Syllabus and Reading List

THE SYLLABUS FOR INVESTMENT ADVISERS

A LAW, ETHICS AND PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS

I Legal framework of the financial market

1. Legal aspects of the corporate setting
2. Legal aspects of functioning of the financial market
3. Relevant international regulations
4. Financial market institutions and participants     

II Standards of professional conduct

1. Professionalism
2. Integrity of Capital Markets
3. Duties to clients
4. Duties to employers
5. Investment analysis, recommendations, and action
6. Conflicts of interests

B QUANTITATIVE METHODS

I The time value of money

1. The future value of a single cash flow
2. The future value of a series of cash flows
3. The present value of a single cash flow
4. The present value of a series of cash flows
5. Present and future value equivalence
6. Other applications of the time value of money
7. Analysis of discounted cash flows
8. Money market and interest conventions
9. Yield measures

II Fundamental statistical concepts

1. The nature of statistics
2. The frequency polygon
3. Probability pattern
4. Measures of central tendency
5. Measures of dispersion
6. Measures of asymmetry
7. Measures of skewness
8. Correlation and regression basics

C ECONOMY

I Supply and demand
1. Determinants of individual demand
2. Determinants of individual supply
3. Balanced price
4. Analysis of change in balance
5. How prices allocate resources

II Sources of economic growth

1.  Productivity
2. Human resources
3. Technological progress
4. Institutional environment (ownership rights, political stability)

III Monetary system

1. Role of the Central Bank
2. Banks and money supply
3. Monetary control measures
4. Problems regarding money supply control

IV Open economy macroeconomics

1. International flows of goods and services
2. Real and nominal exchange rate
3. Supply and demand of loanable funds
4. Equilibrium in an open economy
5. Factors that influence an open economy

V Aggregate supply and demand

1. Aggregate demand curve
2. Aggregate supply curve
3. Monetary policy influence on aggregate demand
4. Monetary policy effects on aggregate supply
5. Expectations and economic policy

D FINANCIAL STATEMENT ANALYSIS

I The financial reporting system

1. Need for financial statement analysis
2. Financial information and capital markets
3. Fundamental accounting principles
4. International accounting standards
5. Generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (GAAP)
6. The importance of external audit

II Contents and structure of principal financial statements

1. The balance sheet
2. The income statement
3. Statement of cash flows
4. Statement of stockholder’s equity
5. Footnotes
6. Other sources of financial information

III Cash Flow Analysis

1. Cash flow vs. income
2. Direct method statement of cash flows   
3. Indirect method statement of cash flows
4. Analysis of cash flow information

IV Ratio analysis of financial statements

1. Purpose and use of ratio analysis
2. Liquidity analysis
3. Solvency analysis
4. Activity analysis
5. Profitability analysis
6. Integrated ratio analysis

V Ratios used in valuation

1. Earnings per share
2. Cash flow per share
3. EBITDA per share
4. Book value per share
5. Price-to-earnings and price-to-book-value ratios
6. Dividend payment ratio

VI Inventory analysis

1. Balance sheet and income statement value differentiation
(Inventory and cost of goods sold)  
2. LIFO vs. FIFO:  Income, cash flow and working capital effects  
3. LIFO vs. FIFO:   ratio analysis implications
4. Declines in LIFO reserves   

VII Analysis of long-lived assets

1. Capitalization vs. expensing
2. Depreciation methods
3. Impact of depreciation methods on financial statements
4. Fixed asset disclosures
5. Impairment of Assets
6. Asset retirement  

VIII Analysis of income taxes

1. Basic income tax accounting issues
Income recognized in financial statements vs. taxable income
2. Deferred tax liabilities
3. Deferred tax assets
4. Income tax disclosures

IX Analysis of financial liabilities  

1. Current liabilities   
2. Long-term debt analysis
3. Convertible bonds and warrants
4. Retirement of debt prior to maturity
5. Debts of firms in distress

X Leases and off-balance sheet debt

1. Business and financial leasing
2. Comparative analysis of capital vs operating leasing
3. Off-balance sheet financing activities  

E CORPORATE FINANCE

I Financial management fundamentals

1. Alternative forms of business organization
2. Financial management in a corporate structure
3. Corporate objectives
4. Agency relations

II Capital budgeting

1. Capital budgeting process
2. Project classifications
3. Prudent use of capital
4. Cash flow projections
5. Risk analysis
6. Comparison of projects with different duration periods
7. Real options

