FNCE10001: Finance

2 assignments worth 10% each and one 3 hour exam worth 80%

This subject was better than i expected. Coming into finance, i knew nothing and whenever the business news came up i was like huh? Now i can actually understand it.

If you have an underlying interest in finance.. this subject will be good.
If not, then you will find it a struggle and will need to force yourself somehow to handle all the googling. Investopedia was also my go to site. The concepts in finance are not easy to understand with all sorts of words you've never come across before. I have also realised how linked finance and economics are,s you will probably come out of this subject wiht a bit of economics knowledge. You will be using simple and compound interest from start to finish.
Main topics were:
Bonds, money market, share market, derivatives (FRAS), types of banks (ADIs), differences between markets, foreign exchange, annuities, perpetuities. You'll also learn about mortgage backed securities. Some interesting stuff there.

I found the assignments interesting but difficult, so i can understand why the (easier) exam is worth more. The first one was about loans and calculating yields and valuing stock prices, the second was about a managed fund that followed the asx200 and required a bit of excel and graphs. The 700 word limit was difficult to go under. You also had to do some research and describe the biggest factors influencing the stock market.

The lecturer wasn't that great to be honest, explaining hard concepts isn't really his strong point, but he did have some interesting scandals to share (i didn't understand any he told us, but after googling, i found them interesting LOL). The tutorials were set out nicely, although, because i did them in the summer, all was too rushed, and i ended up doing 5% of tute questions, but honestly, going over the slides a couple of times is enough for you to ride through the exam without much stress.

Yes, with screen capture

David Robinsons whom apparently drinks bear and plays golf all day.

Yes, heaps. Solutions up for one of them.

3.5 Out of 5

Financial Institutions and Markets (B Hunt and C Terry), (7th edn), Thomson, Australia, 2015. Not sure why no one recommended this, it is an excellent book and will explain any concepts better than the lecturer. Better buying it at the start to resell in future, than relying on books in the library (2 hour loans).

one 2 hour lecture, one 1 hour tutorial

Summer 2016

tba

Two assignments (10% + 10%), end of semester exam (80%)

Summary: if you legitimately enjoy commerce stuff, and further maths style financial maths then this subject is awesome and easy.
if you are doing it for any other reason - it will be harder to do well, and even though you might get that H1, if finance isn't your thing you'll die of boredom.

yeah

Jordan Neyland the best bloke ever

You can ROTE learn the content if you want, but there is a smarter way. It is so much less effort and more efficient + better for your grades to listen to the lectures, pay attention, and then google around the idea's that are spoken about at home casually. If you conceptually understand what is happening, you can logically conclude SOOO much of the stuff that other people will have to ROTE learn and commit to memory. Im not saying learn the derivations of the formulas (fk that) but if you understand why a company raises money, and how banks earn their profit, and how prices are decided in the share market, then alot of the stuff that other people will have to memorise will be something that you can just say "oh ok, how does the share market efficiently allocate resources well if blah blah happens then i guess it must be such and such?"

OK, me and most of my friends are really interested in finance, and as such we all LOVED this subject. You learn cool shit bout different types of securities, like how to price bonds, shares, how to raise money if you're starting up your own small business, how you should legally set up your business (LLC) etc. This is a great subject for overall learning about the basics of finance (hence the name). You can choose to rote learn or actually learn the subject, and if you actually learn it then it is 100 times easier and much more rewarding. The stuff seriously isn't too complicated, and also quite useful in the financial decisions we are starting to make at this point in our lives (mortgage vs rent, how much/how long to save).

Alot of people do this subject and don't like it, and it has nothing to do with the way it is run, the subject is run very, very well. If you just think it will look good on your resume/want a "real" breadth/need another subject to do/your friends are doing it/you heard its easy, you will probably have a bad time. I knew a couple people who did this subject and said it was dry and boring etc. I dont know what you expect if you have no interest in finance though, and a few kids who found it boring but then started to relisten to lectures and understand stuff eventually came around by exam time and everyone was cracking jokes about bonds and shares and saying it was a good subject.

heaps of them and most questions get recycled in one way or another. They only provide one with solutions, and the rest you search up online

5/5 if you're interested in finance topics, 1/5 if you're not

Financial Instiutitons and Markets (B Hunt and C Terry) 7th edition - didn't buy it and didnt need to. Everything you will need to know is taught pretty well in the lectures and tutes

2 x 1 hour lectures + 1 x 1 hour tute (no mandatory attendance and lectures are recorded)

Semester 2, 2015

H1

Two assignments (10% + 10%), end of semester exam (80%) (ugh)

TL;DR I HAVE SORT OF STRONG OPINIONS ABOUT THIS SUBJECT

This subject is extremely dry. Like vaporised dust. It is rote learning at its finest. My life advice to you is that you DO NOT DO IT unless you're considering a finance major or you're slightly masochistic and/or a ~mathematically inclined person~ (read exam section) and/or you enjoy rote learning and/or want an easy subject to pass/ace.

