FIN 4934
Financial Modeling
Financial modeling course which focuses on using Python and Excel to understand personal finance and valuation problems.
- Fall 2019
- Spring 2020
- Fall 2020
- Evaluation score
- 4.5 / 5
- University
- University of Florida
- Gainesville, FL
Topics covered
- Introduction to Financial Modeling
- Corporate Valuation
Explore Financial Modeling details
About this course
This course covers the full financial modeling workflow using both Excel and Python. I will try to teach you how to build a model in general, all the way from concept and data collection to the result and visualization, and how to complete the various steps in either Excel or Python. My goal is to give you tangible skills which would be applicable in a finance job, and more so than any other course you’ve ever taken. This course will be very challenging for the less technically inclined, but I will try to help everyone succeed.
Current offering: Fall 2020 · Fully Online, Asynchronous
Preparation: Have a computer with Microsoft Excel 2007 or newer ready. We will be installing Python on this machine as well.
Textbook
Financial Modeling by Simon Benninga
Fourth Edition, MIT Press
Recommended
Textbook is only recommended. This book is very focused on Excel and we will be using both Excel and Python in the course. It is however useful as a reference for the Excel material and generally how to build the models.
Prerequisites
FIN 3403 (Business Finance) is the minimum requirement. It is highly recommended that you have also taken FIN 4243 (Debt and Money Markets) and FIN 4504 (Equity and Capital Markets) as we will build models based on the concepts in these courses without a thorough treatment of them. We have a lot to cover already in the course and so the finance concepts are not the focus. I can recommend textbooks for any concepts which you haven’t covered in prior courses, but then you will have a large learning curve.
Required: FIN-3403
Recommended: FIN-4243, FIN-4504
Technical skills
- Algebra
- Excel
- Data entry, editing
- Number and cell formatting
- How to work with formulas, and knowledge of common math formulas
- Cell references - fixed and relative, when to use each and why
- Managing worksheets and workbooks
- Graphs, charts
Understanding of algebra is necessary to work with equations in the models. Introductory Excel capabilities are required. Any experience with Python is a plus. It will be assumed that most students have introductory to intermediate skills in Excel and no experience with Python. Ensure that you have the Excel skills mentioned here. If you have no Excel experience or some gaps in your experience but still want to take the course, take a look at the free Excel resources at the end of the syllabus and contact me if you have questions as you go through the resources.
Grading
- Lab Exercises
- 20%
- Projects
- 80%
View grade scale
- A
- 93–100
- A-
- 90–92
- B
- 83–86
- B+
- 87–89
- B-
- 80–82
- C
- 73–76
- C+
- 77–79
- C-
- 70–72
- D
- 63–66
- D+
- 67–69
- D-
- 60–62
- F
- 0–59
Resources
- Python
- Interactive + Video tutorials
- Python from Scratch by University of Waterloo
- interactive tutorials
- Computer Science Circles by University of Waterloo
- Learn Python 2 by codecademy
This one teaches Python 2, which is outdated, but the main difference in the covered material is just that the print function doesn't use parentheses in Python 2. So if you do this one then just adjust how you call print for the class. There is also a Python 3 course but it requires the Pro plan.
- learnpython.org
This is more fast paced
- video tutorials
- YouTube Video Series by CS Dojo
- YouTube Video Series by Jayanam
- Text (non-interactive) tutorials
- Non-Programmer's Tutorial for Python 3 by Wikibooks
Fairly detailed and approachable
- Hands-on Python 3 Tutorial by Dr. Andrew N. Harrington
Very detailed and a bit faster paced
- The Python Guru
Fast paced, this one would be good for those who already know programming but not Python
- Non-Programmer's Tutorial for Python 3 by Wikibooks
- Interactive + Video tutorials
- Excel
- Video Tutorials
- Trump Excel
- Excel 2016 Tutorial by GCF Global
- Excel Exposure by Ben Currier
- Video Tutorials
- Finance
- Introductory Finance Courses
- Finance and Capital Markets by Kahn Academy
- Finance for Non-Finance Professionals - Coursera by James Weston
- Introductory Finance Courses