the asset class level, students focus on the strategic selection and management of ETFs to achieve specific investment goals. The course emphasizes critical skills as practiced in the asset management industry. Enrollment in this course is by application only. Interested students should speak with the program for additional guidance.

MGT 808 - Fundamentals of Consulting (1)

This course introduces students to fundamental soft skills, work techniques, and technologies employed by management consultants. Topics covered in this course include project scoping, creating statements of work, meeting facilitation, project planning, design of presentations and written reports, management briefs, and delivery of status reports.

The course will improve your ability to present analyses of issues and organizational problems in a concise, accurate, clear and interesting manner from the perspective of a consultant. It is designed to be taken prior to the experiential graduate courses in the School of Business.

MGT 809 - Industry Capstone Experience (1)

In this course students work on an industry project with a team of their peers under the supervision of a faculty advisor and industry mentor. Students will work on project tasks and manage client expectations while applying their disciplinary and technical knowledge to the project. In addition to the project-specific deliverables, students will produce a statement of work, present weekly project updates, and a final presentation and project report to management. This three-credit course is tied to the Industry Capstone Program in the School of Business. Students must first apply for a project before registering for this course.

This course will focus on Data Mining & Knowledge Discovery Algorithms and their applications in solving real world business and operation problems. We concentrate on demonstrating how discovering the hidden knowledge in corporate databases will help managers to make near-real time intelligent business and operation decisions. The course will begin with an introduction to Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery in Databases. Methodological and practical aspects of knowledge discovery algorithms including: Data Preprocessing, k-Nearest Neighborhood Algorithm, Machine Learning and Decision Trees, Artificial Neural Networks, Clustering, and Algorithm Evaluation Techniques will be covered. Practical examples and case studies will be presented throughout the course.

This course provides an applied overview of both classical linear approaches to statistical learning and more modern statistical methods. The classical linear approaches will include logistic regression, linear discriminant analysis, k-means clustering and nearest neighbors. The more modern approaches will include generalized additive models, decision trees, boosting, bagging, support vector machines and others.

Complete at least 4 of the following courses:

FA 542 - Time Series with Applications to Finance (3)

In this course the students will learn how to estimate financial data model and predict using time series models. The course will cover linear time series (ARIMA) models, conditional heteroskedastic models (ARCH type models), non-linear models (TAR, STAR, MSA), non-parametric models (kernel regression, local regression, neural networks), non-parametric methods of evaluating fit such as bootstrap, parametric bootstrap and cross-validation. The course will also introduce multivariate time series models such as VAR.

FIN 540 - Sustainable Finance (3)

This course introduces students to sustainable finance. In this course, sustainable finance is understood as the process of ensuring the inclusion of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations into corporate decisions. A sustainable corporation will make their investment decisions that consider not only financial returns but also its social impact. Our textbook provides a clear and masterful discussion of the principles of sustainable business based on “growing the pie” principle. By focusing on “growing the pie” as a corporate objective, the sustainable businesses are able to create shareholder values as well as stakeholder value.

FIN 550 - Financial Planning and Risk Management (3)

This course will review the fundamental principles of financial planning, professional conduct, education planning, risk management and regulation. The course is aligned with the principle knowledge topics evaluated on the CFP Certification Examination. The course introduces you to the financial planning process and teaches you how to work with clients to set goals and assess risk tolerance. Learn how to process and analyze information, construct personal financial statements, develop debt management plans, recommend financing strategies, and understand the basic components of a written comprehensive financial plan. The course also covers the regulatory environment, time value of money, and economic concepts.

FIN 555 - Retirement and Estate Planning (3)

This course introduces students to the principles of retirement and estate planning as well as current issues in these areas. The course is designed to enable students to understand and be conversant with the basic language of retirement and estate planning, and to understand the pertinent provisions of the US Internal Revenue Code related to these topics. The course focuses on training an individuals ability to use this information for making both short-term and long-term planning decisions. The course progresses at a rapid pace and requires students to prepare regularly for each class session instead of waiting until the exams. Topics include retirement planning tools, techniques and plans, estate and gift tax calculation and compliance, estate planning tools and techniques (both pre and post death), probate and non-testamentary disposition of assets, the use and purpose of trusts, family gifting strategies, estate liquidity, business succession planning, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and retirement plan distributions.

FA 631 - Investment, Portfolio Construction, and Trading Analytics (3)

The significant amount of information available in any field requires a systematic and analytical approach to select the most important information and anticipate major events. Machine learning algorithms facilitate this process understanding, modeling and forecasting the behavior of major social or economic systems and their variables.

This is an applied research course that explores how to apply fundamental machine learning models to predict financial time series and solve financial problems. Some of the financial applications explored are algorithmic trading, model calibration, portfolio optimization, and risk management.

