Program Curriculum

This course explores several fundamental issues related to the macro economy in the context of the globalized world. In each of the seven classes, the necessary theoretical framework for analysis will first be developed. The theory will then be applied to some major real-world phenomena. It is expected that students will better understand the intricacies of the global economy and be able to make difficult business decisions after taking this course.

This course focuses on the role of central banks, in particular the Federal Reserve in the United States, and how its monetary policy operations affect the financial markets. Through conducting data analysis, students will learn the interaction between monetary policy and private-sector banking system, the fixed income security and stock markets. The course also covers the policy impact on the pricing and liquidity in those financial markets. Upon completing the course, students will be able to understand the news about the monetary policy around the world and interpret them using data.

Valuation of cash flow streams (PV of cash flow streams, annuities, and perpetuities); valuation of bonds; valuation of stocks using dividend discount model; capital budgeting decisions (NPV, IRR, payback); capital structure; limits to the use of debt (trade-off models); estimation of cost of debt and equity; WACC; terminal value.

Valuation of projects (advanced capital budgeting); estimating cost of capital; risk assessment of projects; decision tree analysis; real option valuation of projects; warrants and convertibles; leasing; dividend policy.

Practical and theoretical issues in risk management from the corporate end-user's perspective; benefits and optimal strategies of risk management; current cases which have been debated in the media.

This course is tailored for individuals who are currently working in or are contemplating to work in a family business, either as a family member or a non-family executive. The material covered also gives greater understanding of the dynamics of family business for current or future private and investment bankers, family office professionals, accountants, lawyers and other service professionals working closely with families of wealth in the region.

The course covers the complete investment process including constructing investment objectives, outlining investment policies, choosing asset allocations, monitoring investments, and measuring performance. Practical issues relating to investment style, active management, and passive management are discussed. Advanced techniques in portfolio construction such as the Black-Litterman model and multi-factor models are covered.

This course puts together a collection of industry cases, projects and academic papers on Sustainable Investing, also known as ESG investing, which is an investment approach that integrates three additional factors — environment (E), social (S) and governance (G), into security analysis and portfolio allocation. Students learn that financial analysis with ESG integration provides the basis for more informed investment decisions.

The course is based on the open-source Python language that provides a wide variety of statistical and graphical techniques, and is well-suited for data manipulation, calculation, and graphical display. The remainder of the course covers a general introduction to Python, and then illustrates the use of specific tools such as matrix manipulation, optimization, random numbers and simulation, etc. with financial applications.

This is an introductory course to Financial Technology (FinTech) which includes Insurance Technology (InsurTech) and Regulation Technology (RegTech). The student will have an overall understanding of the underlying information technology being applied in various innovative business models to disrupt the finance and banking landscape globally. The critical business, social/ethical, legal and technology issues and the related risks faced by corporate executives when analyzing, designing, launching and managing FinTech projects to drive business innovations will be discussed in class. Live demos will be conducted to illustrate the proof-of-concept and their applications in real-world scenarios. Key industry developments and the impact on stakeholders will be examined.

This course covers the fundamental concept, design, and implementation of distributed ledgers and blockchains. The characteristics and properties, as well as misconceptions, of blockchains are discussed. In-depth study is conducted of Ethereum, Hyperledger, R3 Corda, Ripple, Quorum, and Stella, and their respective business and finance applications. Live demos and hands-on sessions are conducted to illustrate how DLT/Blockchain and smart contracts can disrupt the financial landscape and support innovative FinTech solutions.

Basic valuation approaches including dividend discount model, free cash flows model, and valuation by multiples; measures of company performance and value added; valuation in special situations such as emerging markets, closely held companies, mergers, and divestitures.

Topics include: (1) An overview of the venture capital and private equity markets in Asia; (2) Deal structuring; (3) Valuation techniques; (4) Due diligence and post-investment management; (5) Understanding the terms in term sheets; (6) Negotiating term sheets; (7) Going public, trade sale and other exit strategies. Real-world examples from throughout Asia will be used to illustrate these topics.

The course is designed to provide students with an overview of how supply equals demand in real-world financial markets. After taking this course, students would be able to appreciate the frictions existing in actual financial markets - bid-ask spreads, trade impact on price, brokerage commissions, quantity limitations, time delays, market manipulation, etc. - and be able to devise trading strategies that minimize these frictions.

