University Students

Take what you need

ENABLERS

Failure to plan is planning to fail. Walk into the classroom with a reason to be there — career planning — and the basic math skills, and a calculator does not count, to earn a strong grade and succeed afterward.

Career Planning — College costs time and money. Make it pay. Develop your plan, build an effective resume and build your network. Start today!

Math — Your calculator is your enemy. Practice your mental math.

Time Value of Money (TVOM) — All currencies become worthless. ALL of them. The only question is the rate of deterioration. Save 10% of whatever you earn and put it to work now.

Evaluation Information — 91% of what you read, see, hear and sense is garbage. Human cognition and bias, failure to screen noise and assess messaging damage decision making. If you don’t control your brain, somebody else controls you.

Global Macro — its a big planet out there. Figure (some of) it out. Selected resources and readings on the 23 countries driving 80% of global GDP that I track in my research business.

Brian’s Library — Once you have read Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, a lot of things become clear. A personal reading list on history, markets, and human nature. (My students) select your book off the short-list.

PRINCIPLES OF FINANCE / CORPORATE FINANCE

Core corporate finance and financial management principles.

Financial Management & Decision Making — understand career opportunities in finance. Learn the investment, financing and dividend decisions. Understand firm, asset, debt and equity. Evaluate business forms/structures and determine which one is most suitable.

Financial Markets & Institutions — study financial markets, financial institutions (formal and otherwise), money markets and capital markets, the relationship between financial markets and physical world.

Financial Statements & Analysis — understand the structure, function and use of the income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement as well as key corporate schedules. Learn how to evaluate quarterly earnings including sales analysis, margin analysis and how to interpret management-speak.

Bond Markets & Valuation — every valuation starts with the risk free rate. Understand the size and structure of domestic and international bond markets and how to value fixed income securities. Readings on the history of interest rates and how inflation always accelerates as civilization matures.

Stock Markets & Valuation — discounted cash flow (DCF), Enterprise Value multiples, transaction markets and judgment. Learn the importance of Macro/economic analysis, Industry analysis and security analysis in that order.

Measuring Risk (CAPM, Factors, Warren Buffett) — learn the capital asset pricing model, style factor analysis and how academics, derivative and institutional markets ostensibly price risk. And how Warren Buffett and (the late) Charlie Munger think it is stupid.

Cost of Capital (WACC) — (Kd x Wc) + (Ke x We) = WACC. Stupid or not, if 99% of the world uses it and its on your tests you have to be able to do the mechanics. I will make it easy for you.

Project Analysis (Methods) — Payback period, NPV, IRR and profitability indexes (rationing). Excel tool kits to help you practice and apply the same methods used by corporate managers.

Economic Profitability — learn how to grade businesses (Return on net assets) and managements (Return on invested capital) and find real world examples of managements that added or destroyed shareholder value through their M&A decisions.

Forecast Risk Analysis — as Mike Tyson says, “Everybody has a plan, until they get punched in the face.” In 40+ years I have had, to date, precisely 1 quarterly earnings report where the company results exactly hit my model. Scenario, sensitivity and break even analysis help you understand your actual risk.

Capital Structure / Miller Modigliani — the theorems that drive global financial markets. MM1, MM2 and MM3.

Returning Cash to Shareholders — formally known as the “dividend decision”, this is where and how dividend policy is set, share repurchase versus dividends and some history on payouts, yields and their relationship to the real economy.

FINANCIAL MARKETS & INSIGHTS

Raising Capital — formal investment banking process, crowd funding, How to Start a Startup (Peter Thiel, not me). Examples of registration documents for private and public offerings.

Money, Currencies and Gold — What is Money? Why it always becomes worthless. Reserve currencies past, present and future. (Note: Digital currencies are not money).

Mutual Funds, Indexing — Indexing, ETFs, mutual funds and self-built portfolios. Four ways to invest in equities. Two of them are stupid (high cost, low return).

Wall Street — Investment Banking, Securities Dealers, and Mug Shots! (people I interacted with who went to prison), the SEC as referee. The growth and importance of Family Offices, Venture Capital and Private Equity Risk & Return.