Lectures:
Hella boring. I barely touched the lectures until swotvac. I stopped attending after week 2 as I found them to be pretty useless. I feel as if Les just reads off his slides a bit, and I bothered to actually watch the recorded lectures up until about the third week and then I ignored lectures altogether. From week 7 (I think?) onwards, Joe started lecturing. I heard his lectures were a lot more interesting (lectured like he actually wanted to be there and enjoyed finance), but I never really turned up and I listened to about one lecture about the bond market so I could do assignment two, so go figure.

Tutes:
They were okay, I guess. I sort of mainly went just to copy down the answers, but then they released the answers to all the tute questions so I lost all motivation to turn up. Tute questions are very good revision for the exams BECAUSE YAY SOLUTIONS!! I was never up to date in finance so the tutes weren't very useful to me, but I reckon if you're on task the tutes will probably be pretty helpful.

Assignments:
The assignments are okay to do if you put in a decent amount of effort for something like one to three days.* The first assignment was super open ended and basically asked how you'd advise your friend on investing 30k. It’s unreasonable as it was due in like week 5/6, because up to this point you have covered nothing semi-relevant. I also found the marking to be extremely varied between tutors for the first assignment, especially as it IS such an open ended topic. The second one was concerning the issuance of Apple bonds in Switzerland which was a much narrower topic and easily made a lot more sense.

AN IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT FNCE10001 IN GENERAL: breadth over depth in this subject. Finance 1 is one long, arduous memorisation task where you're expected to swallow great quantities of information which you haven't truly computed or understood, but spitting it back out onto the exam paper at the end of the semester will be enough to warrant you a H1.**

Exam:
The exam is hurdle, but I really wouldn't worry about that too much. About half the marks on the exam are dedicated to 'financial mathematics' (on a formula sheet ALREADY PROVIDED - it seems to me as if the hardest part of financial mathematics IS RECOGNISING FORMULAS) whereby you just plug in numbers from questions into formulas. If you have attained an extremely impressive primary school level of mathematical ability, you'll pass the subject.

That being said, despite my mind crying in protest at this subject which was(/probably still will be) the spirit of sheer boredom incarnated (rote learning subjects are to me as Kryptonite is to Superman) I'm scoring it 1.5/5 for three reasons:
1) one, its boringness (as I said, akin to vaporised dust) isn't really the department of finance's fault. Foundational basics are eye-rolling boring, but a necessary evil
2) Because of how easily crammable it is. Like I said, I barely touched lectures till swotvac. I didn't even watch them during swotvac, I just read them. You really only have to read lectures to pass this subject. It was my first exam and I had about five and a bit more days to study. I managed to cram all the content in about three days by reading through lecture slides, and did a few practice exams.
3) 1 sounds too mean, 2 sounds too generous

(PSA for breadth kids: Think doing Finance 1 will help you become an investor? Wrong. Just as taking an intro bio course doesn't make you a doctor, taking Finance 1 doesn't make you Warren Buffett)



* - depends on how quickly you work, 1-2 days was enough for me
** - potentially not true and not guaranteed

Yep

Les Coleman and Zhuo (Joe) Zhong

Yes, plenty. They only provide one with solutions, and the rest you searched up online

1.5/5

Financial Instiutitons and Markets (B Hunt and C Terry) 6th edition - did not buy it, and the only time I read it was during swotvac when my much more academically adept boyfriend lent me his copy to let me peruse it for a few days

2 x 1 hour lectures + 1 x 1 hour tute

Semester 1, 2015

87 (H1)

2 assignments due in weeks 6 and 11 worth 10% each. Final written exam worth 80%. Yes, 80%... how stupid.

This is by far the worst subject I have ever done in my life, including all the subjects I did in K to 12.

The lecturer is really boring and uses stone age teaching methodology. The content is incredibly boring, most boring, uninteresting, uninspiring, etc. thing I have ever had the displeasure to study.

I had so much fun in my other subjects but this subject made me depressed at times. The thing is that I didn't need to do this subject at all but I guess it was just bad decision making on my part to take this as breadth.

The final exam was terrible. ~50% of the exam was about 1 topic, dividends, and that topic wasn't covered well. The exam was very tricky and had nothing to do with past exams.

The tutorials were terrible and the tutor was mostly clueless. The tutorial questions were too easy compared to the exam.

