Finance

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Sample Finance Research Practicum^℠ projects

Investment Research

• Assess the predictive power of leader-follower relationships among companies.

• Use skew modeling to develop a signal for options trading.
• Conduct an industry review of the cyber-security industry.

Business Strategy

• Develop a plan for an investment firm to enter a new market.
• Explore strategic options for an underperforming manufacturing division.

Risk Measurement

• Develop a method for incorporating news analytics into covariance matrix estimation.
• Investigate if start-up hedge funds have different risk characteristics than mature funds.

Public Sector

• Use an agent-based model to simulate the effect of potential changes in regulations.
• Study firm investment behavior in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.

Sample Proseminar in Corporate Finance/Investment Banking projects:

• Provide investment banking advice to a private equity-controlled chemical company, including valuation analysis and exit strategies.

• Give recommendations on raising capital for a rapidly growing private company.
• Conduct a valuation of two major home construction companies.
• Provide investment banking advice to a private company considering an IPO or sale of the company.
• Give mergers and acquisitions advice to the CEO of a public company receiving an unsolicited acquisition offer.
• Give going-private advice for a closely held, large public corporation.
• Learn the value of a captive finance unit to an industrial manufacturer.
• Evaluate an acquisition opportunity in the healthcare market.
• Assess the long-term growth opportunities for a niche financing business.
• Determine the cost of hedging at a commodity processing company.
• Analyze a technology company’s current financial position and develop a financial plan to match the company’s growth strategy. 

Sample Proseminar in Capital Markets/Investment Management projects:

• Determine a portfolio’s optimal rebalancing schedule
• Review and classify methodologies for detecting crowded trades within equity, fixed income, and currency markets.
• Develop and test strategies for replicating hedge fund style returns.
• Design a portfolio construction technique which takes into account non-normal returns and realistic risk preferences.
• Determine a portfolio’s optimal exposure to illiquid assets.
• Analyze the cost of trading foreign exchange for a major New York-based asset management firm.
• Prepare an asset allocation analysis for a pension fund to account for the claims of corporate stakeholders.