Students who have successfully completed this course will have acquired the following skills:

• Gain a firm understanding of how financial decision making and market outcomes can be influenced by human behavior and technology.
• Apply concepts from finance to retail and professional investors.
• Discuss how implications of retail behavior may be used in finance: can fund managers generate alpha from mispricing or anomalies? Are investors and markets predictably irrational?

Moreover, the class will contribute to the students’ ability to:

• Summarize and professionally present case studies and academic material in a concise way.
• Understand important concepts, findings, and implications from empirical and experimental studies
• Adequately communicate and participate in in-class discussions

After completing this class the student will also have the ability to:

• Read and comprehend introductory academic material in behavioral economics and behavioral finance.
• Apply basic insights from finance to financial decision making.
• Think critically about innovations in finance.

This course consists of a mix of regular lectures, class room discussions and analyses of assignments. The lectures will be largely based on the instructor’s lecture notes and additional readings. The lectures aim to communicate to students the theoretical framework and main concepts behind various topics. To each main section of the class there will be assignments to gain a deeper understanding behind the concepts developed during the lectures. The assignments will involve articles and summarizing the main findings and discussing the implications.

Students will be allowed to work in small groups of maximum of 4 students per group. Solutions to these assignments must be sent to the instructor electronically. The solution will be presented and discussed in class by the students.

Completion of the Course 1 „Basics in Finance“