Brief overview of financial intermediaries and their functions. Measures of interest rate risk: periodic (re-pricing) gap, duration gap. Management of interest rate risk using appropriate composition of assets and liabilities, futures, options, caps, floors, collars, swaps. Market risk: value at risk measures. Management of credit risk, off-balance sheet risk, liquidity risk, capital adequacy. Deposit insurance. With selected case studies.

Alternative investments are the fastest growing sector of the financial industry, and probably the least understood, including by several market professionals. Although the range of sophistication in people associated with alternative investments varies substantially, it is more and more common to use them in investment strategies, either as direct investments or through funds of funds or structured products. The purpose of this course is to give participants a good understanding and workable knowledge of the techniques that should be part of the tool kit of anyone investing in, analyzing and/or advising private and institutional clients on the inclusion of alternative investments - and more specifically hedge funds - in their portfolios. Furthermore, this course will enable the participants to absorb the analytical arguments in the technical publications - the in-house research notes of financial institutions and in practitioner-oriented journal - that deal with alternative investments and to apply them.

Focuses on the design, analysis, and implementation of financial strategies aimed at repositioning and revitalizing companies. Corporate value creation by restructuring a company or by undergoing a business combination.

The purpose of this course is to give participants a good understanding and workable knowledge of the techniques that should be part of the toolkit of anyone investing in, trading, hedging, analyzing and/or advising private and institutional clients on these three alternative asset classes. Furthermore, this course will enable the participants to absorb the analytical arguments in the technical publications – the in-house research notes of financial institutions and in practitioner oriented journals – that deal with commodities and their markets, and to apply them.

This course is a follow-up of the Venture Capital and Private Equity (VCPE) course, with a particular focus on early-stage venture companies. Students are able to experience and practice all of the content learned, particularly that related to VC endeavors in real-world VC settings. Students can “invest” alongside VC practitioners as well as be guided by investing, accounting, and legal professionals on various topics such as screening prospective investee companies in a live pitch session and drafting and compiling due diligence lists, term sheets, the required closing documentations, and valuation assessments with respective professionals, in addition to presenting early-read memos to industry professionals for deal approvals, among other topics.

Venture capital (VC), a type of private equity (PE) that provides financing to early-stage and emerging firms which are deemed to be too risky for traditional financing, is the financial engine that drives innovation worldwide. However, it is rather mysterious to many people in the field of finance, even to some experienced entrepreneurs and people in general finance, with regard to the internal dynamics of the VC industry. This course will lift that mysterious veil away and reveal its true color. The class will cover how the venture capital industry works, all the parties involved, and the dynamics therein. More specifically, the students will learn how VCs raise money, now they construct a fund portfolio, how they make investment decisions, how VC returns are calculated, and importantly what you need know and do to land a job in this mysterious sector of high finance. I will use real world examples from my personal experiences in some of the largest and most respected and successful VC firms in the world (Khosla Ventures, Softbank, Formation 8, etc) to drive home these points.

Headline financial data are informative but not fully revealing, concealing hidden gems and traps. This course applies a wise-investor perspective to looking behind the scenes of financial statements. Building from the ground up, students learn how to spot abnormalities, develop pro-forma financials, build solid valuation models, and gain the knowledge and skills to pitch sound investment strategies. These foundations are supplemented by several real-world study cases illustrating accounting issues such as revenue recognition, valuation, and failed unicorns.

This course aims to provide students a holistic introduction to the alternative investment ecosystem, covering sectors such as private equity, real estate, infrastructure, credit, hedge funds, secondaries, and others.

The world needs to reach net zero emission by 2050 to keep global warming within 1.5 °C by the end of this century. Financial sector plays an important role in this net zero transition. This course equips the students with the basic knowledge and practical tools of net zero strategy for financial institutions. It elaborates the concepts on climate change, the measurement tool of greenhouse emissions, the low-carbon roadmap for financial institutions and the development of sustainable finance products related to climate change.

This course focuses on how real estate financing is undertaken and the key considerations for the borrower and the lender. It focuses on the key steps in a transaction life-cycle and requires participants to prepare basic cash-flow models, approval memos, and negotiate term-sheets. The course also includes additional case studies on hedging and considerations of cross-border real estate financings.

