I once came across a definitional difference between financial speculation and gambling. This might seem rather trivial, or only of interest to some moral philosophers. But it was of great significance when the Chicago Board of Trade was trying to … Continued
A few years ago a course on financial institutions would mention the IMF as a matter almost of politeness. An organisation that was created in 1944 for a role which ceased to make sense after 1971 seemed to be surviving, … Continued
There is plenty of excellent commentary on the rapidly unfolding Greek financial crisis so I want to stand back slightly and muse on the bigger picture. This is an economic problem that arose from a political goal. There is a … Continued
MFin and MBA students often ask about working for hedge funds. I’ve never worked for a hedge fund but used to have several as clients and have done some consulting for a couple, which gave me some inside perspectives. Most … Continued
A student told me the other day that getting a job depended more on who you know than what you know. While I would agree that it helps to have contacts or friends in the business, I don’t agree with … Continued
Is the Cambridge Master of Finance a course for quants? In short, no, but it’s worth commenting a bit more on this. Finance has become a lot more quantitative over the years so that the entry level requirements for some … Continued
The approach of the annual group consulting project (GCP) on the MFin prompts me to think what the differences are between financial analysts who work in investment banks and those who work in consulting firms. There are many shared skills … Continued
Cambridge University’s Judge Business School has a strong collaborative ethos. So for example students are not “incentivised” by being told their grades relative to each other. We tell them the actual mark, the class mean and standard deviation but no … Continued
The work experience requirement is central to the MFin. But what counts as “relevant”? There are three criteria. One, did it provide the candidate with some real finance learning opportunity, even if it was in only one specific area? Two, … Continued
There is a bit of mystique about interviews at the University of Cambridge, most of it total nonsense. There was a time, many decades ago, when the cult of the amateur reigned at some colleges and eccentric dons would put … Continued
Today’s FT has a special supplement on equity capital markets, the part of an investment bank that helps companies to raise equity capital. One article mentions the well known fact that IPO fees remain very much unchanged for year after … Continued
Students have recently been asking about how anyone can continue to defend the efficient markets hypothesis (EMH) against the backdrop of the financial crisis and volatility we’ve seen in the last couple of years. I think there are two useful … Continued
This week makes me acutely aware of the workload we put on the students. Yesterday they gave their Equity Research presentations to our invited panel of practitioner experts, which is a very stressful experience – though I think students learn … Continued