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About the content
When an investor is faced with a portfolio choice problem, the number of possible assets and the various combinations and proportions in which each can be held can seem overwhelming. In this course, you’ll learn the basic principles underlying optimal portfolio construction, diversification, and risk management. You’ll start by acquiring the tools to characterize an investor’s risk and return trade-off. You will next analyze how a portfolio choice problem can be structured and learn how to solve for and implement the optimal portfolio solution. Finally, you will learn about the main pricing models for equilibrium asset prices. Learners will: • Develop risk and return measures for portfolio of assets • Understand the main insights from modern portfolio theory based on diversification • Describe and identify efficient portfolios that manage risk effectively • Solve for portfolio with the best risk-return trade-offs • Understand how risk preference drive optimal asset allocation decisions • Describe and use equilibrium asset pricing models.
Syllabus
- Week 1 - Module 1- Introduction & Risk and Return
This module introduces the second course in the Investment and Portfolio Management Specialization. In this module, we discuss one of the main principles of investing: the risk-return trade-off, the idea that in competitive security markets, higher expected re... - Week 2 - Module 2: Portfolio construction and diversification
In this module, we build on the tools from the previous module to develop measure of portfolio risk and return. We define and distinguish between the different sources of risk and discuss the concept of diversification: how and why putting risky assets togethe... - Week 3 - Module 3: Mean-variance preferences
In this module, we describe how investors make choices. Specifically, we look at how utility functions are used to express preferences. We review measures to describe investors’ attitude towards risk. Finally, we discuss how we can summarize investors’ prefere... - Week 4 - Module 4: Optimal capital allocation and portfolio choice
In this module, you will learn about mean-variance optimization: how to make optimal capital allocation and portfolio choice decisions when investors have mean-variance preferences. This was one of the ground-breaking ideas in finance. We will formally set up ... - Week 5 - Module 5: Equilibrium asset pricing models
In this module, we build on the insights obtained from modern portfolio theory to understand how risk and return are related in equilibrium. We first look at the main workhorse model in finance, the Capital Asset Pricing Model and discuss the expected return-b...
Instructors
Arzu Ozoguz
Finance Faculty
Jones Graduate School of Business
Content Designer
Platform
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