FIN 640 - Renewable Energy Finance (3)

This course provides an in-depth knowledge for students in the range of established practices, procedures and tools in finance that can be used to address the adverse effects of climate change on corporations from both an investor, bank, and corporate perspective. The goal of this course is also to increase the understanding of graduate students of the financing and investment decisions as they relate to renewable energy projects and renewable energy companies. As a result, graduate students will learn about the key topics in renewable energy finance such as the access to renewable energy, the business case for clean energy, project finance, and valuation of renewable energy firms. This course will provide the graduate students a solid foundation and introduction to this most important topic. Students taking this course will not only have the knowledge about renewable energy finance they need, but the understanding to put that knowledge to practical use.

FIN 658 - Wealth Management Principles and Practices (3)

This is a course on the theory and practice of wealth management. It covers the building blocks and fundamental theoretical and practical aspects of investment management and financial planning for individual investors as well as applications that put the former to use by practitioners in the industry. Students will be exposed to some of the information, tools, and analysis available to investment management professionals today.

FIN 678 - Asset Allocation Practicum (3)

This course provides students hands-on, real experience in managing a portfolio of risk assets in a live (not paper/simulated trading) investment account holding funds that are part of Stevens Institute of Technology’s endowment. The course employs a Global Macro-Strategy Approach, i.e., a focus on overall macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions at the global and regional level driving the expression of investment views through long and short exposures in asset classes such as equities, fixed income, currencies, precious metals, commodities real estate and other asset classes. Investment decisions are made at the asset class level and implemented using Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) that represent exposures to broad asset classes. Applying asset management theories and techniques at the asset class level, students focus on the strategic selection and management of ETFs to achieve specific investment goals. The course emphasizes critical skills as practiced in the asset management industry. Enrollment in this course is by application only. Interested students should speak with the program for additional guidance.

MGT 808 - Fundamentals of Consulting (1)

This course introduces students to fundamental soft skills, work techniques, and technologies employed by management consultants. Topics covered in this course include project scoping, creating statements of work, meeting facilitation, project planning, design of presentations and written reports, management briefs, and delivery of status reports.

The course will improve your ability to present analyses of issues and organizational problems in a concise, accurate, clear and interesting manner from the perspective of a consultant. It is designed to be taken prior to the experiential graduate courses in the School of Business.

MGT 809 - Industry Capstone Experience (1)

In this course students work on an industry project with a team of their peers under the supervision of a faculty advisor and industry mentor. Students will work on project tasks and manage client expectations while applying their disciplinary and technical knowledge to the project. In addition to the project-specific deliverables, students will produce a statement of work, present weekly project updates, and a final presentation and project report to management. This three-credit course is tied to the Industry Capstone Program in the School of Business. Students must first apply for a project before registering for this course.

Note: Two of the four courses listed below are common with the Wealth Management concentration.

FIN 550 - Financial Planning and Risk Management (3)

This course will review the fundamental principles of financial planning, professional conduct, education planning, risk management and regulation. The course is aligned with the principle knowledge topics evaluated on the CFP Certification Examination. The course introduces you to the financial planning process and teaches you how to work with clients to set goals and assess risk tolerance. Learn how to process and analyze information, construct personal financial statements, develop debt management plans, recommend financing strategies, and understand the basic components of a written comprehensive financial plan. The course also covers the regulatory environment, time value of money, and economic concepts.

FIN 555 / ACC 555 - Retirement and Estate Planning (3)

This course introduces students to the principles of retirement and estate planning as well as current issues in these areas. The course is designed to enable students to understand and be conversant with the basic language of retirement and estate planning, and to understand the pertinent provisions of the US Internal Revenue Code related to these topics. The course focuses on training an individuals ability to use this information for making both short-term and long-term planning decisions. The course progresses at a rapid pace and requires students to prepare regularly for each class session instead of waiting until the exams. Topics include retirement planning tools, techniques and plans, estate and gift tax calculation and compliance, estate planning tools and techniques (both pre and post death), probate and non-testamentary disposition of assets, the use and purpose of trusts, family gifting strategies, estate liquidity, business succession planning, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and retirement plan distributions.

FIN 560 - Federal Taxation of Individuals for Financial Planning (3)

This course deals with the methods and principles of US Federal income taxation. It is concerned with the history and politics behind the federal income tax laws and regulations, including major emphasis on tax provisions common to all types of taxpayers, particularly individuals. Topics include: tax authority, research, compliance and planning; gross income and exclusions; individual deductions and credits; tax rate schedules and calculation; filing status; investments and property transactions; self-employment income; retirement planning; home ownership and professional ethics.

FIN 565 - Financial Plan Development (3)

This course integrates the different aspects of the financial planning process and demonstrates how to apply this knowledge to the development of a comprehensive financial plan. Students learn how to solve the main problems related to the financial planning process: cash management, debt management, taxation, insurance, retirement, investment, portfolio optimization, and estate planning. At the end of the course, students should be able to construct a plan according to the CFP Boards Financial Planning Practice Standards and client objectives. The course is appropriate for students who want to become financial planners and especially for those that plan to take the CFP Certification Examination.