BFIN - Finance (BFIN)

100% online, self-paced course focusing on the ABCs of personal money management, with emphasis on postgraduation credit and debt decisions. Topics include paychecks, credit cards, school loans, mortgages, stock investing, and income taxes. Short video clips with required light reading, including 10 online self-tests and one online final examination.

Student selection of securities and portfolio construction and management of $150,000 of the Seton Hall Endowment Fund in a faculty-student collaborative setting. Students apply equity valuation and portfolio management techniques to enhance practical knowledge in security valuation, portfolio management, and the dynamics of financial markets. May be continued for an additional one credit as BFIN 1005 in a subsequent semester. Prerequisite: Hall Street Fund participation. Recommended: Successful completion of BFIN 3211 and 4227. Offered: Fall, Spring. 1

The class will be given responsibility for a $100,000 investment account of real money. They will act as the financial advisor making all buy/sell decisions for the portfolio during the term. The class will present to the endowment management committee their goals and services for the account early in the term as well as submit a final performance report summary at the end of the term. Grade is based on individual, team, and portfolio performance. (no tests, no textbook)

Skill acquisition courses focused on a specific task that can be out-sourced to students. The skills are taught by the corporate partner and then are repetitively exercised to improve expertise. Purposeful work with deadlines and quality review by the corporate partner are chosen for a real-world experience. A faculty member provides direction and the final grade for the course; the corporate partner provides an assessment of the work. Registration is subject to department chair approval, and may include a workshop training session. Each apprenticeship is expected to run 10 weeks per semester and is expected to require a commitment of 40 hours.

Skill acquisition courses focused on a specific task that can be out-sourced to students. The skills are taught by the corporate partner and then are repetitively exercised to improve expertise. Purposeful work with deadlines and quality review by the corporate partner are chosen for a real-world experience. A faculty member provides direction and the final grade for the course; the corporate partner provides an assessment of the work. Registration is subject to department chair approval, and may include a workshop training session. Each apprenticeship is expected to run 10 weeks per semester and is expected to require a commitment of 40 hours.

The General Financial Planning Principles, Professional Conduct, and Regulation units introduce the concepts and profession of personal financial planning. The student will gain an understanding of the role and responsibilities of a financial planner, along with some analytical skills to aid in financial decision-making. The Risk Management, Insurance, and Employee Benefits units consider risk management principles and the various types of insurance coverage in the marketplace today, focusing on the role of planning for insurance needs. Insurance topics include life, medical expense, and property/casualty policies, as well as long-term care and disability.

A two-part course, the first section (FP 513 or SIE) has 9-modules, focused on securities markets & money market instruments, debt, equity & managed assets, bond & stock valuation concepts, alternative investments & derivatives, types of investment risk & quantitative investment concepts, measures of investment returns, portfolio management theory, and finally a case study tying it all together. The second section (FP 514 or VITA) covers in its 9-modules, income tax preparation, including credits, deductions, exemptions, exclusions, and tax rates within a progressive tax system, with coverage of alternative approaches.

Retirement Planning includes retirement plan design, selection, and administration for employers. Helping an employer select, install, and administer the appropriate retirement plan is a critical component of retirement preparedness both for the employing organization and its employees. Estate planning introduces you to the process of transferring assets and managing end-of-life decisions for clients and the role estate planning takes in the financial planning process.

This course is the culmination of the wealth management program and as such it covers all aspects of financial planning. This is the fourth of the four courses to cover all education requirements necessary to be eligible to sit for the Certified Financial Planning (CFP®) exam.

Introduction to the major finance principles: financial goals, financial instruments, time value of money, risk and return, asset pricing, and capital budgeting. Most sections are hybrid and meet in a classroom only on specific days to do review work with a professor with the pre-recorded lectures viewable online. Declared Finance students must earn at least a “C” to advance to any BFIN course above 3000. (Note: BFIN 4233, BFIN 4239, BFIN 4260, and BFIN 4265 require only BFIN 2201).

