Program Overview

Financial Markets Career Specialization

Specialization Details

This Specialization allows students to build their own pathway, with the objective of launching their career in the financial services sector. Students develop an understanding of capital markets and financial institutions, securities valuation, and corporate/personal financial advising. The specialization includes courses which cover the CFA body of knowledge.

Students in this Specialization often take co-op positions as Portfolio Operations Analysts, Equity Research Assistants, Investment Banking Analysts, and Private Equity Associates.

Course Requirements

Specialized Courses

To obtain the Financial Markets Specialization, you must complete six of the following courses (3.0 Course Credits):

• AFM 276 - Financial Statement Analysis
• AFM 322 - Derivative Securities
• AFM 324 - Wealth Management
• AFM 326 (0.25 unit) - Student Venture Fund: Analyst
• AFM 328 (0.25 unit) - Investment Management: Junior Analyst
• AFM 329 (0.25 unit) - Investment Management: Senior Analyst
• AFM 377 - Private Equity and Venture Capital
• AFM 422 - Management of Financial Institutions
• AFM 423/ACTSC 423 - Topics in Financial Econometrics
• AFM 425 - Fixed Income Securities
• AFM 426 (0.25 unit) - Student Venture Fund: Associate
• AFM 427 - Intermediate Portfolio Management
• AFM 428 (0.25 unit) - Investment Management: Junior Portfolio Manager
• AFM 429 (0.25 unit) - Investment Management: Senior Portfolio Manager
• AFM 434 - Governance and Enterprise Risk Management for Global Organizations
• AFM 470 - Financial Management of High Growth Companies
• AFM 477 - Mergers and Acquisitions
• AFM 478 - International Financial Management
• SFM 310 - Sustainability in Capital Markets
• SFM 412 - Investor Behaviour

Both AFM 328/329 and AFM 428/429 are 0.25 credits each. These courses are taken together to fulfill the necessary 0.5 credit requirement: AFM 328 + 329 = 0.5 credits and AFM 428 + 429 = 0.5 credits. Each course runs for 12 weeks, however students earn 0.25 credit.

Mandatory AFM Courses

In addition, you must complete the upper-year courses required for all AFM students.

Upper-Year AFM Courses

Mandatory Upper Year Courses

3rd Year | 4th Year ---|--- AFM 311 - Connections to Ethical Context | AFM 480 - Introduction to Organizational Behaviour AFM 321 - Personal Financial Planning | AFM 433 - Business Strategy AFM 335 - Business Law for Financial Managers | AFM 323, AFM 341 or AFM 344 AFM 373 - Cases and Applications in Corporate Finance | AFM 391 - Intermediate Financial Accounting 2

Pairing Specializations

The Financial Markets Specialization is the primary choice if you are seeking a career in the financial services sector, particularly in the areas of asset management, investment and corporate banking, securities sales and trading, or complex financial planning, whether it’s with a large financial institution, smaller ‘boutique’ firm/ or advisory, or investment fund.

This Specialization is very well paired with the Professional Accountant Specialization because of the added value that having knowledge of financial reporting, taxation and performance management offers the finance professional. The Business Analytics Specialization also pairs well with this specialization because of the ongoing automation of some sector areas and the increasing importance that analytics is playing in asset allocation and portfolio management. You can also pair this with the Sustainability Specialization if you are interested in the fast-growing world of or investing. Of course you do not have to pair this Specialization with a second one. You can combine this with study in a variety of fields available at uWaterloo by using your remaining electives. Popular choices are history, economics, computer science.

Extracurriculars

If you want to get involved in co/extra-curricular activities associated with the Financial Markets Specialization, below are some examples:

• Student Investment Fund
• Student Venture Fund
• UW Finance Association
• McGill University International Portfolio Challenge
• Queen’s University Inter-Collegiate Business Competition (ICBC) – Finance
• National Investment Banking Competition
• CFA Institute Research Challenge
• Rotman International Trading Competition
• Windsor Border City Case Competition
• Queen’s University Inter-Collegiate Business Competition (ICBC) – Ethics

Financial Markets Alumni Profiles

Financial Markets | Financial Markets + Sustainability | Financial Markets + Professional Accountant or Business Analytics ---|---|---

• Qhalisa Khan
• Sophia Chen
• Alex Vegh
• Nitish Sharma
• Roy Chau
• Wendy Cai |
• Upkar Arora
• Bonnie Foley-Wong
• Judith Ma |
• Anish Chopra
• Milenko Sikljovan
• Emily Zhu
• John Gort
• Azar Zafar
• Vrinda Grover
• Daniel Cheng
• Kevin Huynh
• Derek Chu