Student Reflective Learning Blog

In the fourth week of lectures we were taught on the topic modern portfolio theory. This theory is an investment theory, based on the idea that risk-averse investors can create portfolios to max out the expected return based on a given level of market risk  considering that this risk is part of the reward.  This is one of the most important theories behind finance and investments. Another factor that this theory suggests is that investors given two portfolios would prefer the less risky one over the other. Therefore this suggests that investors will be willing to go for high risk portfolios if the return is fairly high compared to the other. this means that an investor must undergo a higher risk if they are aiming for a higher reward.  The same theory applies for each and every investor. Each investor will evaluate this theory in many different ways. A method which could be used to reduce the portfolio risk would be  by holding co...

In the third week of lectures, I was educated on capital markets and its efficiencies. Capital markets fall under two categories, namely primary markets and secondary markets. Primary markets permit the insurance of new securities from the issuer to the investor.  The main objective of primary markets is a efficient and liquid environment where price adjustments can happen instantly (price discovery and formation). On the other hand secondary markets is based  on the idea where something is trade after having initially sold.  A few examples of major stock exchanges which consists both of these are FM, FTSE and ASI.  Meanwhile, the main role of capital marketing is the efficient allocation of the economy's capital stock and allocation of these stocks. Capital market efficiency states that capital markets occur when share prices would reflect all the available necessary data.  Capital markets could be made more efficient by adjusting security p...

In the second week of lectures, we were given the topic of International Value Management. Value management is the managing of shareholder value. The key components of Value Management are Organisational capabilities, strategy and finance. traditional methods used to measure performance are Earnings per share and Return on capital employed (ROCE). Earning per share is calculated by dividing profit, net of tax, dividends to shareholders by the amount of ordinary shares outstanding. This shows the amount each shareholder gets if all the net income is distributed among them which usually doesn't happen and instead they are reinvested in the business. ROCE, on the other hand, means the profitability ratio of a company it is measured by comparing the profitability and the capital employed. Moreover, the lecturer briefly explained us about shareholder value creation/destruction, in highly volatile and complicated marketplace, it is important to create shareholder value which can lea...

In the first week of lectures, I was able to understand what is corporate financial management, it is the way of managing a company's finances effectively and efficiently in order to achieve the organisation's goals and objectives. For further understanding of this topic I referred the website Investopedia.com where an article reviewed by Will Kenton, 2019 states the corporate financing involves Financing Divisions, investment Decisions and Dividend Decisions.  Link:  https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/corporatefinance.asp The primary concern of corporate finance is to increase the shareholder value by long and short term financial planning and also by implementing different strategies. Other common corporate concerns when it comes to corporate finance are, Revenue/Sales Maximization, Profit Maximization, Survival, Market Share Dominance and Social Responsibility. However attention must also be given to the boundaries, looking through the Anglo American lens comp...