Course Staff
Course Coordinator: Dr Syed Zamin Ali
Course Timetable
The full timetable of all activities for this course can be accessed from Course Planner.
Learning Outcomes
Course Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate understanding of the Modern Portfolio Theory and the Mean-Variance Framework.
2. Create an Investment Portfolio and test its ability to achieve Investment Objectives
3. Analyse Core Asset classes (Equities and Fixed Income Securities) based on their characteristics and performance
over economic and business cycles.
4. Evaluate Non-Core Asset classes and Alternative Investments, and their relationship with Core Asset classes in a
portfolio setting.
5. Understand issues in portfolio construction, its management and its performance.
University Graduate Attributes
This course will provide students with an opportunity to develop the Graduate Attribute(s) specified below:
University Graduate Attribute
Course
Learning
Outcome(s)
Attribute 1: Deep discipline knowledge and intellectual breadth
Graduates have comprehensive knowledge and understanding of their subject area, the ability to
engage with different traditions of thought, and the ability to apply their knowledge in practice
including in multi-disciplinary or multi-professional contexts.
1-5
Attribute 2: Creative and critical thinking, and problem solving
Graduates are effective problems-solvers, able to apply critical, creative and evidence-based thinking
to conceive innovative responses to future challenges.
2-4
Attribute 3: Teamwork and communication skills
Graduates convey ideas and information effectively to a range of audiences for a variety of purposes
and contribute in a positive and collaborative manner to achieving common goals.
2-5
Attribute 4: Professionalism and leadership readiness
Graduates engage in professional behaviour and have the potential to be entrepreneurial and take
leadership roles in their chosen occupations or careers and communities.
2-5
Learning Resources
Required Resources
Required Textbook:
Two textbooks are required for this course. Both textbooks are available online from the library and University of
Adelaide students can access these through the Library. We will also use the Braeburn University case-study.
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Multi-Asset Investing : A Practical Guide to Modern Portfolio Management
by Yoram Lustig
Publisher: Harriman House
Date: 2012-12-13
Risk-Based Approaches to Asset Allocation: Concepts and Practical Applications
by Maria Debora Braga
Publisher: SpringerBriefs in Finance
Date: 2016
Braeburn University case from Running Money: Professional Portfolio Management
by Stewart, S. D., Prios, C. D., and J. C. Heisler, 1st Edition, published by Mc
Other Suggested Text:
TBA
Recommended Resources
Students are encouraged to stay abreast of global financial issues. The Australian Financial Review and finance
commentary on the Morningstar (US and Aus), ABC Australia, Bloomberg and CNBC networks are excellent sources of
current financial news and should be referred to on a regular basis. The internet is also abundantly populated with all
aspects of this course, and should be used as well.
Students have access to the Eikon database that provides a database on capital markets.
Online Learning
This course will utilize the online learning environment in a variety of ways.
All lectures and tutorial recordings will be made available at the begining of the week. Students can clarify any issues
during the tutroials as well as by posting their questions on the Discussion Board. Discussion Board will be the primary
source of online interface between students and the academic staff. All questions will be answered within 2 working
days. We had tremendous success in using the Discussion Board last semester and students felt that it helped them in
their assignments, test and examination preparation.
Fortnightly online tutorial quizzes (starting in week 4) will help students check their undersatnding of the course
material.
Please feel free to use emails for personal issues and they will be answered in 2 working days. You will be asked to
post course related questions on the discussion board and everyone is encouraged to join the discussion. These
discussions are extremely useful and will help everyone in the course. For any urgent matter, please contact the
lecturer-in-charge ([email protected]).
Lecture material such as presentation, articles, tutorial questions and lecture/tutorial recording will be available on
MyUni.
Learning & Teaching Activities
Learning & Teaching Modes
This course is an applied course where students will use theoretical concepts of the Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT)
and apply it in a real world context. The theoretical foundations of MPT will be revisited in more depth and will allow
students to extend the framework to construct portfolios. Students will be able to understand issues in portfolio
construction, implementation and management for an investor. This will be done through lectures, tutorials, quizzes,
tests, a group assignment, and a final examination.
Workload
The information below is provided as a guide to assist students in engaging appropriately with the course requirements.
The University expects full-time students (i.e. those taking 12 units per semester) to devote a total of 48 hours per week
to their studies. This means that you are expected to commit approximately 9 hours for a three-unit course of private
study outside of your regular classes.
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Students in this course are expec
ted to attend all lectures throughout the semester plus one tutorial class each week. If
a student is unable to attend a lecture, it is the student’s responsibility to watch the lecture recording prior to attending
the tutorial. The student must allocate atleast 2 hours for this activity on a weekly basis.
