FIN 339 Financial Futures

    Instructor:                 Dr. Jin W. Choi                                                                                      Office: 6216 DePaul Center
                                        Phone: (312)362-8842                                                                           e-mail: jchoi@depaul.edu

    Office Hours:            4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m., Wednesdays and Thursdays, Loop Campus
                                       And at any other time by appointment.

    Textbook:                 Edwards, Franklin R. and Ma, Cindy W. Futures and Options, McGraw-Hill, Inc. 1992.

    Objective:                 To learn the structure, mechanics, pricing theories, arbitrage concepts, hedging applications, and speculation methods in trading futures.

    Tentative Course Schedule:
    _____________________________________________________________
    Week                                 Topics to be Covered                                 Chapters

    1                             Introduction                                                 1, 2 and 3
                                             Assignment #1 is given.

    2                             Regulation and Speculation                       7, 8, 9, 16, and 17

    3                             Pricing Futures                                             4
                                             Assignment #1 is due and
                                             Assignment #2 is given.

    4                             Risk Management via Hedging                 5 and 6
                                             Quiz is given.

    5                             Stock Index Futures                                     10 and 11
                                             Assignment #2 is due.

    6                           Midterm Exam

    7                           Short-term Interest Rate Futures                 12
                                             Assignment #3 is given.

    8                           Long-term Interest Rate Futures                 13
                                             Assignment #4 is given.

    9                             Foreign Exchange Futures                            14
                                             Assignment #3 is due.

    10                          Commodity Futures                                         15
                                            Assignment #4 is due.

    11                          Final Exam
    _____________________________________________________________
     

    General Class Format:

    The course schedule described above may have to be modified time to time to meet the need of the class. Any changes will be announced in class and every student is responsible for knowing and adapting to such changes. Some subject matter will be emphasized more than others and my lecture will often present an approach or insight to a subject different from the text. While the text provides a good foundation to the understanding of all aspects of futures trading, you are responsible only for the material covered in my lecture.
              Grading: Grading will be based on one quiz (10%), a midterm exam (35%), a final exam (40%) and three out of four assignments (5% each). Any assignments not turned in by the due date will not be graded and thus will receive no points.