Extension of basic financial principles with emphasis on corporate finance. Advanced topics include capital budgeting, capital structure and cost of capital estimation, and long-term financial policy.

Coverage of the fundamental principles underlying investment decisions, including security market structure, asset pricing, portfolio theory, valuation of stocks and bonds, portfolio performance evaluation and an introduction to derivatives.

This course introduces students to the expanding world of alternative investments and how the private markets and nontraditional asset classes are reshaping global capital markets. We’ll go beyond Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT) to examine how major asset owners – pension plans, endowments, foundations, and sovereign wealth funds – construct and manage portfolios in practice. This course connects investment theory with practical realities, including liquidity management, risk budgeting policy, constraints, and long-term asset-liability alignment. Finally, you’ll explore how these investments finance entrepreneurship, infrastructure, and innovation, while offering diversification benefits and distinct risk-return profiles, presenting unique risks due to limited liquidity, opacity, and complexity. Once reserved for institutions and the ultra-wealthy, alternatives are now accessible to informed individuals. Through a mix of lectures, practitioner reports, discussions, guest speakers, and case studies, you’ll learn to think critically about how and why professional investors use alternative strategies to achieve long-term objections. You’ll learn to think like allocators, not just investors.

Analysis of the structure and behavior of U.S. financial institutions, including products, regulation, and the management of assets and liabilities. Prerequisite: BFIN 2201. Offered: Irregularly.

Introduction to financial decision making from the perspective of efficient portfolio construction, including measurement and estimation of return, risk and portfolio performance. Offered: Spring.

Analysis of exchange rate behavior and the other factors important to managing the multi-country cash flows and financing of the multinational enterprise. Foreign direct investment and capital budgeting decisions of the firm in the global environment. Financial operations in foreign exchange and multinational markets.

Examination of topics involving options, futures and swaps, including trading strategies, pricing fundamentals and models, risk management and other applications.

This course provides an introduction to data science in finance using the Python programming language. It focuses on applying modern analytical techniques to build intuition and derive insights from widely used financial data. Students will engage in hands-on exploration of empirical questions relevant to the finance industry, covering areas such as corporate finance, asset management, security valuation, fintech, and more.

Examination of residential and commercial real estate, including property valuation, mortgages, and financing arrangements.

Examination of the financial aspects of corporate mergers and acquisitions, including growth through acquisition, valuation issues, and tax and legal implications.

Analysis of the impact of financial news and events on the prices of securities, including technical analysis, fundamental analysis, and trading strategies. Prerequisite: BFIN 2201. Prerequisite/Co-requisite: BFIN 4227. Offered: Fall.

Those who work in finance must have an understanding of the IT that enables their work and the security implications of its use. This course will provide an understanding of cybersecurity in the finance industry. Students will learn about cyber threats, risks, and vulnerabilities in the financial sector. They will take away practical skills and knowledge to help them safeguard the sensitive information with which they will be entrusted in their professional lives.

Analysis and valuation of fixed-income securities and markets, including pricing, yields, volatility and the impact of interest rate movements. The course covers traditional bonds and term structure concepts as well as fixed-income derivatives and interest rate modeling.

Understanding and interpreting public company financial statements. Examination of the balance sheet, income statement, and statement of cash flows to analyze the effects of routine and repetitive business transactions. Criteria for revenue and liability recognition. Impact of off-balance sheet financing, accounting for pension, income taxes and other business activities are also examined. Use of a sequential strategy that includes identifying key economic characteristics of the firm’s industry, key company strategies, assessing the quality of earnings, and analyzing risk and profitability.

A practical perspective on the major finance models using Microsoft Excel, with a focus on the development and use of spreadsheet-based financial models, implementation of a concise and sound methodology, and utilization of financial theory over a wide range of applications used in corporate finance and capital markets. Examples of implemented theories and models include: financial statement models, portfolio selection and risk assessment, DCF valuation, bond pricing and duration, option pricing and applications, portfolio insurance and Value-at-Risk.

