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Finance & Accounting
Record transactions, prepare and read financial statements, value money over time, and make investment and financing decisions. 5 of 9 courses are open; the rest are planned and listed with what they will cover.
Record transactions, prepare and read financial statements, value money over time, and make investment and financing decisions. Courses are listed in the order to take them, from introductory to advanced; each lists what it requires. Courses marked Planned are not written yet, but their syllabus is here and some link to plates and tools that already cover part of the ground.
Suggested order
If you are starting out, take the courses in this order: each comes after everything it requires, and the general before the specialised. Step 1, F00, is open now and starts from scratch.
Introductory
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F00Complete
Foundations of Finance
What finance is and how it differs from accounting and economics, the principles behind every financial decision, the vocabulary professionals use, and how financial markets and their participants work.
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F01Complete
Introduction to Financial Accounting
How a business records what happens to it: the accounting equation, debits and credits, journals and ledgers, adjustments, and the full accounting cycle.
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F02Complete
Financial Statement Preparation
Build all four financial statements and see how every transaction flows through them.
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F04Complete
Mathematics of Finance
Interest, present and future value, annuities, loans and inflation, with every formula worked step by step.
Intermediate
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F03Complete
Financial Statement Analysis
Read a company through its statements: trends, common-size statements, ratios, DuPont analysis and distress scores.
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F05Planned
Corporate Finance
Which projects to fund, what capital costs, how to finance the business and what to pay shareholders.
What it will cover
- Capital budgeting
- Net present value
- Internal rate of return
- Payback period
- Profitability index
- Free cash flow
- Cost of capital
- WACC
- Cost of equity
- Cost of debt
- Debt versus equity financing
- Capital structure and Modigliani–Miller
- Dividends versus share buybacks
- Corporate governance and the agency problem
- Financial planning
- Cash flow forecasting
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F06Planned
Investment Analysis
Risk and return, diversification, CAPM, bonds and equity valuation.
What it will cover
- Common and preferred stock
- Bonds: coupon, maturity, yield to maturity, pricing
- Risk and return
- Expected returns
- Volatility and standard deviation
- Diversification and modern portfolio theory
- Correlation of assets
- Portfolio optimisation
- CAPM
- Beta
- Sharpe ratio
- Funds, ETFs and active versus passive investing
- Equity valuation: DCF with terminal value
- Relative valuation: P/E, EV/EBITDA, P/B and PEG
- Market capitalisation and enterprise value
- Fundamental analysis
Advanced
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F07Planned
Financial Modelling
Build and check three-statement models, forecasts, debt schedules and DCF valuations.
What it will cover
- Spreadsheet modelling principles: inputs, formulas, colour conventions
- Three-statement models
- Revenue forecasting
- Expense forecasting
- Working capital schedules
- Debt schedules
- Scenario modelling
- Sensitivity analysis
- DCF valuation models
- Reading an annual report (Form 10-K)
- The investment research process: top-down and bottom-up
- A framework for analysing a company
- Financial dashboards
- Model validation and error checking
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F08Planned
Advanced Financial Decision-Making
Risk management, derivatives and hedging, mergers, valuation and decisions under uncertainty.
What it will cover
- Risk management
- Derivatives fundamentals
- Options: calls, puts, payoffs and profits
- Futures and forwards
- Swaps
- Margin, leverage and short selling
- Hedging
- Mergers and acquisitions
- Business valuation
- Financial distress and bankruptcy
- Capital allocation
- Decision-making under uncertainty
Prerequisite map
The map as a list
- F00 Foundations of Finance: no required courses.
- F01 Introduction to Financial Accounting: no required courses; F00 recommended.
- F02 Financial Statement Preparation: requires F01.
- F04 Mathematics of Finance: no required courses; F00 recommended.
- F03 Financial Statement Analysis: requires F02; F04 recommended.
- F05 Corporate Finance: requires F04; F03 recommended.
- F06 Investment Analysis: requires F04; B04 recommended.
- F07 Financial Modelling: requires F02 and F05; B03 recommended.
- F08 Advanced Financial Decision-Making: requires F05 and F06.