Understanding Financial Markets

Academicians from the University of Geneva and professionals from UBS tells what the main financial markets and their characteristics are and how they are linked to the economy. We start by seeing how the price of stocks and bonds are computed and why they move. We see the notion of risk and why it matters when measuring investment's performance. The focus then shifts towards other markets like gold, emerging markets, real estate, hedge funds and private markets. These are analyzed with emphasis on their risks and return opportunities. We also see how we can include them to build an efficient portfolio. We also see policies of central banks and their impact on financial markets along with the link between the economy and the price of financial assets.

Click here to read my notes based on the University of Geneva's course and other sources 

What does the course talk about?

1. General Introduction and Key Concepts

    a. Fundamentals

        - Role of financial markets

        - Basic concepts in finance

        - Basic concepts in investment management

2. Major Financial markets

    a. Equities

        - How much is a company worth on the stock market? 

        -  How to follow the stock market (UBS)

        - How do we rate our equity recommendations (UBS)

     b. Fixed Income

        - Fixed income government bonds: merits and risks

        - Fixed income corporate bonds and high yield (UBS)

        - Money markets (UBS)

        - Currencies: a separate asset class

    c. What return for what risk

        - Risk-adjusted in practice (UBS)

        - Risk and returns of financial markets

3. Other financial markets

    a. Emerging markets and gold

        - Emerging markets stocks

        - Emerging markets bonds

        - Gold the ultimate currency?

    b. Alternative assets

        - Real estate

        - Hedge funds

        - Private markets (UBS)

        - Alternative vs traditional investments

   4. Financial markets and the economy

    a. Central banks as key players

        - Central banks conventional policies

        - Central banks unconventional policies

        - Central banks unconventional policies (UBS)

        - Added-value of central banks unconventional policies

    b. Growth-inflation mix

        - Link between equity markets and growth-inflation mix

        - Link between bond markets and growth-inflation mix

    c. Impact of the interest rate environment

        - How interest rate effect equity and bond portfolios

References:

[1] - Book

[2], [3] - Papers

[4] - ECB

[5] - Vanguard

[6] - NYU