Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services . Finance activities take place in financial systems at various scopes, thus the field can be roughly divided into personal, corporate, and public finance.
Financial economics is the branch of economics characterized by a "concentration on monetary activities", in which "money of one type or another is likely to appear on both sides of a trade". Its concern is thus the interrelation of financial variables, such as share prices, interest rates and exchange rates, as opposed to those concerning the real economy. It has two main areas of focus: asset pricing, commonly known as "Investments", and corporate finance; the first being the perspective of providers of capital, i.e. investors, and the second of users of capital. It thus provides the theoretical underpinning for much of finance.
In finance, the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) is a model used to determine a theoretically appropriate required rate of return of an asset, to make decisions about adding assets to a well-diversified portfolio.
William Forsyth Sharpe is an American economist. He is the STANCO 25 Professor of Finance, Emeritus at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, and the winner of the 1990 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.
Harry Max Markowitz is an American economist who received the 1989 John von Neumann Theory Prize and the 1990 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.
Modern portfolio theory (MPT), or mean-variance analysis, is a mathematical framework for assembling a portfolio of assets such that the expected return is maximized for a given level of risk. It is a formalization and extension of diversification in investing, the idea that owning different kinds of financial assets is less risky than owning only one type. Its key insight is that an asset's risk and return should not be assessed by itself, but by how it contributes to a portfolio's overall risk and return. It uses the variance of asset prices as a proxy for risk.
Financial risk is any of various types of risk associated with financing, including financial transactions that include company loans in risk of default. Often it is understood to include only downside risk, meaning the potential for financial loss and uncertainty about its extent.
Frank J. Fabozzi is an American economist, educator, writer, and investor, currently Professor of Practice at The Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School and a Member of Edhec Risk Institute. He was previously a Professor of Finance at EDHEC Business School, Professor in the Practice of Finance and Becton Fellow in the Yale School of Management, and a Visiting Professor of Finance at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has authored and edited many books, three of which were coauthored with Nobel laureates, Franco Modigliani and Harry Markowitz. He has been the editor of the Journal of Portfolio Management since 1986 and is on the board of directors of the BlackRock complex of closed-end funds.
Post-Modern Portfolio Theory (PMPT) is an extension of the traditional Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT), an application of mean-variance analysis (MVA). Both theories propose how rational investors can use diversification to optimize their portfolios.
Jack Lawrence Treynor was an American economist who served as the President of Treynor Capital Management in Palos Verdes Estates, California. He was a Senior Editor and Advisory Board member of the Journal of Investment Management, and was a Senior Fellow of the Institute for Quantitative Research in Finance. He served for many years as the editor of the CFA Institute's Financial Analysts Journal.
Wolfgang Drobetz is an economist at the University of Hamburg. He is known for his work in corporate finance and asset management. He also is in the editor board of the journal Financial Markets and Portfolio Management (FMPM).
Chi-fu Huang is a private investor, a retired hedge fund manager, and a former finance academic. He has made contributions to the theory of financial economics, writing on dynamic general equilibrium theory, intertemporal utility theory, and the theory of individual consumption and portfolio decisions.
A portfolio manager (PM) is a professional responsible for making investment decisions and carrying out investment activities on behalf of vested individuals or institutions. Clients invest their money into the PM's investment policy for future growth, such as a retirement fund, endowment fund, or education fund. PMs work with a team of analysts and researchers and are responsible for establishing an investment strategy, selecting appropriate investments, and allocating each investment properly towards an investment fund or asset management vehicle.
The Journal of Portfolio Management is a quarterly academic journal for finance and investing, covering topics such as asset allocation, performance measurement, market trends, risk management, and portfolio optimization. The journal was established in 1974 by Peter L. Bernstein. The current editor-in-chief is Frank J. Fabozzi.
Edwin Elton is a Nomura Professor of Finance at New York University Stern School of Business and Academic Director of the Stern Doctoral Program. Professor Elton also teaches for the Master of Science in Global Finance (MSGF), which is a joint program between Stern and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
Portfolio optimization is the process of selecting the best portfolio, out of the set of all portfolios being considered, according to some objective. The objective typically maximizes factors such as expected return, and minimizes costs like financial risk. Factors being considered may range from tangible to intangible.
John M. Longo Ph.D, CFA is an American investment strategist, portfolio manager, educator, editor, speaker and author.
Quantitative analysis is the use of mathematical and statistical methods in finance and investment management. Those working in the field are quantitative analysts (quants). Quants tend to specialize in specific areas which may include derivative structuring or pricing, risk management, investment management and other related finance occupations. The occupation is similar to those in industrial mathematics in other industries. The process usually consists of searching vast databases for patterns, such as correlations among liquid assets or price-movement patterns.
Bruno Solnik was a professor of finance at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in Hong Kong. He was academic director of the HKUST-NYU Master in Global Finance. He is also distinguished emeritus professor of finance at HEC Paris.
William N. Goetzmann is the Edwin J. Beinecke Professor of Finance and Management Studies at the Yale School of Management, and a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. In 2018, he received the James R. Vertin Award by the Chartered Financial Analysts Institute Research Foundation "for a body of research notable for its relevance and enduring value to investment professionals".
