Financial Modeling

General Remarks

The goal of this course is that students are able to solve practical financial problems with Excel, using spreadsheet functions as well as VBA programming. Students will also have an increased familiarity with methods and concepts from finance.

More information is available on Moodle.

Requirements

Familiarity with basic concepts from financial economics (discounting, risk and return, option pricing) is important. The course is structured such that bachelor students can acquire such knowledge by parallel attendance of the lecture Finanzierung.  For master students, the courses Asset Pricing and Derivatives would together also provide the necessary background.

You will need access to a computer/laptop with Microsoft Excel for this course. As a student, you can get Excel for a small fee of 4.39€  see this link (in German only; we are happy to help if needed).

If you are an Excel novice watch one of our introduction videos for Excel in English or German  (will be available via Moodle). Most students in the course will have some basic Excel literacy. If you struggle with the preparation tasks that we wil ask you to solve, it is likely that you benefit from investing some more time into getting more familiar with Excel. 

Characterizing the course

Before a session takes place:

  • Do the homework (included in the problem set) from the last session.
  • Solve the preparation sheet (included in the problem set) to get familiar with the main Excel skills that are required in the upcoming session.

A typical session will look like this:

  • A student shows how to solve the preparation task (we will randomly pick a student from the audience)
  • The instructor introduces the problem
  • Students solve the problem on the PC with Excel; instructor is available to answer questions
  • Results are presented and discussed as the session moves on or at the end.

A restricted number of laptops is available in the classroom. If possible, you should bring your own laptop.

Language of instruction is English; individual questions can be discussed in German. 

News

Please see "General remarks" to the left.

Instructors

Prof. Dr. Gunter Löffler

Christof Ganzhorn

Dates and Room

see Moodle

Exam

The exam is of open form.