PG Diploma In Financial Analysis

In the financial services industry, one of the most coveted careers is that of a financial analyst. Across the globe, financial analysts are one of the high paid professionals.Financial Analysts monitor and interpret available data such as industry and economic trends, forecast the current trends and then determine a fair market value of an asset of a company. They make recommendations based on this analysis. They also manage portfolio worth millions of dollars. Mostly, Financial Analyst occupy senior positions in investment management companies, private equity, hedge funds etc. Financial analysts play a number of different roles like Equity analyst, Credit Analyst, Portfolio Managers, Investment Advisors, Investment bankers etc.

To get into such coveted roles, require advance knowledge of finance and investment management, sharpening of analytical skills and learning essential tools and techniques to dig deeper into the numbers.

Program Overview

Post Graduate Diploma in Financial Analysis course provided by International College of Financial Planning is a culmination of industry experts in the field of investment banking, private equity, hedge funds, portfolio managers and seasoned academicians who are well aware of the prerequisites to give a jumpstart to your career in financial analysis. The PGDFA course combines unique blend of course delivery by faculties and working on financial projects like financial models, M&A models which prepare students well in advance for all the future challenges.

Program Objectives

• Understanding global financial instruments and markets.
• Learning the art and science of company valuation & analysis
• Wild card to glorified career in financial research
• To provide students with the theoretical framework and analytical tools and techniques to handle a variety of finance and business functions.

Unique Aspects

• This Finance Analyst Courses content similar to CFA L1 and L2 curriculum.
• Hands-on experience on working on live projects.
• Supported case-studies to enhance learning.
• Assisted job placements.

Career Scope

1. Equity Research: They are think tanks of capital markets. Their task is to analyze future prospects of businesses on the basis of financial & economic factors. They hunt for undervalued stocks where share prices are lower than true economic worth of the company. They generally have specialization in a particular sector of economy and track all news and policy changes related to it. They need to have sound understanding of various valuation models, financial statement analysis and above all the analytical skills. Successful research analysts can see through thick layers of businesses, quantify their thoughts and take a decision that is different and accurate at the same time. Research analysts publish their thoughts through research reports in media or to specific group of investors.

2. Credit Research: Phases of financial meltdown in history has proved the importance of credit analysis function in financial institutions and rating agencies. Credit analysts perform tasks similar to that of an equity research analyst except that the end decision is to invest in the debt of a company. They try to ascertain credibility and capacity of the borrower in paying back interest and principal to lenders where borrowers can be Countries as well as Companies. They are interested in knowing strength of business, its financials, management quality etc.

3. Portfolio Management: Portfolio managers guide institutional as well as private clients how they should allocate money into different asset classes. It’s a complicated area and requires sound understanding of portfolio theories, quantitative techniques and risk minimizing techniques. They should also possess good interpersonal skills as they directly consult human beings. There may be 2 variations in this kind of a role:

4. Derivatives Strategy: Derivatives are the greatest and most debated innovation in financial markets in recent decades. Derivatives hold a prominent position in areas of trading, business risk management and portfolio management. Complex financial derivatives exist in almost all areas ranging from stock, debt, interest rates, commodities and currency to even monsoon and cyclones. Derivate specialists design optimum trading or risk management strategies and it requires deep knowledge about their valuation and features.

Curriculum

Semester-1

1. Professional Ethics & Corporate Governance: In today’s dynamic finance world, professional ethics are a prerequisite for finance professionals. This subject lists down the code of ethics laid down by the Association of Investment Management & Research (AIMR) and explain the importance of ethical practices.

2. Security Analysis-1: This topic forms the core of investment research. This topic gives an overview of equity markets, indexes, and kind of equity instruments available in the market. This subject further delves into understanding of industry, sectors, and different stages of company growth which are foundation for equity research. Finally it talks about different kinds of valuation techniques like DCF, DDM.

• Debt Analysis: This topic covers understanding of structure of global bond markets and different kinds of fixed income instruments available in the market today. It also covers characteristics & risks involved in fixed income instruments, and analysis of fixed income yields & spreads.
• Alternate Investment Analysis: Alternate investments have a huge gamut of investment products like real estate, commodities, private equities, hedge funds, ETFs etc. These assets are used extensively these days for portfolio diversification. The topic studies these asset classes, their return and risk characteristics in detail.
• Derivative Strategies: It covers various types of derivative instruments such as forwards, futures, options, swaps etc and introduction to their application in risk management. It also explain the difference between different instruments and how they are used for hedging. It also talks about various mathematical models like Black-Scholes which are used for valuing options.

