SYLLABUS:

FIN 3000:

FIN 3000  Business Finance

Military Term April 2004

Professor:  Michael A. S. Guth, Ph.D., J.D.

 

Office:  Oak Ridge, TN

Office Telephone: 865-483-8309

Office Hours:  Monday – Saturday, 9 AM – 7 PM (Eastern time – New York City time)

  Office Fax:  425-number changing

Web Site Address: http://michaelguth.com/economist.htm

 Email Address:  mike@michaelguth.com  Please do not send correspondence to me via the WebCT email system or campus pipeline, because they will not forward to my external email account and will not reach me.
  1. Overview:  The two foundational courses in finance are Investments and Financial Management.  This course in Business Finance is the latter foundational course in financial management required of all business majors at HPU.  It is a course that demonstrates the HPU theme of Research and Epistemology, as students will often be asked to solve complex problems where they must establish a framework in which to tackle the problem.

                This course is the backbone course for financial techniques and quantitative financial analysis.  The course poses some challenges for most students due to (1) practical use of concepts that rely heavily on basic accounting principles (without taking any accounting courses prior to this one, students find the material hard), and (2) rather difficult mathematical equations that must be solved.  Up to now, business students have largely relied on simple algebraic formulas to complete the math content of their business courses.  Here, students will be exposed to equations that have terms, e.g., raised to the exponent 13, and it will be impossible to try to solve the equations without a financial calculator.  NOTE:  You do not need to buy a financial calculator to hold in your hand just for this course.  Financial calculator software now abounds on the Internet for free.  However, if you plan to do financial analysis in your professional career, then it may be wise to purchase a financial calculator with which you are comfortable inputting.  If you elect to use an Internet-based financial calculator, then you must find a web page with inputs and outputs that you can understand and deploy quickly.  Just remember, not all web-based financial calculators are created equally, and the authors of free Internet programs do not guarantee their programs are accurate.  So you will need to verify the results. 

This course aims to give you the tools you will need to assist with financial decisions in the corporate environment.  Major topics areas covered in the course include the time value of money; valuation of stocks, bonds, and the firm; capital budgeting; financial statement analysis; ratio analysis; discounting, and net present value.  Students will be expected to demonstrate proficiency in the HPU core theme of Communication:  working in teams and thinking critically about the financial strategies of firms.

  1. REQUIRED:
    1. Our course textbook is Ross, Westerfield, Jordan, Essentials of Corporate Finance, 2004, McGraw-Hill.
    2. Financial Calculator:  found on an Internet web page, or purchased through an electronics store.
    3. Access to Internet for assignments and for study tools.
  2. CLASS POLICIES:

I will try to give you hints throughout the course that will assist you with problems and alleviate some of the stress you will feel when you spend hours on a problem and still cannot solve it.  However, there are several policies that will be followed:

    1. No make-up exams or early exams will be given, except under extreme circumstances. In addition, late assignments will be graded and returned, but will not receive credit.
    2. Attendance will be required according to HPU guidelines for online courses.  Students are responsible for all course content and assignments whether they check the course web page routinely or not.
    3. University guidelines will be followed concerning cheating. The other instructor’s policy is that a cheating student will receive an F for the course and will be reported to the appropriate University officials for further action.
  1. GRADING:

Assignments:

Points:

Date:

GRADING SCALE:

Midterm Exam  

TBD

 TBD

A+,A,A-:  90 – 100%

Final Exam

TBD

 TBD

B+,B,B-:  80 – 89 %

Homework

TDB

 

C+,C,C-:  70 – 79%

 

 

 

D+,D,D-: 61 -  240 points

 

 

 

F: 60% and below

 

  1. ASSIGNMENTS: Homework assignments and their due dates will be announced in class. Assignments should also be posted to the Assignments section of this site.
  2. HANDY HINTS: The best way to pass this class is to: (1) participate actively in the course discussion board, (2) frequently examine the rest of the course web site, (3) do the homework, (4) read the book, and (5) STUDY!
  3. Americans with Disabilities Act: If you have special needs as addressed by the Americans with Disabilities Act and need any test or course materials provided in an alternative format, notify your instructor immediately. Reasonable efforts will be made to accommodate your special needs.

