<p> Syllabus for FIN 303: Financial Management</p><p>Fall 2009</p><p>Instructor: Leslie Boni JH 4110 818 677-2174 [email protected] Office Hours: Mon & Wed 12:30 P.M. – 1:30 P.M., or by appointment. Text</p><p>E.F. Brigham and J. Houston, Fundamentals of Financial Management, Concise Sixth Edition.</p><p>(I have put one copy of the text on reserve at Course Reserves in the Oviatt Library, 4th floor, East Wing. It can be checked out for 2 hours at a time within the library. If you buy a “used” text, please make sure you have the 6th edition as the earlier editions could be out of date.)</p><p>Calculator</p><p>You will need a financial calculator for this course. Many of the exam questions will involve complex arithmetic and financial calculations—and you will need your financial calculator to solve them.</p><p>I will be using an HP-10BII. Another popular choice is the HP-17BII. The 10BII does everything needed in the course. I will explain how to work various problems with it, so you can follow lectures most easily if you use a 10BII. The HP-17BII does more and costs more. Some believe that the 17BII is easier to use once you get used to it. Also, some students believe that the 17BII is better to have in some of the upper level Finance classes. Everything in this class can be done with a 10BII or a 17BII. </p><p>There are some other calculators that can also be used for our course work, but there are some types that will not have the necessary functions. If you have a different calculator, I recommend that you bring it in to office hours (with the manual if possible), and we can check whether it has the necessary functions.</p><p>As you will soon see, the ability to use a financial calculator is critical to success in the class. You will begin using your calculator the 2nd week of class when we begin Chapter 5. (As shown on the last page, we are going to jump to Chapter 5 after Chapter 1, and then come back for Chapter 2, 3, and 4 afterward.)</p><p>Please bring your calculator to class. For obvious reasons, students may not share calculators during exams. Please be sure to check your batteries before exams.</p><p>Course objectives</p><p>This course is designed for all business students, not just those majoring in finance. The objectives are:</p><p>1. To introduce you to the world of finance. Anyone involved with the management of a business needs to have at least some minimal knowledge of business finance.</p><p>2. To introduce you to basic financial concepts such as the time value of money, asset valuation, and risk and return. These basic concepts will lay the ground work should you take additional Finance courses.</p><p>Class procedures</p><p> The structure of this class makes your individual study and preparation outside class extremely important. The lecture material will focus on the major points introduced in the text. Reading the assigned chapters and having some familiarity with them before class will greatly assist your understanding of the lecture.  As soon as possible after the lecture, you should study your notes and work the recommended problems and study questions.  Because one of the objectives is to help you to better understand current events in Finance long after this course ends, we will discuss a number of news articles in addition to the text readings. Please read all the news articles we discuss in class.  Come to class. Although I do not take attendance, our class discussions will supplement the text readings. Because class discussions will emphasize the most important aspects of the course, anything we discuss in class, including news articles, is fair game for the exams. Come late if necessary rather than not at all.  Form a study group and/or find a study partner. Share your notes and help tutor others. Having someone to share and discuss your class notes with will also help you if you must miss class.  Come to my office hours or set up an appointment for office hours. You may think that your questions are “too dumb to ask,” but they aren’t! Finance covers some tough material, and most students have trouble with at least some of it. </p><p>Examinations</p><p>There will be two exams (one midterm and one final) during the semester as follows:</p><p>Midterm: Wednesday, Oct. 14th, 8:00 A.M. - 9:15 A.M.</p><p>Final Exam: TBD per the official CSUN final exam schedule</p><p>Your grade in the course will be determined based on your performance on the two examinations. Each examination will count as one-half of your final course grade. End of course grades will include plus and minus letter grades. </p><p>The exams will all be cumulative. Most of the questions on the final exam will be taken from chapters covered since the midterm, but some will come from the material covered prior to the midterm. I will tell you several days before the exam, how many questions will come from each chapter. In general, the coverage will reflect the amount of time spent in class on the different chapters.</p><p>For the exams you will be allowed to bring in a financial calculator, and an 8½ by 11 sheet of paper on which you can write, type, or copy anything that you like (yes you can write on both sides!). Included with the test will also be sheets that summarize the major formulas used in the text chapters. No other materials may be used during the exam.</p><p>All of the questions on the exams will be multiple choice questions. Each exam will have some conceptual questions and some numerical problems. Since the exams are multiple choice, you will receive no partial credit. This lowers scores considerably from what they would be if partial credit were given. Thus, if you get 50% correct, this does not mean that you know only 50% of the material—you probably know a lot more. Therefore, I will curve the exams.</p><p>Students have the option to drop the midterm grade and base 100% on the final exam grade. Anyone who wants to select this option must let me know in writing at the time I hand them their final exam – before they look at the final exam they are about to begin. Students who do not take the midterm exam must weight their course grade as 100% of the final exam. </p><p>Warning: Say you have 78% on your midterm and 70% on your final. Your average would be 74%. Your letter grade would depend on where 74% puts you in the class curve. But if you had opted to drop your midterm, your final course grade would be determined by where 70% puts you in the class curve. YIKES! Course Schedule</p><p>Fall 2009</p><p>(This schedule is subject to change. Any variations will be announced in class.)</p><p>Aug 24 Syllabus Introductions and Discuss Syllabus Aug 26 Chapter 1: An Overview of Financial Management</p><p>Aug 31 Chapter 5: Time Value of Money Sep 2 Chapter 5: Time Value of Money</p><p>Sep 7 ---- CSUN Campus Closed/Labor Day Holiday (NO CLASS) Sep 9 Chapter 5: Time Value of Money</p><p>Sep 14 Chapter 2: Financial Markets and Institutions Sep 16 Chapter 2: Financial Markets and Institutions</p><p>Sep 21 Chapter 3: Financial Statements, Cash Flow, and Taxes Sep 23 Chapter 3: Financial Statements, Cash Flow, and Taxes</p><p>Sep 28 Chapter 4: Analysis of Financial Statements Sep 30 Chapter 4: Analysis of Financial Statements</p><p>Oct 5 Chapter 6: Interest Rates Oct 7 Chapter 6: Interest Rates</p><p>Oct 12 ---- Review for Midterm Oct 14 ---- MIDTERM</p><p>Oct 19 Chapter 7: Bonds and Their Valuation Oct 21 Chapter 7: Bonds and Their Valuation</p><p>Oct 26 Chapter 7: Bonds and Their Valuation Oct 28 Chapter 8: Risk and Rates of Return</p><p>Nov 2 Chapter 8: Risk and Rates of Return Nov 4 Chapter 8: Risk and Rates of Return</p><p>Nov 9 Chapter 9: Stocks and Their Valuation Nov 11 ---- CSUN Campus Closed/Veterans’ Day Holiday (NO CLASS)</p><p>Nov 16 Chapter 9: Stocks and Their Valuation Nov 18 Chapter 10: The Cost of Capital </p><p>Nov 23 Chapter 10: The Cost of Capital Nov 25 Chapter 11: The Basics of Capital Budgeting</p><p>Nov 30 Chapter 11: The Basics of Capital Budgeting Dec 2 Chapter 12: Cash Flow Estimation and Risk Analysis</p><p>Dec 7 Chapter 12: Cash Flow Estimation and Risk Analysis Dec 9 ---- Discussion / answer your questions about final exam</p><p>???? ---- FINAL EXAM: TBD per the CSUN final exam schedule</p>