What I learned in class....

Research on memory and learning suggests that recall is enhanced by reviewing class material as soon after class as you can. Thus, you may be able to spend 5-10 minutes reviewing class notes right after class, but if you put it off until just before the test, the same recall may require several hours.

From personal experience I would suggest that this works even if it is only mentally. For instance, while going home from class, try to remember a few things that you learned in class (time commitment near zero). I think you will be amazed at how well it works!

Good luck!

Finance 422--from RIch

If you are in 610 you can ignore this.

Yes folks, Rich Miller has found a useful site for our project.


http://rin.buffalo.edu/_asp/econ/econ_coc.asp?county_name=wny

the link is a list of every chamber of commerce in WNY...

can you forward it to everyone in class?

GMAT

IF you still need to take the GMAT, this seems like a great opportunity!

A representative from Kaplan will be offering free practice GRE, GMAT and LSAT exams on the evening of Tuesday, February 15. The GMAT test will begin at 6:00 p.m., the LSAT at 6:15 p.m, and the GRE at 6:30 p.m. Tests will be about three hours in length. Interested individuals must pre-resgister with the Career Center by Friday, February 11.

Connie Whitcomb, DirectorThe Career Center

FInance lab times and location for spring semester

Please let your classes know that I will be available for help in either Finance or Economics on Tuesdays from 7-9pm and on Wednesdays from 6-9pm. I will be in the new S.I.M.M. room that is in the basement of the Reilly Center. It is the old student weight room or room 29. If anyone wants to get in contact with me please give them my email address and/or name.


Thanks,
Adam Babcock

Two CAPM articles of interest for 610

Thought these might help some for our discussion of CAPM. the yare from the April 2004 FinanceProfessor.com newsletter:

I love summary articles. They help make sense of the world and let us see the forest through the trees. Some of my favorites include the Harris and Raviv summary article on capital structure, Fama's paper that responds to Behavioral Finance Theories, and Cliff Smith's introduction to his book of readings in Corporate Finance. And now I have a favorite on the CAPM and other pricing models. While still officially a working paper, Fama and French give us an excellent recap of both current and past work in the field. My favorite line (and totally coincidentally the conclusion): "The CAPM, Like Markowitz' (1952, 1959) portfolio model on which it is built, is nevertheless a theoretical tour de force. We continue to teach the CAPM….but we also warn students that despite its seductive simplicity, the CAPM's empirical problems probably invalidate its use in applications." WOW! Well said. http://gsbwww.uchicago.edu/fac/finance/papers/capm%202004.pdf

Confused about the differing assumptions of pricing models? More than likely you know that the assumptions don't hold very well and you probably know much research has looked at how the assumptions matter. Fama and French now provide a framework to hopefully make sense of some of this confusion. In a working paper they show that investor tastes and expectations matter. For instance, when discussing the CAPM, they conclude that with differing expectations, there is little a priori reason to expect that the market portfolio is the tangency portfolio (and hence the market portfolio may or may not be mean variance efficient, which is a central tenant of CAPM). Additionally the authors use the concept of investor disagreement (and its impact on the market portfolio) to discuss a range of topics ranging from value investing, to stock picking, and mutual fund performance. Very interesting. Not sure how they do it. Great paper after Great paper! http://gsbwww.uchicago.edu/fac/finance/papers/assetprices2004b.pdf

class CD for 610

I had a student ask about the CD that came with text. Is it good? yes!

If you are looking for extra problems etc, I would highly recommend it.

Especially the quizzes that are there. Most of the material is also online, so you can get to it there, but the CD is much faster.

Decision on MBA 610 Revolution book

We are sticking with it. I think it is important enough that we stay with it. I would suggest you try to find it online if the bookstore does not get it.

The Revolution in Corporate Finance ISBN 1-40510-781-2

Amazon has it listed new for $61, used for $40. I owuld also suggest sharing :)

class codes for clickers

Class codes
MBA 610 -01 (monday class)- M8613B914
MBA 610 -02 (thursday class)-N8614B834
MBA 610 (hilbert class)-M8615C688

GO TO EINSTUCTION.COM TO REGISTER

Finance Club Meeting

The first meeting of the SBU Finance Club Meeting will be held
Wednesday night (1/19/05) at 7 pm in the SIMM room in the Reily Center (the old student weight room below the Post Office) to discuss the trip to Chicago.

If you want to go to Chicago but can not attend the meeting please Rich Miller (MILLERRA@sbu.edu) know as soon as possible.

If you are not a member of the club you really should join. It is open to all majors and I think it is one of the best clubs on campus. Just some of the activities we have planned for this semester include:

• the aforementioned Chicago Trip
• a fund raiser for a local boy who has a brain tumor (Tyler)
• working on a web site to teach business/economics/finance to those in the Middle East (largely Syria, Iran, and Iraq)
• a finance tutoring program
• a resume book

Contact Rich for more information:
(MILLERRA@sbu.edu)

CollegeJournal | News & Trends

Good news for those of you graduating with MBA's this year!!

CollegeJournal | News & Trends: "the recruiting climate is improving for M.B.A.s eyeing careers in consulting"