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ASSIGNMENTS: 

FIN 3000:

This area will contain all of the assignments for each course.  Please check back frequently for updates.

Week 1:   Chapters One and Two:

 

Week 2:  Chapters Three and Four: 

Week 4:  Chapters Five and Six:

Week 5:  Midterm Exam study, practice, complete exam 

Week 6:  Chapters Seven and Eight:

Week 7:  Read Chapter 9 -- Making Capital Investment Decisions
and Chapter Eleven: Risk and Returns.

Week 8:  Read Chapter Twelve --  Cost of Capital,  and Chapter Thirteen -- Leverage and Capital Structure.

Week 9:  Read Chapters Fourteen --  Dividends and Dividend Policy; and Seventeen --  Working Capital Management.

Week 10:  Final Exam study, practice, complete exam 

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Lecture Notes: 

FIN 3000: 

The following files are the PowerPoint presentations to which I may refer in this course.   Please feel free to download them or view them in your web browser. If you do not have PowerPoint on your computer, please download the PowerPoint viewer file, which is located on the instructions page listed below.

These files will allow you to:

  1. take fewer notes in class so that you are able to pay more attention during the lectures. 
  2. have a complete set of notes that is very similar to those of the other class participants. 
  3. take more time to understand the lecture. Particularly if you are one of my foreign students and have difficulty understanding English. 
  4. review for the exams.

The Lecture Notes and quizzes used in this course were developed by Professor Mark Lane.  We are covering the exact content as his ground-based course, so that no student will feel he or she is getting less out of the online course than what is taught on the ground.  Thus Prof. Lane’s lecture notes should be germane to each of the chapters assigned from the textbook.

 

 

 

 

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REFERENCE FIN3000:

FIN 3000:

This area will contain various reference items for FIN 3000.

  Calculating NPV in Microsoft Excel 

Calculator Usage Instructions:

For Calculator Instructions, Simply Click on the Calculator.

 

·         How to do Regressions on your Calculator

·         Running Regressions using Microsoft Excel (HTML Document)

·         Animated Calculator Instructions 

New Software:

Web Sites of Interest:Please click here to go to the Web Sites page for FIN 3000. Exams from Previous Semesters:

FinCoach Software: (If you are accessing this site using a 28.8 modem, this file may take an hour or more to download.) (This software is only intended for those students who did not receive a copy of it with their book.)

Directions:

3.      Save the file.  RIGHT click on the above link and choose "Save Target As." This will save a file called FinCoach.exe to your hard drive in a directory that you choose.

4.      Run the file.  You may do this by using the Run command in the Start Menu or by double clicking on the file in My Computer.

5.      Go to the C:\FinCoach sub-directory.

6.      Run the file called Setup.exe.  You may also do this by using the Run command in the Start menu.  You will probably type "C:\FinCoach\setup.exe" in the box.

7.      Enter the following for the serial number:  131PRENHALL064 (Type it EXACTLY the way it appears.  The last three letters are zero, six, four.)

8.      If you have any problems, call me, email me, or come by and pick up the disk.

Directions:

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WEB SITES:

FIN 3000:

CHAPTERS, TOPICS, AND RESOURCES

Please Select the Chapter you wish to view from the following list.

 

 

 

 

MICHAEL A. S. GUTH, Ph.D., J.D.
Professor of Financial Economics and Law
send e-mail
(E-mail is quickest method of contact).
   116 Oklahoma Ave.
  Oak Ridge, TN
  37830-8604
  Phone: (865) 483-8309

Financial Economics Homepage      ||       Attorney at Law Homepage



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