Prerequisites: Students must have taken Analytical Methods, Introduction to Finance Concepts, or a similar introduction to basic present value calculations at HLS or elsewhere.

Exam Type: No Final Exam. See details on midterm exams below.

Finance is important to understand the world, your clients, and the law – and not just corporate law and clients. This course will teach financial concepts mostly through hands-on financial exercises, small and big; the only lectures will be pre-recorded videos you can watch at home. There will be few legal materials, and only as illustrations of financial concepts. As compared to a typical business school course, this course will put more emphasis on concepts and less on details of project valuation. There will be plenty of numerical exercises but little math.

The course is divided into four modules of three weeks each: (1) Replicating cash flows and the law of one price; (2) Diversification and market efficiency; (3) Capital structure; (4) Options and auctions. Each module concludes with a one-hour take-home exam to be taken anytime between midnight on the day of the last class and 4:30pm on the Friday of that week; there will be no other exam or paper for this course.