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This course surveys investments with focuses on security markets, types of investment vehicles, and the environment in which investments are made. As part of the survey of investment vehicles, students are introduced to principles of asset valuation in efficient markets. A student who successfully completes this course should understand the components of the modern investment environment, complete the ideas of portfolio construction, including the impacts of related issues of return, risk, diversification, investment objectives, investment strategy, and taxes, and be able to use various methods to value and evaluate the major types of financial securities and portfolios consisting of those securities.

LIFE Portfolio I
(Â鶹ԭ´´ Investment Fund for the Endowment)
Students learn techniques for valuing stocks in this class and then apply them to invest real money as part of the Â鶹ԭ´´ Endowment. As the lead analyst on an existing portfolio holding, students will evaluate whether the company aligns with Â鶹ԭ´´â€™ Values (based in Catholic Social Teaching), the industry and overall investment environment, the company’s historic performance, and use all of that information in quantitative valuation models to make a buy/sell recommendation on the equity. Students in both classes then vote on whether to affirm the recommendation or not. At the end of the semester, all of this work is presented to an Advisory Board of financial professionals.

LIFE Portfolio II
Students take what they learned in LIFE I and go and look for new potential investments for the Portfolio. This can include exploration of other sorts of investments, from fixed income to REITs to various funds. Recommended actions must be affirmed by members of the two LIFE classes by a super-majority vote. LIFE II students take the lead in constructing the written and oral reports of the portfolio for the Advisory Board.

The main purpose of this course is to provide a conceptual framework within which the functioning of Financial Markets & Institutions in the United States, including the regulatory environment and methods for risk management. In a world of imperfect capital markets, financial institutions provide the positive function of bearing and managing risk on behalf of their customers and market participants through the pooling of risks and the sale of their services as risk specialists. Therefore, risk management plays a central role in the management of financial institutions and markets. At the conclusion of this course, students shall know, in theory and application, an advanced level treatment of measuring and managing risk in financial institutions. In addition, students learn about financial innovations from cryptocurrencies to SPACs to NFTs and more.