The course is divided into five modules. The first module Valuing Stock Markets analyses two hundred years of data to determine the most accurate measurements of equity value. The other four modules focus on the key forces that compel equity prices to regularly diverge from even the best measures of value.

Valuing Stock Markets (Andrew Smithers and Stephen Wright). This unit, focusing on data for the US equity market, examines conventional equity valuation measures over the past 200 years. It examines the practical usefulness of valuation measures such as dividend yield, price earnings ratios and dividend yield-to-government bond yield ratios. It focuses on those measures of stock market value which history has shown offer some predictive value. In particular it focuses on the use of Tobin’s q as a long- term indicator of stock market value.

The Monetary Theory of Asset Prices (Gordon Pepper). This unit focuses on the monetary forces that influence the price of financial securities. It looks at those monetary factors that play a role in moving security prices away from what modern capital market theory would calculate as their fair value.

Investing In Periods of Inflation, Disinflation and Deflation (Peter Warburton). This module analyses one hundred years of return data for bonds, bills and equities for sixteen different countries. The module looks at the impact of inflation, disinflation and deflation on these three classes of financial assets and also equity sectors.

Behavioral Finance (Joachim Goldberg and Herman Brodie). Behavioural Finance focuses on the difference between human behaviour and the assumed behaviour of the rational economic man in modern financial theory. It provides an insight into the real nature of the decision making process and how this results in different consequences than those that the rational economic man’s decisions might produce. The course aims to provide practical advice of how investors can avoid and even profit from the common decision making errors in the investment process.

A History of Institutional Investment(Barry Riley). This module, focusing primarily on examples from the British financial markets, describes key financial incidents which provide important lessons for the modern investor.