- Do you want to have a strong command over computational finance and financial econometrics?

If yes, take this free online course “Introduction to Computational Finance and Financial Econometrics”, offered by Professor Eric Zivot of University of Washington. In this course, students will be taught mathematical and statistical tools and techniques that are widely used in quantitative and computational finance. Participants will also get to learn how to analyze financial data, estimate statistical models, and construct optimized portfolios using R statistical programming language. Students will also be asked to apply mathematical, programming and statistical tools to real world data using open source R statistical programming language and MS Excel.

This 10 weeks long course is offered fully online. The topics that will be covered in this course include, Computing asset returns, Univariate random variables and distributions, Bivariate distributions, Time Series concepts, Matrix algebra, Descriptive statistics, the constant expected return model, Introduction to portfolio theory, Portfolio theory with matrix algebra, Statistical Analysis of Efficient Portfolios, Risk budgeting and the Single Index Model.
Successful students will earn Statement of Accomplishment signed by the instructor. After taking this 10-week long online course, you will be able to:

- Solve real world problems using basic tools of quantitative and computational finance
- Build probability models for asset returns
- Apply statistical tools and techniques to the data to evaluate if it is normally distributed or not
- Use Monte Carlo simulation and bootstrapping techniques to appraise statistical models, and
- Use optimization methods to construct efficient financial portfolios

Author Bio

Eric Zivot is co-director of the Master of Science Program in Computational Finance and Risk Management in the Department of Applied Mathematics at University of Washington. He is also the Robert Richards Chaired Professor in the Economics Department of UW. Professor Zivot is also a risk management consultant to BlackRock Alternative Advisors.