Quantitative Financial Economics

MS in Quantitative Financial Economics

The goal of the MSQFE Program is to offer a “finishing school” to two distinct streams of students. Students entering the program from engineering, physics, mathematics and statistics have highly developed analytical abilities and seek to gain insight into the financial applications of these skills. Students with a background in business and economics tend to have a better understanding of the context of financial applications, yet seek additional refinement of their analytical abilities. The MSQFE curriculum is sufficiently flexible to meet the needs of both streams.

The applications of Quantitative Finance are covered in each stream. Quantitative Finance includes the activities necessary to value financial assets and derivatives, manage price, credit and operational risks, evaluate and select appropriate investment strategies, examine complex issues requiring data analysis, model estimation and strategy formation.

Academic Program

Students who come into our program take a basic core of 24 hours plus 9 hours of electives. The flexibility of the MSQFE plan of study allows students from two streams, Engineering/Mathematics/Physics and Business/Economics, to tailor their studies to provide access to applications in quantitative finance. Elective coursework of recent graduates includes courses in data mining, neural networks and other topics offered at the graduate level.

Students may design their plan of study using one of three area of specialization (tracks) or tailor their studies to meet their own professional objectives:

• Financial Engineering Emphasis: Embodies the multifaceted skill set required to designing and implement derivative valuation and hedging models.
• Risk Management Emphasis: Embodies the breadth of skills identified by The Global Association of Risk Professionals (www.garp.com) and Professional Risk Managers’ International Association (www.prmia.org).
• Investment Management Emphasis: Embodies the breadth of skills identified by the CFA Institute, relevant for the Chartered Financial Analyst professional certification.