This is finance, which is meant to be practical, but after you complete this subject, you will be as clueless as you ever were going into the stock market. The final exam is worth 80% which is just stupid. Top universities usually test students throughout the semester using problem sets, projects, assignments, etc. and the final is usually worth like 25% because that is a more accurate form of assessment. I don't know what is wrong with the finance department for using stone age teaching techniques... but I think I am generalising here since this is just 1 subject.

I will not do commerce subjects for breadth anymore.
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the worst experience ever and 10 being the best, I would rate taking this subject a solid 0. I should have withdrawn from it when I had the chance.

The lectures aren't recorded but the lecturer recorded the lectures in his own time.

Dr Jordan Neyland. He is American. I don't like this guy because of the terrible exam he made.

Yes, 1 with solutions, the rest without solutions. I found the past exams useless since the exam had nothing to do with them, it was so much harder.

0 out of 5

I didn't buy the textbook, it is Australian so it is too expensive, can't find it on Amazon.

24 hours of lectures and 12 hours of tutorials. Total Time Commitment: 170 hours

2014, semester 2.

I don't know yet, probably something terrible... really hope there is scaling. I did this subject because I thought it was easy but it will most likely drag my GPA down which is very depressing. When I finished the exam I was seriously contemplating dropping out of university. That is how depressed this subject made me.

Exam (80%) and 2 case study assignments (10% each)

In terms of my overall impressions of the course, if you are looking for a relatively easy breadth subject then you can probably get away with this one. I would say that if you go to the tutorials and actually do the problems you will most certainly be primed for a H1. However, I've given the course a low score since the content can be extremely dry (ie. learning definitions and lists related to markets or institutions are very common).

Lectures: Overall, the lecturers were great. Sturla and Carsten explain the content very clearly with additional examples, however if you really don't want to go to the lectures you would likely be totally fine since the notes essentially explain themselves.

Content of the course: Over the first few weeks, you will be covering the basic definitions and concepts of financial markets and institutions. Financial mathematics (which is covered in basically 1 lecture) actually constitutes around 50% of the final exam as the concepts will be reused again in several areas down the track so be aware of that, however the maths is extremely simple. Following this, you will cover the major market types (money, bond, share, foreign exchange). In terms of how interesting the course is, this is an introductory course that really deals with the basics of finance so it can get very dry.

Assessment: Be aware that the subject is basically a HUGE MEMORY TEST, ESPECIALLY FOR THE EXAM. You will need to learn many definitions and lists pertaining to a market/institution/security etc., and because this is an introductory class, past exam questions will pop up time and time again, so you may feel like you are simply regurgitating facts. It should also be noted that the exam is a hurdle requirement.

As for the assignments, these were probably the only saving grace for this subject in terms of keeping my interest as they tended to be more open ended than the tutorial questions. Just be aware that you should be referencing correctly in the assignments to avoid losing marks.

Recommendation: In terms of recommendations, I would suggest this subject only if you are looking for a relatively easy breadth subject to ease the pressure in later years. Of course, if you are a Commerce undergrad you will be taking this subject most likely. As for tips for doing well in the class, try to at least keep up with the tutorial questions and the lecture notes. I wouldn't say going to the tutes is absolutely necessary unless you have a great tutor and you could well not even go to a lecture and do great as long as you read through the notes.

No

Dr. Sturla Fjesme and Dr. Carsten Murawski (Semester 1).

There are a very large number of past papers to go through, however be aware that the semester 1 and 2 exams are written in a very different style to one another. So although the content is generally similar, the style of some papers may not be applicable to you.

1/5

The prescribed text is Financial Institutions and Markets (B Hunt and C Terry), (6th edn), Thomson, Australia, 2011. However, you should not purchase this book as I found it was only good as a reference in my assignments. The lecture notes and tutes are more than enough to do extremely well in the class.

2 lectures (1 hour each) and 1 tutorial (1 hour) per week.

2014, Semester 1.

Not yet received.

Assignments not exceeding 2000 words (20%) and a 2-hour end-of-semester examination (80%).

Oh my god, FNCE10001. Don't get me wrong, I loved the lecturers and they did provide some interest into a subject that is drier than dust. I read the previous ATARNotes review (which said it was -3 out of 5) and I thought, it can't possibly be that bad and I was looking for a cruise-y breadth after taking Introductory Microeconomics. So I took the class and it was a really bad decision. While there is some mathematics in it, it is so basic that you don't really need to study that much, GIVEN THAT ALL THE FORMULAS ARE LAID OUT ON THE FORMULA SHEET ANYWAY. Most of this class was basically memorising facts about ADIs (authorised deposit taking institutions) and different characteristics of markets, such as the money market, bond market and the share market. I guess I was hoping for something more mathematically inclined, and I was a little let down with the 2 weeks of dedicated financial mathematics in the course.