3. Financial Reporting & Analysis-1: Financial Statements are the focal point of investment research. It starts with basic principles and different kinds of financial reporting. It also explains components of financial statements – Balance sheet, Income statement (P&L) and Cash Flows statements. Later part of the curriculum delves into inventory valuation, ratio analysis and how to detect loopholes in financial statements.

4. Corporate Finance -1: The topic covers the principles that corporations use to make their investing and financing decisions. Initial part covers techniques of capital budgeting, measuring cost of capital & leverage. Later part covers management of working capital and dividend policies of a company.

5. Portfolio Management & Quantitative Techniques-1: This part is divided into two parts:

• Portfolio Management: Portfolio Management is one of the crucial process in managing assets. It gives an overview of how to construct a portfolio keeping in mind your client objectives, their risk appetite and constraints. Finally you study the theories of portfolio management and critically analyze them in the end.
• Quantitative Techniques: This topic discusses crucial concepts in finance like time value of money, discounted cash flows. This gets deeper into studying of statistical concepts, probability theory and hypothesis testing which are crucial for analyzing the data.

6. Advanced Economics: This topic covers in depth study of micro & macroeconomic school of thoughts. With perspective to finance, topic covers demand-supply equilibrium, firm output decisions & costs under micro economics. The macroeconomics part explains different market structures under which firms operate and goes on to explain how at macro level GDP is determined due to aggregate demand and supply interaction, how business cycles originate and finally impact of monetary & fiscal policies on economy.

Semester-2

1. Security Analysis-2: This topic is advanced extension of security analysis studied in previous semester, again is divided in four parts:

• Equity Analysis: This topic talks extensively about different valuation techniques used in valuing different sort of assets like DDM (dividend discount model), FCFF model (free cash flows to firm), FCFE (free cash flows to equity), EVA (economic value added) model and relative valuation techniques. This topic further details usability and constraints in using these techniques. Apart from valuation, this also digs deep into industry life cycles.
• Debt Analysis: This delves into studying term structure and volatility of interest rates. There’s further discussion on the valuation techniques for different fixed income instruments like valuation of bonds with embedded options. This subject further introduces the very popular mortgage backed securities, their return and risk characteristics and their valuation techniques.
• Alternate Investment Analysis: The Level1 introduces asset classes that form Alternate investments. This topic delves into valuation of real estate equity investments, publicly traded real estate securities, private equity valuation, hedge funds valuation etc.
• Derivative Strategies: This topic explain complexities of derivative instruments and valuation of forward contracts, future contracts, options, swap markets, credit default swaps and interest rate derivative instruments.

2. Economics for Valuation: This topic focuses on linking thus far learnt economics concepts with valuation of securities by explaining the impact of macroeconomic environment on firm’s profitability. Focus of this topic is on Growth theories, exchange rate theories & Concepts and measures of economic growth.

3. Financial Reporting & Analysis-2: In this advanced version some key issues that affect company valuations are covered in details. It covers analysis of M&A Accounting, Post-Employment and Share-Based compensation, Multinational Operations and how different accounting policies may affect analytical interpretation and how to troubleshoot it. In the end you study advanced techniques of ratio analysis & determining quality of earnings.

4. Corporate Finance-2: Topic covers advanced discussion on capital budgeting principles, dividend policy, capital structure policy, corporate governance and M&A strategies.

5. Portfolio Management & Quantitative Techniques-2: This reading has 2 parts:

1. Portfolio Management: Topic introduces a popular extension to Markowitz portfolio theory studied in sem 1, the Capital Asset Pricing Model and explains how to quantify & diversify portfolio risk using efficient portfolios. Later you study more theories such as theory of active portfolio management, international diversification and managing taxation to maximize post tax gains and finally constructing investment policy statement.
2. Quantitative Techniques: Topic focuses on popular quantitative tool in research, the regression analysis. It covers single, multivariable and time series regression models along with techniques to assess credibility of such tests, called ANOVA.