Learning Activities Summary
Week 1: The Return Objective (Lustig – Chapter 1) and Benchmarks (Lustig – Chapter 2). Braeburn University Case
study (Stewart et al –
pages 43 to 50)
Week 2: The Risk Objectives (Lustig – Chapter 3) and Rational and Irrational Markets (Lustig – Chapter 4). Braeburn
University Case study (Stewart et al – pages 43 to 50)
Week 3: Relationship between Risk and Return. (Lustig – Chapter 5) and Investment Constraints (Lustig – Chapter 6)
Week 4: Strategic Asset Allocation (Lustig – Chapter 7), Historical Performance of Asset Classes (Lustig – Chapter 8)
and Combining Asset Classes (Lustig – Chapter 9)
Week 5: The Traditional Approach to Asset Allocation (Braga – Chapter 2) + Modern Portfolio Theory (TBA)
Week 6: Diversification (Lustig – Chapter 10) and Capital Market Assumptions (Lustig – Chapter 11)
Week 7: Optimization (Lustig – Chapter 12) and Risk Parity Portfolios (Braga – Chapter 3 and 4)
Week 8: The Investment Manasgement Process (Lustig – Chapter 22) and Portfolio Construction (Lustig – Chapter 23)
Week 9: Risk Budgeting and Risk Management (Lustig – Chapter 27 and 28)
Week 10: Alternative Investments (TBA)
Week 11: Portfolio Review and Performance Attribution (Lustig – Chapter 30 and 31)
Week 12: Review of Course
Specific Course Requirements
This course draws upon previous knowledge from Business Finance I and Business Valuation II. Students must have
passed both courses to be sucessful in this course. Additionally, students may need to review both courses if they have
scored only a “Pass” in either of these two courses.
This course is a single pass course. Successful completion of this course will require students to keep up to date with
the assigned material. This means that students should have had browsed the assigned chapter and the power point
presentation for that topic (Details of each topic is avilable in MyUni) prior to the lecture. Students should review the
lecture recordings and get better understanding by reading the assigned chapter after the lecture to prepare for the
tutorial. It is expected that students would have prepared the tutorial questions prior to attending their assigned tuitorial
class. This will allow students to have a deeper understanding of the topic and have a healthy discussion in the tutorial
class. Tutorial recording will be provided at the end of the tutorial week.
This course relies heavily on Excel usage. Lectures, tutorials, quizzes, tests and assignmnets will have Excel
components and stduyents are encouraged to take Excel classes (provided by the university).
This course includes a group assignment. Group assignments can be completed in groups of upto 3 students, and no
groups can have more than 3 students. Group assignments allow students to create a solution to an assigned problem
and test their solution using quantitative and qualitative methodologies. It is expected that each member of a group will
be able to leverage of their own particular expertise as well as that of the other members in the group. Groups will be
created by the students themselves. Issues related to the assignment can be discussed on the Discussion Board.
Assessment
The University’s policy on Assessment for Coursework Programs is based on the following four principles:
1. Assessment must encourage and reinforce learning.
2. Assessment must enable robust and fair judgements about student performance.
3. Assessment practices must be fair and equitable to students and give them the opportunity to demonstrate what
they have learned.
4. Assessment must maintain academic standards.
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Assessment Summary
Due to the current COVID-19 situation modified arrangements have been made to assessments to facilitate
remote learning and teaching. Assessment details provided here reflect recent updates.
Assessment Task Task Type Due Weighting Learning
Outcome
2 x Test Individual Week 5 and
week 10
15% each =
30%
1, 2, 5
5 x Quizzes Individual Weeks 4, 6, 8,
10, and 12
2% each =
10%
1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Assignment Group Week 11 30% 2, 3, 5
Final Exam Individual Exam Period 30% 2, 3, 4, 5
TOTAL 100%
Assessment Related Requirements
The approach in this course is to first establish the theoretical foundations and then to build upon these to understand
portfolio
construction, implementation and management for an institutional investor. This will be done through lectures, tutorials,
quizzes, tests,
a group assignment, and a final examination.
Due dates for Quizzes, Tests, Assignments and Final/Replacement examination are available from the Assessments
section of the course in MyUni. Late submissions of tests and quizzes is not allowed in this course. Late assignments
will incur a 2 mark penalty per working day (Saturdays, Sundays and Public holidays will not be counted as working
days).
Assessments from previous semester(s) cannot be redeemed.There are no specific assessment hurdles or double
pass requirements in this course
Assessment Detail
The assessment components are as follows:
· (15%) Test 1: 1 hour test (as per schedule).
· (15%) Test 2: 1 hour test (as per schedule).
· (10%) 5 x Tutorial Quizzes (as per schedule).
– (30%) Group Assignment (as per schedule).
· (30%) Final/Replacement Exam: 2 hours exam as per examination schedule.
Submission
Further details will be provided on MyUni.