Meeting Investors Goals

Academicians from the University of Geneva and professionals from UBS dive into the concepts of rationality and irrationality and understand how they impact our investment decisions and what the consequences can be at the market level. We will first look into different biases that we are subjected to when facing investment decisions and how they may impact the outcomes of these decisions. We will also see how emotions and ethical concerns such as honesty and trust influence market participants. When they are considered as a group rather than individually, we will see how rationality and irrationality can drive asset prices to and away from their fair values. We will be presented with different portfolio construction methodologies and investment styles that make up the landscape of today's portfolio management industry. 

Click here to read the notes

The course covers:

1. Introduction

        - When is it a good time to buy, sell or hold?

        - Key things to know to define investment profile (UBS)

        - Rational decision making

2. I. Cognitive biases

        - How our brain may misinterpret information

        - Basic steps in investment

        - Biases when choosing assets to look

        - Biases when processing financial information

        - Biases when evaluating performance

    II. Impact of emotions on investment decisions

        - How our emotions impact our investment decisions

        - Why and how should we trade 

        - Role of media in financial markets

    III. Other influences on investment decisions    

        - Honesty and trust in investment decision

        - Impact investing (UBS)

        - Are emotions bad thing in investing

3. I. Market efficiency

        - Defining market efficiency

        - Testing market efficiency: weak, semi-strong, strong form

    II. Origins of financial bubbles and crisis

        - Anticipation crisis

        - Real shocks

        - Fed model

        - Global financial crisis, its policy errors and regulation errors

    III. Central banks and financial stability

        - How do central banks deal with the issue of financial (in)stability

        - View of Vice Chairman of Swiss National Bank

4. I. Portfolio Construction

        - Building a portfolio: top-down way

        - Building a portfolio: bottom-up way

        - Which matters more

    II. Investment Styles

        - Value vs Growth

        - Fundamental vs Quantitative (UBS)

        - Contrarian vs Momentum

        - Core vs Satellite

        - Thematic investment (UBS)