In this course, you will dive into the concepts of rationality and irrationality and understand how they impact our investment decisions and what the consequences can be at the market level.
This course is part of the Investment Management Specialization
Offered By
About this Course
Skills you will gain
- Portfolio Construction
- Investment Style
- Cognitive Bias
- Investment
Offered by

University of Geneva
Founded in 1559, the University of Geneva (UNIGE) is one of Europe's leading universities. Devoted to research, education and dialogue, the UNIGE shares the international calling of its host city, Geneva, a centre of international and multicultural activities with a venerable cosmopolitan tradition.
Syllabus - What you will learn from this course
General Introduction and Key Concepts
In this introductory week, we will start by illustrating how emotions can hinder sensible investment decisions. You will then have the opportunity to check if you master the concepts of the first course that are important for this second course. Finally, we will lay the ground for next week’s content by looking at rational decision making.
How Individuals Make Financial Decisions
The focus of this second week is on you, the investor: what are the reasons you participate in financial markets? How do you make investment decisions? What can go wrong in your decision process and what are the consequences? What can you do about it? To answer these questions, we will talk about cognitive biases, emotions and moral values and their respective link with investment decisions.
Market Efficiency, Bubbles & Crises
In this third week, we will have a look at investors’ behavior as a group. How does it impact asset prices? How do these prices reflect available information? What does it imply for the profitability of some trading strategies? What can go wrong in this price formation process and how can (and did) it cause financial bubbles and crises? This week also features as special guest: Prof. Jean-Pierre Danthine, former vice-chairman of the Swiss National Bank, who will offer insights into some of these issues.
Portfolio Construction and Investment Styles
In this final week, we will look at two main portfolio construction methodologies: top-down and bottom-up. We will see how they differ but also how they can be combined. In the second lesson, we will review some important investment styles that are commonly used in the portfolio management industry. In this final lesson, you will also be given the opportunity to experiment with different trading strategies and compare your results with fellow learners.
Reviews
- 5 stars80.09%
- 4 stars17.09%
- 3 stars2.16%
- 2 stars0.23%
- 1 star0.40%
TOP REVIEWS FROM MEETING INVESTORS' GOALS
This course comes highly recommended. I have derived a wealth of knowledge and expertise throughout the extent of this course. Thank you very much.
Lots of learning in this course. All the lessons were interesting. Loved the way Professor Michel taught and also loved his inverted graphs. Thank you all.
Great course! I like how it explained basic ideas of setting up an investment portfolio. And how it went into detail, such as thematic investing.
Great course! This has definitely helped me understand how to Meet an Investor's Goal, along with how companies decide on investments relative to a client's needs.
About the Investment Management Specialization
In this Specialization, you will understand how investment strategies are designed to reach financial goals in a global context. You will learn the theory that underlies strong investment decisions, as well as practical, real-world skills that you can apply when discussing investment proposals with your advisor, managing your personal assets or your client’s investment portfolio. You will start by developing a global understanding of financial markets and what impacts rational and irrational behaviors have in finance at the micro and macro levels. You will then learn how to adequately build and manage a portfolio with a long-term view while gaining an appreciation for novel research advances in finance and related areas as well as future trends that are shaping the investment management industry. In the final Capstone Project, you will create a sensible 5-year investment plan that accounts for an investor's goals and constraints in a dynamic economic landscape. Key speakers from UBS, our corporate partner, will contribute to this specialization by providing you with practical insights they have gathered through years of experience working for the world’s largest wealth manager.

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