Business Administration: Financial Tech and Analytics

Provides a broad understanding of the financial technology landscape, including topics like: payment systems, lending platforms, robo-advising, cryptocurrency and blockchain, insurance and real estate technology, crowdfunding and artificial intelligence, and customer relationship management. Prerequisites: BUS 2130 with a minimum grade of C-; BUS 2800 with a minimum grade of C; Business Administration major or minor; minimum Junior standing.

Prereqs enforced by the system: BUS 2130, BUS 2800; BSAD majors and BSAD minors only; Minimum Junior Standing; Open to Degree and PACE students.

This course has three objectives: 1. To provide students with a broad understanding of the FinTech Landscape Payments Lending Platforms Robo-advising Blockchain – Cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and DeFi Apps Crowdfunding And new technologies emerging everyday 2. To explore a variety of tools that are important for financial analysis 3. To provide analytical guidance needed to manage a portfolio of Cryptocurrencies maintained in the Grossman School Endowment The class will rely heavily on using Excel to do much of the analytical work but will introduce students to Python programming as it can be applied to financial analyses. We will also explore additional tools, such as Bloomberg Terminals, Tableau, and Solidity. Class time each week will consist of lectures as well as independent “lab” time for hands-on analytical work. The class will also include guest lectures from people working with traditional financial firms as well as with fintech and blockchain organizations.

Individual homework assignments will average between 2 and 3 hours per week. 2 project will need group meetings for 2-3 hours over the course of 2 weeks Course Materials: Textbooks All the listed textbooks can be accessed for free on the class playlist on O’Reilly Learning. You need to use your UVM email address and network password to access the content. Software Microsoft Excel Jupyter notebooks for Python coding Cloud-based – Google Colaboratory https://colab.research.google.com/notebooks/intro.ipynb or Installed on computer – Anaconda Distribution https://www.anaconda.com/products/distribution Bloomberg for Education - Completion of assigned material will earn certification from Bloomberg https://portal.bloombergforeducation.com/ Classroom group at DataCamp.com Tableau for Students - https://www.tableau.com/academic/students

Grades will be computed using the following rubric 2 quizzes on FinTech topics – 25% On-time completion of individual homework assignments – 25% Mid-term Team Equity Portfolio Presentation – 20% Final Team Cryptocurrency Presentation – 20% Attendance and class participation – 10% Your course grade is determined as follows: A: 93 points and above A-: 90-92 points B+: 87-89 points B: 83-86 points B-: 80-82 points C+: 77-79 points C: 73-76 points C-: 70-72 points D+: 67-69 points D: 63-66 points D-: 60-62 points F: 59 points and below