Introduction to information technology concepts, techniques, and responsibilities that the finance business must address, with coverage of four disruptive technologies: elastic cloud computing, big data, augmented intelligence, internet -ofthings. The business models for commercial and investment banking, insurance and risk management, and market exchanges will provide the context for use of change methodologies. Topics include governance, financial services regulations, continuity of business, data privacy, and ethical decision making.

Coverage of the foundations of corporate risk management. Topics include risk management concepts and the practice of managing credit risk, market risk (including commodity, exchange rate, and interest rate risks), and operational risk. Students learn to use forward, futures, options, and swaps in the application of risk-adjusted returns on capital and Value at Risk. Case studies cover selected financial collapses. .

This course provides an in-depth understanding of algorithmic trading and the application of robotics in finance. The course covers the fundamentals of algorithmic trading and provides hands-on experience in developing trading strategies. Students will also explore the use of robotics in trading and the ethical implications of automation in finance.

Blending psychology with financial decisions, the course examines the rationality behind financial decisions and market behavior. The impact of cognitive biases in financial decision making is central to the course. Discussions, based on blending selected readings with in-class experiments, reveal how behavioral finance both complements and challenges the predictions from rationally-grounded economic and financial models.

This course aims to provide students with comprehensive skills to use various software programs that are in high demand in the financial industry, including analytical, business intelligence, financial modeling, database, development, application programming interfaces (APIs), cloud computing, data privacy, cybersecurity, and other software. The course will cover the latest trends, innovations, and challenges related to software and how they are shaping the future of finance. Moreover, students will gain practical experience in using these tools and techniques to solve real-world financial problems. Prior knowledge of financial, mathematical, statistical, and programming tools is necessary.

Topical coverage of corporate financial management, financial markets, institutions and/or investments. Prerequisite: BFIN 2201. Offered: Irregularly.

Course will involve participation in a field study and/or survey in a finance-related area. Students will also be required to attend preparatory meetings in advance of the field or survey work. No prerequisites required. Offered: Irregularly.

See Internship adviser. Internship courses are counted as general electives.

See Internship adviser. Internship courses are counted as general electives.

See Internship adviser. Internship courses are counted as general electives.

Individual research in the area of finance independent of a formal course structure. Directed research courses can be counted as finance concentration electives. Prerequisite: permission of supervising faculty member prior to registration. Offered: Fall, Spring, Summer.

Individual research in the area of finance independent of a formal course structure. Directed research courses can be counted as finance concentration electives. Prerequisite: permission of supervising faculty member prior to registration. Offered: Fall, Spring, Summer.

Individual research in the area of finance independent of a formal course structure. Directed research courses can be counted as finance concentration electives. Prerequisite: permission of supervising faculty member prior to registration. Offered: Fall, Spring, Summer.

See Internship adviser. Internship courses are counted as general electives.

See Internship adviser. Internship courses are counted as general electives.

See Internship adviser. Internship courses are counted as general electives.

Collaborative course on team-based student-managed portfolio with real money: security valuation, security selection, and portfolio management, with focus on U.S. markets. Final grade based on class participation and research paper.

Finance Internship courses may be recorded on a student transcript without university credit. The corporate internship should end within the semester enrolled in BFIN 4303. Basic information about the internship must be recorded to complete the one course assignment.

This course provides an introduction to Machine Learning and Financial Analytics, including the basics of financial statements and ratios, financial markets and securities, financial data types and formats, machine learning concepts and terminology, types of machine learning algorithms, and programming languages and libraries. The course will also cover advanced topics such as predictive analytics for financial markets, sentiment analysis for financial news, fraud detection and prevention, risk assessment and management, and algorithmic trading and portfolio management.

Individual research in the area of finance independent of a formal course structure. Prerequisite: permission of supervising faculty member and department chair prior to registration. Offered: Fall, Spring, Summer.