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INTRODUCTION TO FINANCIAL MARKETS WINTER 2024

COMM 101

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Calendar Descriptionfor COMM 101

The course introduces students to the role of finance in the global economy and aims to develop students' understanding of the basic principles of financial decision-making.

Antireq: AFM 121, CFM 101, BUS 283W

LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this course students should be able to:


Solve fundamental time value of money problems faced by Canadian consumers and investors.

Explain how the various securities markets in Canada operate.


Describe and compare the basic investment alternatives available to a Canadian investor.

Analyse a company’s financial performance sufficiently to arrive at an investment opinion.

Analyse an individual security using both quantitative and qualitative factors to determine the suitability of that security for a particular investor.

Describe the strategies used by successful stock market investors to identify investment opportunities.

Identify fundamental strategies for exchange traded funds, mutual funds, and options, and their suitability for Canadian investors.

The objective of this course is to introduce students to the financial markets with a particular emphasis on providing sufficient material to allow students to trade on such markets either through a stock market simulation game, or

directly for their own account.

TENTATIVE COURSE SCHEDULE

The table below provides a general overview of the weekly content alongside the associated activities and assignments. Please see the Course Schedule in LEARN for complete details and due dates.

Week

Unit Content

Activities and Assignments

Week 1

Course Introduction

Introduce Yourself

Unit 1: Time Value of Money

Week 1 Quiz

Week 2

Unit 1: Time Value of Money (continued)

Week 2 Quiz

Week 3

Unit 2: Corporations and Capital

Week 3 Quiz

Week 4

Unit 3: Debt Markets

Week 4 Quiz

Week 5

Unit 4: The Stock Market

Week 5 Quiz

Week 6

Unit 4: The Stock Market (continued)

Week 6 Quiz

Week 7

Unit 5: Financial Statement Analysis

Week 7 Quiz

Week 8

Unit 5: Financial Statement Analysis (continued)

Week 8 Quiz

Week

Unit Content

Activities and Assignments

Week 9

Unit 6: Stock Picking Theories

Stock Picking Assignment

Week 10

Week 11

Unit 7: Mutual Funds and Exchange Traded Funds

Week 11 Quiz

Week 12

Unit 8: Options

Week 12 Quiz

FINAL EXAMINATION

The Final Examination will be scheduled by the Registrar's Office, and the details will be provided in the published Final examination schedule(https://uwaterloo.ca/registrar/final-examinations/exam-schedule)when available.

TEXTS / MATERIALS

Title / Name

Notes / Comments

Required

Students will require a financial

calculator or Microsoft Excel for

calculations on some concept checks and quizzes.

Activate your Office 365 account to access a free version of Excel.

Yes

STUDENT ASSESSMENT

Component

Value

Introduce Yourself

Ungraded

bius Quizzes (10 x 2% each)

20%

Stock Picking Assignment

20%

Final Examination

60%

ASSIGNMENT SCREENING

No assignment screening software will be used in this course.

LATE ASSIGNMENTS AND QUIZZES

Your assignments and quizzes must be uploaded by the date and time listed in the Course Schedule in LEARN.     These days and times are those of the Eastern Time Zone. We cannot accept late submissions except in the case of a verifiable illness.

AVOIDING ACADEMIC OFFENCES

The assignment and quizzes are individual exercises. They must not be completed in pairs or groups.

Other resources maybe used to supplement the material in lessons, but looking up solutions to assignment and quiz questions is prohibited.

MATH FACULTY CALCULATOR REGULATION

For the final exam, only calculators approved by the Faculty of Mathematics will be permitted. Please refer to the

Calculator Regulation(https://uwaterloo.ca/math/current-undergraduates/regulations-and-procedures/calculator- regulation)to see a list of approved calculators.

If you are unable to acquire one of these calculators, you must contact your instructor in the first week or two of the course so an equivalent alternative can be identified and added to the exam proctors' list of permitted aids.

UNIVERSITY POLICY

Academic integrity: In order to maintain a culture of academic integrity, members of the University of Waterloo

community are expected to promote honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility. [Check the Office of Academic Integrity (https://uwaterloo.ca/academic-integrity/)for more information.]

Grievance: A student who believes that a decision affecting some aspect of their university life has been unfair or

unreasonable may have grounds for initiating a grievance. Read Policy 70, Student Petitions and Grievances, Section 4 (https://uwaterloo.ca/secretariat/policies-procedures-guidelines/policy-70) . When in doubt, please be certain to

contact the department’s administrative assistant who will provide further assistance.

Discipline: A student is expected to know what constitutes academic integrity to avoid committing an academic offence, and to take responsibility for their actions. [Check the Office of Academic Integrity

(https://uwaterloo.ca/academic-integrity/)for more information.] A student who is unsure whether an action

constitutes an offence, or who needs help in learning how to avoid offences (e.g., plagiarism, cheating) or about “rules” for group work/collaboration should seek guidance from the course instructor, academic advisor, or the undergraduate associate dean. For information on categories of offences and types of penalties, students should refer to Policy 71,

Student Discipline(https://uwaterloo.ca/secretariat/policies-procedures-guidelines/policy-71) . For typical penalties,  check Guidelines for the Assessment of Penalties(https://uwaterloo.ca/secretariat/guidelines/guidelines-assessment- penalties) .

Appeals: A decision made or penalty imposed under Policy 70, Student Petitions and Grievances

(https://uwaterloo.ca/secretariat/policies-procedures-guidelines/policy-70)(other than a petition) or Policy 71,

Student Discipline(https://uwaterloo.ca/secretariat/policies-procedures-guidelines/policy-71)maybe appealed if     there is a ground. A student who believes they have a ground for an appeal should refer to Policy 72, Student Appeals (https://uwaterloo.ca/secretariat/policies-procedures-guidelines/policy-72) .

Note for students with disabilities: AccessAbility Services(https://uwaterloo.ca/accessability-services/), located in Needles Hall, Room 1401, collaborates with all academic departments to arrange appropriate accommodations for students with disabilities without compromising the academic integrity of the curriculum. If you require academic accommodations to lessen the impact of your disability, please register with AccessAbility Services at the beginning of each academic term.

Turnitin.com: Text matching software (Turnitin®) maybe used to screen assignments in this course. Turnitin® is used to verify that all materials and sources in assignments are documented. Students' submissions are stored on a U.S. server, therefore students must be given an alternative (e.g., scaffolded assignment or annotated bibliography), if they are concerned about their privacy and/or security. Students will be given due notice, in the first week of the term and/or at the time assignment details are provided, about arrangements and alternatives for the use of Turnitin in this course.

It is the responsibility of the student to notify the instructor if they, in the first week of term or at the time assignment details are provided, wish to submit alternate assignment.