With an introduction to the principles of wealth management and the financial planning process, this course progresses to cover various wealth management topics including consumption planning, investment planning and retirement planning. In particular, this course emphasizes on the provision of investment advisory services. It discusses client expectations and concerns including risk and other cognitive issues before applying the concepts and techniques to construct and manage investment portfolios for individual clients.

This course is highly relevant to students interested to become macro-traders, portfolio managers, buy/sell-side analysts or work at a hedge fund, with a particular focus on Asia. The course will teach students the characteristics of the larger, liquid stock markets across Asia, from China and Hong Kong to Korea, Taiwan, India and ASEAN markets. Students will learn what drives these markets, what they have in common and how they behave.

This course will provide students with a comprehensive and most up-to-date understanding of family office, as well as insiders’ view and practical aspects of family offices, especially Asian family offices. The course will address questions based on the extensive research and the latest case studies on family offices in Asia and around the world by the instructor.

The aim of this course is to develop a deep understanding why the economic doctrine that the only social responsibility of corporations is to maximize profits does no longer work in today’s capital markets. The course provides theoretical and empirical findings that illustrate that financial decisions need to incorporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors to ensure long-term financial success of firms. The course also covers new trends, such as U.S. political polarization and the important role of China in establishing a global leadership role in green finance, which may impact how corporations are becoming more responsible.

This course will cover sustainable and green finance with a focus in Hong Kong and China. Various green finance instruments, how green elements are factored in credit ratings and assessments, and the major external green review approaches are covered. This course will empower the students with the most updated knowledge, market trends and direct first-hand cases (rather than the public domain) in the green finance and capital market fields.

This course offers an advantage by empowering students with hands-on experience using some of the industry-leading financial tools. There are various certificates (e.g., Bloomberg Market Concepts, London Stock Exchange Group Finance Essentials) that students can earn during the course. Graded P or F.

manufactured and distributed by investment banks given the increasing demand from institutional and individual investors. In order to support and grow the structured product business, a variety of functions or roles are developed in the financial industry, including traders, quants, structurers, and sales, etc. at investment banks or relationship managers and product specialists at private banks. As a result, all the financial practitioners are assumed to have basic and practical knowledge about structured products.

This course is designed for students who are pursuing front-office careers at investment banks, private banks, or asset management companies. It covers basic concepts of structured products, introduces popular products in the market (e.g., principal protected notes and equity-linked notes), and discusses the landscape of product manufacturing and distribution process. It focuses on applications rather than theory by illustrating real-world examples as well as their practical implementations in the industry.

The students are only required to have prior knowledge of investment analysis before taking this course.

This course offers and in-depth exploration into the realm of global capital markets in practice. Together we will delve into the inner workings of financial markets, including primary and secondary markets, trading floors and market dynamics. Students will apply analytical skills to learn to identify opportunities across capital markets including synthesizing information, identifying capital uses and interpreting market sentiment and behaviour.

This course is designed to bridge the gap between academic knowledge and practical application. The focus is on equipping students with the insights needed to excel in the complex world of capital markets providing a foundation for exploring more advanced subjects.

This course examines how climate and transition finance can help avert climate change and accelerate the shift to clean energy. It focuses on financial instruments, market mechanisms, and policy frameworks that support decarbonization, carbon pricing, and emissions reduction. Key topics include carbon markets, renewable and climate tech investments, nature-based solutions, and corporate finance for the energy transition.

This is a course about financial modeling. The goal is to make financial models that provide useful answers to questions concerning the economy. Selected topics that lend themselves to financial modeling are covered, such as (but not limited to) loan amortization schedules, valuation and private equity, equity derivatives, mutual fund performance and style analysis, fixed income derivatives, and optimal portfolio selection.

This course introduces students to the concepts of big data and machine learning with a special focus on how these tools can be applied in a financial context. During the course students will learn Python and how it can be used to build and estimate some of the most commonly used machine learning models such as regression, clustering and classification. Students will also learn the basics of cloud computing and how the cloud can be employed to quickly estimate complex models with very large data sets.