The assignments were ok, but it is a joke to give "originality marks" in a finance assignment. 6 of the marks were given for content, 2 marks for presentation and 2 marks for originality. THERE IS NO ORIGINALITY ABOUT FINANCING A HOME PURCHASE. EVERYONE IN THE CLASS CHOSE TO DO A HOME LOAN THROUGH A BANK. It may sound like I'm bitching about lost marks (I am) but this concept of originality marks just seems stupid.
The exam is incredibly similar to past exams, even going to the point where there are questions from the 2004-06 exams on the paper. Do the past papers and you'll be set. Do FNCE10001 if you want a cruis-y breadth, but it's not interesting. You have been warned for a second time.

No, like all other FNCE subjects.

Sterla and Carson (I don't know whether I spelt their name's right as they are both Europeans).

There are about 20 on the library website.

-1 out of 5

I'd say buy the textbook because it's not that expensive anyway. It has some good review notes and what not.

2 x one hour lectures and a 1 tutorial per week

Semester 1, 2013

H1 (88)

Assignments not exceeding 2000 words (20%) and a 2-hour end-of-semester examination (80%).

Well if your an Engineering/Science student looking for a mathsy breadth that eats up hardly any time then this is the one for you. The exam is structured so that roughly half of the marks are for calculation questions and half are theory - so thats 50% "in-the-bag" for competent maths students.

The other 50% is quite accessible if you pretty much go through the lecture notes week by week, googling any definitions/concepts that you don't understand (the lecture notes are pretty brief-although they might've been expanded upon in the lectures). So if you're not comfortable doing independent study and research then it would probably be better to go to the lectures and tutes.

The tutorial questions and solutions are posted on the LMS so I was able miss every tutorial (I didn't want to look like a fool in front of all the commerce kids). This allowed me to pretty much do all of the tutorial sheets during exam period and check where I went wrong in calculation questions. They also provided comprehensive answers to common theory questions that come up in exams, so I suggest understanding *cough*memorising*cough* most of them.

The 2 assignments are due around mid April and mid May and they are available on the LMS so you have a while to complete them. They don't require much of the actual content to complete, just independent research and knowing how to reference properly-although beware: they will be more lenient for referencing in the first assignment than the second (I'm saying this because I referenced the same way for both assignments although only lost marks for the second one) so better take some time to learn it.
So over all a very good breadth subject (or non-breadth if your in commerce) would have given it a 5/5 if it was recorded. The content starts off a bit dry and confusing with "introductions" to things like Financial Institutions and Financial Markets but it gets more interesting when you reach things like Bonds, Foreign Exchange Markets and Shares.

No (Although might change in the future)

Don't know as I never went to a lecture.

Many past exams available on the library's website although only one exam's solution is given near exam time.

4 Out of 5

Handbook says otherwise, but it is a custom textbook made by the University that is a combination of multiple textbooks. (Don't need it, Lecture notes and Internet are sufficient)

2 x 1-hour lectures and a 1-hour tutorial per week

2013, Semester 1

H1 (87)

Assignments not exceeding 2000 words (20%) and a 2-hour end-of-semester examination (80%). (We had 2 assignments, 1000 words each)

A complete joke of a subject. Lectures are too slow (although you can alleviate this somewhat by listening to lectopia recordings at +40% speed), the content is dry as anything, and the assessments are obviously intended to be a wicked satire of modern tertiary education.

To succeed in this subject, you need only know:

• How to reference
• How to reference
• Be good at exams

Since the exam pretty much determines your mark for the subject (80%), I was able to maintain a 0% attendance record for lectures and tutorials, which was perhaps the only reason this subject was rated -3 instead of -5. You have my blessing to take this subject if:

• You must take this course as part of your degree, or
• You know how to reference, or
• You are a mathematics student who initially intended to study PHIL30043 Completeness and Undecidability only to later find out that the subject clashed horribly with MAST30005 Algebra and hence needed a quick and dirty breadth subject to study which didn't have group projects*, or
• You are a masochist.

As I alluded in the "Textbook Recommendation" section, I think the key to doing well in this subject is to not be a drone - while I estimate 50% of your mark in this subject comes down to your ability to do mathematics at a primary school level, the rest involves some

Yes, with screen capture.

Carsten Murawski.

Many past exams are available, but solutions were only provided to a single practice exam.

-3 of 5.

Financial Instiutitons and Markets (B Hunt and C Terry), though I didn't use it at all (use your brain - think, dont copy!)

Two hours of lectures and a 1-hour tutorial per week

2011, Semester 1.

H1.