Financial Math – Advanced eLearning Courses

Hypothesis testing (CFA Level I Suggested Reading)

  • The null hypothesis and alternative hypothesis and one-tailed and two-tailed hypothesis tests
  • A significance level and how significance levels are used in hypothesis testing
  • A Type I and a Type II error
  • The power of a test
  • The decision rule
  • The relationship between confidence intervals and tests of significance
  • The difference between a statistical decision and an economic decision
  • The p-value approach to hypothesis testing
  • The test statistic and the results for a hypothesis test about the population mean of a normal distribution with (1) known or (2) unknown variance
  • The use of the z-test in relation to the central limit theorem
  • The test statistic and the results for a hypothesis test about the equality of two population means of two normally distributed populations based on independent samples
  • The mean difference for two normal distributions (paired comparisons test)
  • The difference between parametric and nonparametric tests

Correlation and regression (CFA Level II Suggested Reading)

  • A scatter plot
  • The covariance between two random variables
  • A correlation coefficient
  • How correlation analysis is used to measure the strength of a relationship between variables
  • A test of the hypothesis that the population correlation coefficient equals zero and whether the hypothesis is rejected at a given level of significance
  • An outlier and how outliers can affect correlations
  • The nature of a spurious correlation
  • Dependent and independent variables in a linear regression and the slope and the intercept terms in a regression equation
  • Linear regression, the standard error of the estimate and the coefficient of determination
  • A confidence interval for a regression coefficient
  • The test statistic and hypothesis test about the population value of a regression coefficient
  • A regression coefficient
  • A predicted value for the dependent variable, given an estimated regression model and a value for the independent variable and a confidence interval for the predicted value of a dependent variable
  • The use of analysis of variance (ANOVA) in regression analysis and an F-statistic
  • The limitations of regression analysis

Multiple regression (CFA Level II Suggested Reading)

  • How to formulate a multiple regression model where the independent variables are continuous or discrete
  • How to calculate predicted values, given a regression model and values for the independent variables Calculate measures of the significance of the model overall, and of individual coefficients
  • The assumptions that go into deriving a regression model
  • Determine confidence levels for predicted values
  • Sources of error in regression models

Time series analysis (CFA Level III Suggested Reading)

  • Time series models, including linear, log-linear, autoregressive (AR), moving average (MA), and autoregressive moving average (ARMA)
  • Limitations of these models
  • Corrective measures for the problems, such as unit roots

Portfolio analysis (CFA Level III Suggested Reading)

  • Math required for portfolio management
  • Modern portfolio theory (MPT)
  • Capital asset pricing model (CAPM)
  • Arbitrage pricing theory (APT)
  • Multifactor models

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