Markets Prep

Course Number: MSCF

Market Prep introduces students to the institutional structure of modern financial markets and the roles played by major financial firms. The course examines how asset managers, banks, trading firms, and market infrastructure interact, and how incentives, regulation, capital constraints, and technology shape market behavior. Students develop a working understanding of the financial ecosystem in which quantitative models, pricing frameworks, trading strategies, and investment decisions are applied.

The course uses major market events and episodes of market stress to develop economic reasoning, professional judgment, and clear communication about markets. Students study how risk, liquidity, valuation, market structure, and arbitrage-based pricing relationships interact in practice, and how these dynamics inform quantitative analysis, firm behavior, and regulatory outcomes. By grounding quantitative learning in an understanding of real markets and institutions, Market Prep prepares students to engage more effectively with the MSCF core curriculum and applied coursework.

Concentration: Finance
Semester(s): Summer
Required/Elective: Required
Prerequisite(s): None