Climate risk is a pricing problem. Every share, bond and portfolio is exposed to floods, storms, heat and drought, and to the policy and technology shifts of the low-carbon transition. These risks change expected cash flows, default probabilities and discount rates. For investors the question is no longer whether climate risk matters, but whether markets price it correctly. The evidence suggests they often do not: slow-moving hazards such as sea-level rise are underpriced, ratings disagree, and repricing tends to happen suddenly after a disaster or a policy shock.

This course covers the digital transformation of global banking and the emergence of the Fintech innovation. Students will learn to evaluate disruptive innovations in financial services and the integration of Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence as foundation technologies.

If you are interested in today’s fast-evolving ecosystem of digital assets and currencies (DACs), you are in the right place. This graduate-level course explores how blockchain, digital assets, and virtual currencies are transforming financial systems, markets, and the global economy. You will examine how these innovations are reshaping payments, securities markets, monetary policy, and international competition—drawing on policy, business, and strategy perspectives to critically assess the future of digital finance.

Forget about dry theory. We start with the essentials: what money is, why cross-border payments remain challenging, and how global currencies shape the international system. From there, we dive into the technologies powering change—blockchain and tokenisation—and the major categories of DACs, including stablecoins, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), cryptocurrencies and tokenised securities. In the final part of the course, we tackle the big debates: how to balance privacy and compliance in regulation, what current market trends signal, what the role of global DAC hubs is, and which skills and competencies professionals need to succeed in this industry.

Throughout, we will use real-world cases and live debates drawn from today’s headlines. Whether you are approaching digital assets from an academic perspective or exploring a career in the sector, this course will give you the tools to go beyond simply understanding the Bloomberg headlines and interpret a rapidly changing landscape. A foundation in finance, banking, and economics is helpful—but the most important requirement is curiosity and a willingness to deep dive into the future of money.

The curriculum tightly integrates theory with local practice, covering five core pillars: 

1. Investment Analysis & Valuation;
2. Portfolio Asset Management & Strategy;
3. Modeling: consideration of stamp duty & financial leverage;
4. Transaction Origination, Structuring & Execution; and 
5. Disposal Strategies.

(To be available)

This course bridges the gap between traditional derivative theory and modern artificial intelligence techniques. We explore the application of supervised and unsupervised machine learning methods to derivative pricing, hedging and structuring. Topics blend theoretical foundations with practitioner insights from volatility trading and alternative asset management.

Technology has always been central to the development of finance: from the introduction of electronic payment systems to today’s blockchain-based digital currencies and AI-powered investment platforms. This course examines frontier developments in financial technology that are reshaping the global financial system, including artificial intelligence, blockchain and tokenization, central bank digital currencies, decentralized finance (DeFi), and quantum computing. Major financial institutions and central banks around the world are actively exploring these technologies. Understanding these major fintech trends is essential for finance professionals to “future-proof” their career.

This course adopts the perspective of mainstream financial institutions. We will begin with a study of major fintech trends driven by both regulators and market participants. We then explore how technologies like AI and blockchain are being integrated into traditional finance. We survey related topics including real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, stablecoins, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), emerging regulation, and how quantum computers may impact the future financial system. We analyze strategic responses from incumbents, evaluate regulatory approaches across major jurisdictions, and assess the practical challenges of implementing new technologies within existing financial infrastructure.

This is a fast-paced course covering rapidly evolving subject matter. While prior knowledge of fintech is not required, students will benefit from prior or concurrent enrollment in FINA 5280 (Smart Applications of Distributed Ledger Technology).

This course provides students with a practitioner’s view of how investment banks originate, structure and execute transactions in equity and debt capital markets, leveraged buyouts and mergers and acquisitions. Students will gain an in-depth understanding of the role and function of investment banks.  The course focuses on the advisory and execution roles of investment bankers, covering topics such as valuation, IPOs, follow on equity offerings, convertible bonds, leveraged finance, deal structuring, acquisitions and advisory opinions.  Through real world simulations, financial modeling and guest lectures, students will develop strategic, technical and regulatory insight necessary to understand investment banking transactions from pitch to close.

