MIT 15.401 Finance Theory I (Andrew Lo)
Andrew Lo's graduate MIT Sloan course on the core of modern finance: present value, fixed income, equities, capital budgeting, portfolio theory, CAPM and APT, efficient markets, futures and options, with full lecture video, slides, problem sets and exams.
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15.401 is MIT Sloan's graduate introduction to finance theory, and the Fall 2008 version taught by Andrew Lo is posted in full on OpenCourseWare. It moves from present value relations and fixed-income securities through equities and capital budgeting to risk and return, portfolio theory, the CAPM and APT, efficient markets, and an introduction to forwards, futures and options. Lecture videos come with the matching slides, and the site also posts problem sets, exams and solutions.
Lo is an MIT finance professor known for the adaptive markets hypothesis, and he teaches the theory with an eye on how it is used in practice. The course was recorded in the fall of 2008, in the middle of the financial crisis.
Work through it if you want MBA-level fluency in the core models before reading academic research or sitting the CFA exams. The problem sets are what make the material stick.
Start with
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1
Present Value (PV) Relations
The foundation every later topic builds on.
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2
Portfolio Theory
Diversification and mean-variance analysis, taught clearly.
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3
The CAPM and APT
The pricing models behind cost of capital and factor investing.
