Current MSc Students
M.Sc. Analytical Finance
M.Sc. International Finance
MSc in Analytical Finance
Files:
- MSc Analytical Finance Handbook Master 2011-12.pdf
- Advice on Essay Writing
- Avoiding Academic Misconduct
Welcome to the MSc in Analytical Finance (AF) course, in the School of Economics & Finance at St Andrews. It has been developed to reflect the increasing interest in this technical area displayed by postgraduate applicants to St Andrews, allied to a long standing tradition, within this University, of placing our graduates in a wide variety of posts in the financial community. This is commonplace for the UK, Europe, and North America, and is becoming increasingly true of further afield, including China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and Thailand. St Andrews has a deep academic tradition in finance, dating back over a hundred years, to W R Scott’s famous work on the form and finance of joint-stock companies, and the genesis of speculative crises. Today, we have a well established group of staff who are active in teaching, research, consulting and publishing in finance, over a broad range of topics.
This master's degree in analytical finance focuses on rigorous methods, employing advanced mathematics and statistics. It covers neoclassical finance (including arbitrage pricing, portfolio selection, capital asset pricing, and capital market efficiency) and specialist topics with therom as well as advanced techniques (in optimization, computations and econometrics).
There are two types of students on this programme. Some are on the Postgraduate Diploma in Analytical Finance course, which runs full-time for two semesters. They are appraised by both continuous assessment during the teaching of modules and by their performance in end of semester examinations in January and May. Others are on the MSc in Analytical Finance course which runs full-time for the full academic year. They are appraised by continuous assessment, end of semester examinations in January and May and by a dissertation of at least 10,000 words (but no longer than 15,000 words) which is returned by the end of August. A basic requirement is that both Diploma and MSc students must gain a total of 120 credits from modules taken.
All candidates take three compulsory modules in Analytical Finance in the first semester, and two compulsory modules in the second semester. Each module carries a credit weight of 20 credits. They must then study one further optional module in the second semester, of 20 credit weight. Candidates select from the optional modules listed below. Both Diploma and MSc candidates are appraised by continuous assessment and an examination paper in each module. Examinations occur at the end of the semester in which a module is taught. Subject to performance students may proceed to write the 60 credit Dissertation for the MSc in Analytical Finance.
PRELIMINARY READING
It is expected that all students will have studied and mastered a significant body of the preliminary reading, as given below.The Economist, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal and their associated website and pages are a good way to grasp contemporary insights, examples and issues, relating to finance.
As a sophisticated introduction to studies in analytical finance, we recommend:
Stephen Ross (2005) Neoclassical Finance, Princeton University Press
For orientations on what 'quants' do, refer to:
Perry Mehrling (2005) Fischer Black and the Revolutionary Idea of Finance, John Wiley.
Emanuel Derman (2004) My Life as a Quant: Reflections on Physics and Finance, John Wiley.