This course explores the evolution of portfolio management from traditional Strategic Asset Allocation (SAA) and the 60/40 portfolio to the modern Total Portfolio Approach (TPA). It delves into the history, construction, and weaknesses of SAA, particularly its limitations in a normalized higher interest rate environment. Students will also examine two major developments in finance: factor investing and its applications, as well as the interplay between factors in different market and economic cycles. Additionally, the course provides an in-depth analysis of the Black-Litterman Model (BLM), its construction, flaws, and how it was re-engineered and repurposed for portfolio management. The course also highlights the importance of global diversification in the context of TPA and introduces a cutting-edge fintech SaaS for portfolio construction.

This course provides students with a rigorous, hands-on foundation in how artificial intelligence and machine learning are applied across modern finance and investing. We begin with foundations and validation, learning how to clean noisy market data and realistically test trading strategies to avoid costly false discoveries. We then explore supervised learning to forecast stock returns, predict company credit defaults, and identify which financial metrics matter most. Next, we look at unsupervised learning and optimization to discover hidden connections between different assets and build efficient investment portfolios. Moving to deep learning, we study how multi-layered neural networks capture market volatility, identify underlying risk factors, and automatically hedge complex financial contracts. We then examine attention mechanisms and transformers, applying modern language models to corporate reports and earnings calls to extract market sentiment and forecast price trends. Finally, we conclude with generative AI and agentic systems, combining fact-checked information retrieval, automated analytical tools, and compliance guidelines to build safe, auditable AI research assistants for investment decision-making.

This course examines how investment bankers, corporate executives, boards of directors, private equity firms, and institutional investors evaluate, negotiate, finance, and execute complex corporate transactions. Adopting a practitioner-oriented and case-driven approach, the course focuses on the strategic, financial, governance, and execution challenges that arise in mergers & acquisitions (M&A), leveraged buyouts (LBOs), capital raising transactions, joint ventures, SPACs, activist situations, and other transformational corporate events.

Rather than treating transactions as purely financial exercises, the course emphasizes how real-world deal making occurs under conditions of uncertainty, incomplete information, changing market conditions, competitive pressure, and geopolitical risk. Students will analyze how strategic rationale, valuation, financing structure, governance considerations, negotiation dynamics and regulatory environments influence transaction outcomes.

The course makes use of contemporary and historical case studies drawn from global capital markets and strategic transactions, including cross-border acquisitions, contested deals, activist campaigns, private equity transactions, technology partnerships, and frontier-technology financings. Through financial modeling exercises, transaction analyses, negotiation simulations, and boardroom-style investment committee discussions, students will develop both technical analytical skills and the strategic judgment required to assess complex corporate situations.

(To be available)

In this course, students will gain a comprehensive understanding of how major international banks operate, including the key business opportunities and potential risks to manage.  Key commercial bank practices and major products will be discussed.  In particular, business opportunities derived from practical financial statement analysis and lending techniques to multinational corporations will be examined.  One key focus will be on the role of Hong Kong as a strategic financial hub within the Greater Bay Area (GBA), highlighting the opportunities this region presents for banks engaged with China-based enterprises.  After covering core principles of international banking, the course progresses to more advanced and practical topics, including Hong Kong international banks' competitive advantages and case studies of strategic decisions in the banking sector.  Guest speakers from major international banks as well as industry leaders will be invited to share their knowledge and experience.

Over the past several decades, the field of finance has developed a successful paradigm based on the notions that investors and managers were generally rational and the prices of securities were generally “efficient”. In recent years, however, anecdotal evidence as well as theoretical and empirical research has shown this paradigm to be insufficient to describe various features of actual financial markets. In this course we will use psychology and more realistic settings to guide and develop alternative theories of financial markets. We will examine how the insights of behavioral finance complement the traditional paradigm and shed light on investors' trading patterns, the behavior of asset prices, corporate finance, and various Wall Street institutions and practices. In particular, we will discuss how behavioral biases leads to stock return predictability and thus cross-sectional trading strategies.

This course provides an understanding of the insurance industry and the investment considerations and strategies that are critical to the investment function of insurance companies. Students will explore how insurance companies operate, manage risk, and allocate capital across diverse asset classes to meet long-term obligations. By examining the interplay between insurance products, regulatory frameworks, and investment decisions, participants will gain insights into the unique challenges and opportunities faced by insurers, with a particular focus on Hong Kong, the Asia insurance hub.

This course covers blockchain technology and digital asset topics including Web3 developments, evolving regulations landscapes, tokenization, decentralized finance ecosystem and cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and stablecoins.