finance HW

Coverage of specific topics related to Financial Planning:

MARKET REPORTS

 Each student is required to turn in written reports on financial market activity covering the first two months of the semester. Reports will cover periods from September 1 through September 30 (due October 10) and October 3 through October 28 (due October 31).

The purpose of the assignment is to familiarize students with trends and important events that move prices in financial markets. The reports should include at least the following three components.

1.    Summary of important events and announcements in financial markets as well as a discussion of economic and political events that have influenced financial markets during the month. Section C of the Wall Street Journal is the best source for information about what caused changes in the market.

2.   Presentation of data. At a minimum, include daily observations of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the Standard and Poor’s 500, and the NASDAQ Indexes. (Feel free to include other indexes which may interest you.) Data must be presented in a table format and must be supplemented with graphs to aid in presentation, identification of trends, and interpretation. Use Excel software to enter each day’s closing value for each index and to graph all closing values for the month. Graph results for each index separately.

3.   Interpret the results.

a)   Interpretation of observed trends;

b)   discussion of relationships between observed market movements and economic/political events during the month, i.e., identify specific market results to specific events;

c)    discussion of similarities and differences among the index results for the period;

d)   Summary of market movements for the period.

FIN 331, Applied Investments is required as part of Western Kentucky University’s (1) B.S. in Finance—Financial Planning Track and the (2) Certificate in Financial Planning.  These programs are both offered in the Finance Department of the Gordon Ford College of Business and are registered with the CFP® Board.  As such, this course is required to cover the following topics, which are part of the 89 Topic List published by the CFP® Board, which can be found at the Board’s website (click link) or copy and paste the following address into your browser: www.cfp.net

 The specific topics by number and name that will be covered are:

8.   Education planning

9.   Financial planning for special circumstances

26. Annuities

30. Other employee benefits

31. Employee stock options

34. Characteristics, uses and taxation of investment vehicles

35. Types of investment risk

36. Quantitative investment concepts

37. Measures of investment returns

38. Bond and stock valuation concepts

40. Portfolio development and analysis

41. Investment strategies

42. Asset allocation and portfolio diversification

50. Basis

52. Tax consequences of like-kind exchanges

66. Investment considerations for retirement plans