Who is this course for?
Lifelong-learners with a quantitative background and workers from the financial sector are most likely to enjoy the subject; a much broader audience will however benefit from the original manner how financial risk is accounted for using numerical simulations instead of algebra. The material is organized in modules and every learner can choose his own level of difficulty. This allows business people who are uncomfortable with differential calculus to learn intuitively from the simulations, while scientists learn the jargon before translating it into financial models.

What are the course targets?
Starting from historical market prices, the participants will learn to formulate strategies to hedge or gear a portfolio to any desired risk level. Virtual experimentation using applets develops the intuition for the fair price of an option, which is often more useful than a formula! At a more advanced level, graduates with a quantitative background will formulate and implement models that are similar to the one, which awarded the counterpart of the Nobel Prize in economics in 1979 to Black & Scholes. Regular students who fulfill the course requirements are granted 4 credit points in the Swedish academic system (Ladok) and a course certificate.

Prerequisites.
Simple arithmetics is sufficient to follow the course in a descriptive manner and to acquire a practical understanding from the basic learning scheme. At a more advanced level, participants have to have a minimal knowledge of differential calculus to follow the analytic derivations and some elementary programming to modify the numerical schemes implemented in the applets.

Flexible self-learning environment.
Apart from the tutorials that are organized locally at the begining of the Swedish Netuniversity and the Master in Applied Finance course, all the material and the human support remains accessible anytime from anywhere via the Internet. Each module comes with its own set of assignments, which can be carried out when time allows; they are submitted for correction to a human and / or a virtual tutor using a regular web browser. The problem based learning method used in this course is particularly well suited for lifelong learning students who have professional obligations and cannot easily attend lectures on a regular basis.

Admission, tuition fee, sponsorship.
Students affiliated with a European university can participate free of charge in the Netuniversity course that is sponsored by the Swedish government (see below). Self-learners from sister universities and the developing world who cannot easily afford to pay the price of a book are sponsored by Lifelong-learners: they are kindly requested to send a short motivation letter with a few words about their background to André Jaun. Other learners who want to study outside the official course periods have to pay a fee for the teaching support.

Distance learning schemes

Our cyber tutoring remains accessible throughout the year; continued education with human support outside the academic framework is however not offered by the Royal Institute of Technology. A paying service is maintained by the teachers and can be accessed from this website. To create your account and start your open learnint today, all you need is to complete the registration form using a valid e-mail address where we can send your password and maintain a regular contact with you. A variety of learning schemes provide different levels of support and depend whether you are affiliated with a university or not.

1. Self-learning course (US$ 98)
Independent learners who want to discover the material by themselves can print the syllabus download and install the complete java powered documentwith video recordings to study off-line. The problem solving environment is created to perform the assignments on-line, with help and advice that is exchanged on a voluntary basis in the public discussion forum. A small license fee is collected to support further development of the material. There is no accreditation delivered for this form of self-tutoring.

2. Intensive course (US$980, 5 days)
Professionals from the financial industry who would like to improve their understanding of derivatives and acquire some breadth with a limited amount of feed-back are most likely to benefit most this scheme. In addition to the printed and java powered syllabus with videos, the learners are given full access to the problem solving environement. Elementary mathematics are sufficient to perform the assignments at the Basic level and get an immediate feed-back from the Virtual Tutor. Intermediate level problems are also offered with limited amount of support provided within 2-3 working days. The tuition fee covers the course material and the supervision from a real teacher.

3. Open masters course (US$1960, 10 days, certificate)
This is an equivalent to the masters level course from the Swedish Netuniversity and the Adelaide University, here offered in an open learning set-up without time and academic constraints. In addition to the printed and java powered syllabus with videos, the learners are given full access to the problem solving environement. This makes it possible to tailor the material and the assignments to the Level of difficulty (Basic-Intermediate-Advanced) that is chosen by the learner himself. Human advice, corrections and support are generally provided within 1-2 working days and is of sufficient quality to warrant a course certificate provided that the academic requirements are met. The tuition fee covers the course material and the supervision from a real teacher.

4. Private lessons (US$3920, 20 days, certificate)
These are really private lessons over the Internet with advice and corrections provided within 1-2 working days. A third week completes the Open master course with a number of extensions that are used by professionals and a fourth week allow Students to implement and study their own financial model in the form of a project. A small 1000-3000 words report is submitted and may be published for a broader audience on this Website. On successful completion, the Students receive a Certificate explaining that they meet all the academic requirements to pass a postgraduate course taught for an equivalent of 4 weeks full time work. The tuition fee covers the course material and the supervision from a real teacher.

Special courses planned during the year 2005

These courses are organized in collaboration with public universities and companies and are limited in time.

Swedish Netuniversity (19 September - 16 December 2005, 4pts, 6ECTS)
This is the regular course taught at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) internally to graduate students (2D5244), externally to continued education students (2D4282) and is free of charge for students who are affiliated with a public university in Europe. Apart from an optional tutorial that is given at KTH in Stockholm, the course can be completed entirely at a distance within the Swedish Netuniversity context. To register, qualifying participants have both to fill-in an application form (preferably before 15 May) and to open an account (Swedish residents provide 10 digits personal number, others the date of birth in the form YYMMDD) on the dedicated website.

Master of Applied Finance in Singapore (3 October - 16 December 2005)
The course is part of the Master in Applied Finance (MAF) programme offered by the NGAAEC in Singapore on behalf of the University of Adelaide. Students are kindly requested to register both with their programme manager, Mr Thiang Hock Goh, and to fill-in the registration form on-line two weeks before the course starts.

Private companies and firms
Intensive courses with lectures and tutorials are occasionally organized for groups of 8-12 persons. The list can not be disclosed here, but specific information will be displayed on your Intranet if a course is organized in your company. If you would like to organize such a course, please contact André Jaun (tel: +46 70 7971879) to enquire about the possibilities.