III The cost of capital

1. Costs of individual sources of financing
2. The weighted average cost of capital
3. Marginal cost of capital
4. Determinants of costs of capital

IV Capital structure and leverage

1. Targeted capital structure
2. Operating, financial and combined leverage
3. Determinants of optimum capital structure
4. Capital structure theory

V Dividend policy

1. Dividends vs. capital gains
2. Dividend irrelevance theory
3. Traditional dividend theory
4. Tax preference theory
5. Information content of dividends
6. Dividend stability
7. Stock dividends and stock splits
8. Stock repurchases
VI Mergers and acquisitions
1. Source of value creation from mergers and acquisitions
2. Types of mergers
3. Hostile and friendly takeovers
4. Setting price targets and valuation
5. Role of investment bankers
6. Corporate (strategic) alliances
7. Leverage buyouts
8. Disinvestment

F INVESTMENT INSTRUMENTS

STOCKS

I Organization and functioning of securities market
1. Primary capital markets
2. Secondary capital markets
3. Exchanges and OTC markets
4. Innovations and trends
II Securities market indicators
1. Indicator construction factors
2. Share market indicator series
3. Bond market indicator series
4. Share and bond composite indicators
III Shareholder capital risk and its measurement
1. Capital market theory
2. Capital asset pricing model
3. Systemic risk and return  
4. Capital asset pricing model testing
5. Arbitrage pricing theory
6. Multifactor models
IV Market analysis and industries and share valuation
1. Applying the DDM valuation model to the  market
2.  Estimating the growth rate of dividends
3. Evaluation of expected earnings per share
4. Calculation of expected rate of return on shares
5. Analysis of business cycles and industries
7. Evaluation of rate of return of an industry
8. Relative valuation and relative valuation ratios
V Company analysis and share valuation
1. Company analysis
2. Estimating intrinsic value
3. Estimating company earnings per share
4. Estimating company earnings multipliers
5. Analysis of growth companies
6. Measures of value added
7. Global company and stock analysis  

VI Technical analysis

1. Underlying assumptions and definition
2. Advantages of technical analysis
3. Challenges to technical analysis
4. Technical analysis rules
5. Indicators of technical analysis

DEBT INSTRUMENTS

I Debt Securities
1. Debt securities characteristics
2. Securing bonds
3. Debt market structure
II Bond investment risks
1. Interest rate risk
2. Yield curve risk
3. Call and prepayment risk
4. Reinvestment risk
5. Credit  risk
6. Liquidity risk
7. Currency risk
8. Inflation or purchasing power risk
9. Volatility risk
10. Event risk (e.g., natural catastrophe, corporate takeover/restructuring, regulatory risk, and political risk )

III Sectors of the bond markets and financial instruments

1. Government bonds
2. Municipal securities
3. Corporate bonds
4. MBS and other securities backed with assets
5. International bonds

IV Yield spreads

1. Forming of interest rate spreads
2. Government bond yield curve
3. Yield spread measure (absolute spreads, relative spreads, return ratio)
4. Impact of volume and liquidity on spread
5. Interest swap and swap spread
V Valuation of debt securities
1. Basic principles of valuation
2. Traditional approach to valuation
3. The arbitrage-free valuation approach
4. Valuation models
VI Interest rate risk measurement
1. Full valuation approach
2. Price volatility characteristics of bonds
3. Duration
4. Convexity
5. Price value of a basis point (including its connection to duration)

DERIVATIVES AND OTHER INVESTMENTS

I Derivative markets and instruments

1. Overview of derivative markets
2. The nature of investing in derivative instruments
3. Forwards vs. options
4. Fundamentals of using options in portfolio management

II Forward and futures markets and instruments

1. Overview of forward and futures markets
2. Hedging
3. Basic principles of valuation
4. Forwards application and strategies
5. Futures application and strategies

III Option markets

1. The structure of global option market  
2. The fundamentals of option valuation
3. Valuation of US options
4. Exotic options
5. Option trading strategies

IV Swap contracts and other derivatives

1. The structure of global swap market
2. Basic swap definitions
3. Types and characteristics of swaps
4. Warrants and convertible securities
5. Other derivatives

V Other global investments

1. Reasons for global investment
2. Investment  Funds
3. Real estate and REITs
4. Historical relationships between risks and yields considering alternative investments

BOOKS:

