credential in quantitative financial economics...
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Credential in Quantitative Financial Economics (QFE)
What is the QFE?
• Credential offered by UNC Economics Department
• 3 Courses + 2 Bootcamps:– ECON 425: Financial Economics
– ECON 525: Advanced Financial Economics
– ECON 493: Practicum in Quantitative Financial Economics
• Outside speakers
• Recruiting opportunities
Who is the QFE?
QFEUNC
ECONOMICS
Purpose of the QFE
Provide students with:
• Theoretical knowledge of financial markets
• Practical experience of financial market transactions
• Exposure to advanced quantitative finance tools
• Opportunities to network with, and learn from, professionals in the field
• Internship and full-time job search support
Career Path
A few potential career paths for QFE students
• Trading
• Strategy/research
• Portfolio Management
• Risk Management
• (Market) Economist
• Economic/Statistical Consulting
• Data Analyst (Financial and Non-Financial)
Complimentary Graduate Studies
• Quantitative Finance
• Financial Engineering
• Data Science
• Economics
• Finance
Courses & BootcampsBootcamp #1 – Excel for Financial Economists (Early Fall)
• REQUIRED for QFE, NOT required for Econ 425
• Open to anyone; preference to QFE track
• Full day training in a small, hands-on setting
• Basic Excel Functionality
• Best Practices for data handling
• Advanced features: matrix multiplication, optimization
• Statistical tools: data analysis toolpak
• Knowledge Check
Courses & BootcampsECON 425: Financial Economics – 3 Credits* (Fall)
– Open to all students.
– An examination of financial institutions and markets, their role in economic conditions, and the use of macroeconomic policies in affecting those conditions
– How to compute returns
– How to measure risk
– How to allocate portfolios under uncertainty
– How to price various assets
– Macro analysis and portfolio management
*Recently taught sections of Econ 423 are interchangeable with Econ 425.
Courses & BootcampsBootcamp #2 – Matlab for Financial Economists (Winter Break)
• REQUIRED for QFE
• Online, self paced
• Intro to Matlab interface
• Scripting
• Basic Econometrics
• APIs
• Databases
• Knowledge Check
Courses & BootcampsECON 525: Advanced Financial Economics – 3 Credits* (Spring)
– Open only to QFE students
– A survey of the financial econometrics theory, with applications to portfolio and risk management
– Focus on investment management problems and how to tackle them
– How to forecast returns and volatility
– Advanced portfolio allocation and risk management
– Seminar-style classes – a lot of student participation
– Term paper written with Professional Research Partners
* Counts as 500-level course required for Economics major
Courses & BootcampsECON 493: Practicum in Quant. Fin. Econ. – 1 Credit (Spring)
– Open only to QFE students
– Lab-style course where students develop and test quantitative methods used by finance professionals
– Focus on computational implementation
– Follows closely the material in 525
– How to acquire, store, and analyze market data
– How to design, test, and implement strategies
The Training
Financial Economic Theory | Statistics & Econometrics | Computational Tools & Data Sources
Extracurricular
• Tar Heel Alpha
– Student-managed investment club
• Guest speakers
– Academics and practitioners
• Research Opportunities
– Mayo Summer Research Fellowship
• Recruiting
– Networking events and resume drops
Professional Research Partners (PRP)
• NASDAQ
• Citadel
• BP
• BAML
• Cardinal
• LaunchPad
• Nanovest
• Morgan Creek
• Citizens Capital
• Wells Fargo
• 95 Impact
• Hatteras
• Crabel
• Old Well
• Cornerstone
• Fidus
• Barclays
• Eli Global
• Drobny
• Vanderbilt Endow.
• Microsoft
• Crabel
• Wisdom Tree
• UNC-MC
• RidgeCrest
• Evalueserve…….
Recruiting / Networking
Recommended Schedule
Year Fall Spring Summer
Freshman ECON 101: Introduction to Economics ECON 410: Intermediate Theory: Price
and Distribution
Sophomore ECON 400: Introduction to Statistics
and Econometrics
ECON 420: Intermediate Theory:
Money, Income, and Employment
Internship
Junior ECON 425: Financial Markets and
Economic Fluctuations
ECON 570: Applied Econometric
Analysis
ECON 525: Topics in Quantitative
Financial Economics
ECON 493: Practicum in Quantitative
Financial Economics
Internship
or
Mayo
Summer
Research
Fellowship
Senior ECON 5xx
Tar Heel Alpha
Tar Heel Alpha
How to join
• Pre-requisites: ECON 101, 400, 410, 420
• Application for Spring posted ~mid-October
– Majors, Minors, GPA
– Relevant Classes
– Programming
– Work experience and career goals
– Bootcamp deliverables & knowledge checks
Contact Us
• Visit us at http://qfe.web.unc.edu
• Join our listserv by emailing to [email protected];
– Subject = “Listserv”;
– Leave body of the message blank