Financial Markets and Investments (1 º Sem 2015/2016)

There will be no class on Friday October 30 (M. Actuarial Sciences), because the teacher is out of the country.

This 3h class is replaced by two 1.5h classes, on Mondays the 2nd and 16th November, from 8.00-9.30h, at Anf 1, Quelhas .

Alternatively, M. Actuarial Sciences students may opt to attend a 3h class on Monday the 2nd of November, from 13.30-16.30h, together with some M. Finance students.

All will be exercise classes.

I have contacted Stocktrak and requested fixing/clarifications on several issues.

Their answers on all issues raized are below:

• TRANSACTION COSTS. Starting TODAY the transaction costs are 0.5% of the trade value. All groups will be reimburshed of abnormally high costs charged until yesterday.
• EXCHANGES. Some stock exchanges existent in real life are not available for trading because they have "very little demand and it is expensive to have real life feeds". That is why some exchanges do not even show up (like Toquio) or are closed for investments (like Milan). However, Stocktrak did open access to more exchanges that where mistakely closed to you. That is, for instance, the case of the Swedish exchange.
• BONDS. Unfortunately you can only invest in US bonds and there is nothing we can do about that. It seems "most universities play the simulation game only for Stocks investments". "Even those who invest in other asset classes, they usually do not require non-US". And, "European bond markets are very expensive to get life feeds".
• EUROS. You portfolio is defined in EUROS and should be managed in EUROS. Thus, no exchange rate should apply when trading euro denominated securities. In case that happens please contact the Stocktrak helpdesk immediately.
• FX. It is a challenge to buy or sell foreign currencies because Stocktrak always think w.r.t. USD. But I am sure you can figure a way to make it work  ;-)
• MY ACCOUNT. It is not possible for you to see my "RMGaspar" account :-( It seems "most professors do not like to compete against their students", so "it is the stocktrak policy to always hide the professors accounts" and they can't unhide !!! SO, I will have to preplicate my portfolio using the "FMIa account" that does show up in the students' rankings... double work for me :-( Anyway only from next week will you be able to track me!

USE STOCKTRAK HELP. Please make use of Stocktrak helpdesk all the time you do not understand something. That is part of your learning process. They do answer and fix mistakes (if it was really a mistake). I will only contact them in extreme situation and about very general matters that concern all groups.

Good Investments,

Raquel M. Gaspar

The First CFA-style online Quiz test is on the 11th of October, at 21.30h .

Students should login to there Aquila accounts in advance and be sure to submit their answers in time.

It is a 30 min test with 20 multiple-choice questions.

The test will be distributed (via Aquila) do all registered students. It is mandatory for those under continuous evaluation and optional to the others.

Registration to the Portfolio Simulation Game is now OPEN.

(my appologies for those who tried earlier than today)

The game starts next Monday, 5th of October and runs for 12 week.

Don't be late!