1. Standards of Practice Handbook, 9th edition, CFA Institute, 2005, p. 7-133
2. Richard A. DeFusco, Dennis W. McLeavey, Jerald E. Pinto and David E. Runkle, Quantitative Methods for Investment Analyses, 2nd edition, CFA Institute, 2004. (Ch. I, III and V-pages 231-266 and VIII-pages 376-381 and 395-403) OR  
Richard A. DeFusco, Dennis W. McLeavey, Jerald E. Pinto and David E. Runkle, Quantitative Investment Analysis, 2nd edition, John Wiley & Sons, 2007 (Ch. I, III, V-pages 171-206 and VIII-pages 281-287 and 300-309)
3. Mankiw, Gregory N., Principles of Economics, the Serbian edition (Principi ekonomije, treće izdanje, CID), Faculty of Economics in Belgrade, 2005, (Chapters IV, XXV, XXIX, XXXI, XXXII; XXXIII & XXXIV)
4. White, J., Sondhy, A., Fried, D., The analyses and use of financial statements, 3rd Edition, Wiley, 2003. (Ch. I, III, IV, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X & XI)  
5. Eugene F. Brigham & Joel F. Houston, Fundamentals of Financial Management, 10th edition, Thompson, 2004 (Ch. I, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII, XIV & XXI) OR
Eugene F. Brigham & Michael C. Ehrhardt, Financial Management, 12th edition, Thomson, (Ch. I, X, XI, XII, XIII, XVI, XVIII, XXV) OR
Eugene F. Brigham & Michael C. Ehrhardt, Financial Management, 11th edition, Thompson, (Ch. I, IX, X, XI, XII, XVI, XVIII, XXV) OR 6. Frank K. Reilly and Keith C. Brown, Investment Analyses and Portfolio Management, 7th edition, South-Western, 2003 (Ch.III, IV, V, VIII, IX, XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, XXI, XXII, XXIII & XXIV) OR
Frank K. Reilly and Keith C. Brown, Investment Analyses and Portfolio Management, 8 th edition, South-Western, 2006 (Ch. III, IV, V, VIII, IX, XII, XIII, XIV, XV, XX, XXI, XXII & XXIII)
7. Frank J. Fabozzi, Fixed Income Analyses for the Charted Financial Analyst Program, 2nd edition, Fabozzi Associates, 2004, (Ch. I, II, III, IV, V, VII) OR
Frank J. Fabozzi, Fixed Income Analysis, 2nd edition, John Wiley & Sons, 2007, (Ch. I, II, III, IV, V, VII)
8.  The Law on Companies,  (All provisions of this Law save for the ones pertaining to entrepreneurs, general partnerships and  limited partnerships)
9. The Law on the Capital Market
10. The Law on Takeovers  
11. The Law on Investment Funds
12. OECD (www.oecd.gov) Corporate Governance Principles 2004
13. IOSCO, Objectives and Principles of Securities Regulation (www.iosco.org)   

ADDITIONAL READING:

1. James D.Gwartney, Richard L. Stroup, Russell S. Sobel, and David A. Macphearson, Economics: Private and Public Choice, 10th edition, South-Western, 2003
2. Bruno Solnik and Dennis McLeavey, International investments, 5th edition, Addison Wesley, 2004
3. Sharpe,W. F., Alexander, G. J., Bailey, J V., Investments, 6th edition, Prentice Hall International, 1999
4. Don Chance, Analyses of Derivatives for the CFA Program, AIMR, 2003
5. Howard Schilit, Financial Shenanigans, second edition, McGraw Hill, 2002
6. The Law on NBS
7. The Law on Banks             
8. The Law on Insurance
9. The Law on insurance of persons and property / provisions on mandatory insurance (Articles 73-108, Articles 111 and 112) and provisions from Articles 143-146).  
9. Law on Voluntary Pension Funds and Pension Schemes   
10. The Accounting Law
11. The Auditing Law
12. The international financial reporting standards (IFRS) Framework for the preparation and presentation of financial statements  IAS 12, IAS 16, IAS 17, IAS 36, IAS 38
13. Rulebook on Forms and Contents of Items in Financial Statement Forms for companies, cooperatives and entrepreneurs (Official Gazette of RS No 75/04.  
14. The Law on Corporate Profit
15. The Law on General Administrative Procedure
16. The Law on contracts and torts     
17. XIII EU Directive  www.europa.eu.int.