6. Professional Ethics -2: Except some new ethical principles, topic repeats most part of ethical standards read in sem 1, it shows great amount of importance given to this topic

Admissions

Course Duration

The duration of the course is 10+2 months in full time mode, which includes an internship of 2 months in a financial sector company.

Eligibility & Admission Process

Admission Procedure: Our PG programs are targeted towards individuals with high potential for success in the financial services sector. Selection at ICoFP is therefore very rigorous & competitive.

Eligibility

• The candidate must possess a Bachelor’s Degree
• The Bachelor’s Degree (or equivalent qualification) with minimum of 45% obtained by the candidate must entail a minimum of 3 years of education after completing Higher Secondary School (10 + 2 or equivalent).
• Candidate applying for their final year exams can also apply subject to furnishing a proof of graduation by 15th September.

1. Application :

ICoFP Prospectus and Application Form and can be acquired by one time payment of Rs. 1000/- for one program.

• By cash payment at our counseling offices.
• By post (enclosing demand draft drawn in favor of “International College of Financial Planning ltd.” payable at New Delhi).
• On-line application through click here (need to make the payment by credit/debit card).

2. Admission Test:

Candidates are required to appear for “AMCAT (The AMCAT is a computer adaptive test which measures critical areas like communication skills, logical reasoning, quantitative skills, thus helping us to identify the suitability of a candidate.)” conducted by International College of Financial Planning. The candidate has to undergo a rigorous selection procedure comprising of Written Test, Group Discussion & Personal Interview. All candidates who have appeared for CAT/ MAT can also apply to ICoFP with their score. Short listed candidates will have to appear only for GD & PI. Group Discussion and personal interview are also integral components of the admissions process. The overall objective is to identify and assess the candidate’s communication ability, in addition to the overall knowledge of the student. IIMs have no role either in the selection process or in the conduct of the program.

3. Admission Offer:

Final selection will be based on a careful evaluation of the applicant’s academic record from class X, through graduation and/or post graduate qualification, work experience (if any), extra curricular activities, Group Discussion and personal Interview. Successful candidates will be informed of their final selection by courier/ phone call. The selected candidates must pay their first fee installment within two weeks of receiving the admission offer, failing which the offer will be withdrawn.

FAQs

Q1. What is the difference between general MBA vs PGDFA?

Ans: It is all a matter of Specialisation. While a general MBA will give you knowledge about different facets of management, PGDFA will provide you with specialised knowledge about FINANCIAL ANALYSIS.

Q2.What portion of the CFA curriculum is covered in the PGDFA?

Ans: PGDFA covers 100% of the course curriculum of level 1 and Level 2 of CFA® program by CFA Institute.

Q3. How is MBA FA different than PGDFA?

Ans: There are few differences:

1. MBA is a degree while PGDFA is a diploma
2. MBA covers Level 3 curriculum also
3. MBA includes employability enhancing modules like Strategy, Financial Modelling and technical analysis which are missing in PGDFA
4. There is no internship in PGDFA which is present in MBA for 2 months.
5. PGDFA is a one year program as against MBA FA which is of two years.

Q4. What are the employment opportunities after PGDFA?

Ans: Refer career opportunity section. https://www.icofp.org/mba-in-financial-analysis/career-opportunities.php

Q5. Financial Analysis is the most happening job for fresher. Is this true?

Ans: 20 years ago, India was a favorite destination for accounting related jobs. The number of jobs is still the same; the nature has changed in the last 5 years. There are many jobs but for data analyst. Financial Analyst is one of those and certainly one of the most happening for freshers.

Q6. What are the chances of getting a job abroad after PGDFA?

Ans: PGDFA gives knowledge enough to clear first two levels for CFA®. Once CFA® is done, the international acceptability of the candidate increases manifold into global financial markets like New York, London, Singapore, Hong Kong, etc.

Q7. Will Financial Modelling be a part of the curriculum?

Ans: No. Financial Modelling is taught in detail in the 3rd Semester of MBA FA but not in PGDFA.

Q8. Will a student get an placement opportunity from the placement cell of college?

Ans: Yes. ICOFP has a placement cell which provides assistance in final placements.

Q9. Does a student get any exemption from CFA institute’s CFA exams because of its candidature in MBA (FA)?

Ans: PGDFA is affiliated to Mysore University capsulating the curriculum of CFA® Program USA. A student will have to clear CFA exams (all 3 levels) by registering oneself in the CFA® Program.