Haas School of Business

Students in the MFE program learn to employ theoretical finance and computer modeling skills to make pricing, hedging, trading and portfolio management decisions. Courses and projects emphasize the practical applications of these skills. We are readying a new generation of professionals to apply theoretical finance and computer modeling skills to reduce risk and make informed pricing, hedging, and portfolio management decisions.

Studying at one of the nation's top-ranked business schools also affords access to top-notch research tools, career services, and corporate contacts. We will help you to hone your job-seeking skills and will work actively to connect you with employers that can offer challenging and rewarding internships and full-time positions. In choosing to pursue an MFE at the Haas School of Business, you choose a rigorous course of study delivered by professors who are practitioners as well as dedicated researchers. The program's small size encourages students to learn from each other and its top academic standards allow for teaching at the highest level. Designed to keep you ahead of industry innovations, the Berkeley MFE Program positions you to apply quantitative "rocket science" to real world financial problems.

Graduates of the Master's in Financial Engineering are prepared for careers in:

• Investment Banking
• Corporate Strategic Planning
• Risk Management
• Primary and Derivative Securities Valuation
• Financial Information Systems Management
• Portfolio Management
• Securities Trading

Notable Alumni

Jim Gilliland, MFE02

• Previous degree:
  BS, Finance
  University of British Columbia
• Previous position:
  Chief Strategist
  HSBC Asset Management Canada
• Current position:
  Head of North American Fixed Income Investments and Strategy Implementation
  Barclays Global Investors
  San Francisco

"I chose Haas for its worldwide reputation and for the MFE's business-focused coursework in portfolio management, quantitative risk management, and dynamic investment strategies. The
Haas MFE's unique broad training in applying quantitative methods enabled me to integrate and build upon my background in finance and mathematics."

Jim was recently ranked #7 in The 20 Rising Stars of Fixed Income by Institutional Investor News

Luca Barone, MFE '05

• Previous degree:
  BA Economics, MA Economics
  Luiss Guido Carli University
  Rome, Italy
• Position prior to MFE:
  CEO's technical staff
  Capitalia
• MFE internship:
  Strategist in the Credit Derivatives / Quantitative Strategies Dpt
  Goldman Sachs International
  (London - UK)
• Current position:
  Associate, Credit Derivatives Strategy
  Goldman Sachs International
  London, UK

"The theory we learned from Professor Mark Rubinstein and his colleagues deals with state-contingent claims, the elementary particles of 'nuclear financial economics'. This theory is especially useful for practitioners because it provides a production technology for duplicating the payoffs of any contingent claim by using an appropriate dynamic strategy. It can also be used to solve the inverse problem of inferring risk-neutral probabilities from the simultaneously observed prices of options and other derivatives. The mind-expanding MFE experience paved the way for me to have a solid grasp of the skills required for a career in finance"

Andrei Ionascu, MFE 06
Financial Engineering Student Association
(FESA) President

• Previous degree:
  BA, Highest Honors in Economics and Microbiology
  University of California, Berkeley
• Previous position:
  Consultant
  Accenture
  San Francisco
• MFE internship:
  Associate, Structured Credit Products
  Analytics Group
  Wachovia Securities
  Charlotte, NC
• Current position:
  Associate, Structured Credit Products
  (Synthetic CDOs)
  Wachovia Securities
  Charlotte, NC

"The MFE Program offers perhaps the most comprehensive immersion in the science of capital markets finance available today. The main thrust of this program comes from the fact that it prepares students to not only understand the concepts presented, but also to use programming, mathematics, statistics, and fundamental derivatives theory to actually price instruments as well as to have the capacity to engineer new exotic products."

Irene Wang, MFE 07

• Previous degrees:
  B.A. in Economics
  Cornell University
  Ithaca, NY
• Positions prior to MFE:
  Research Associate
  Banking and Finance Group
  Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
• MFE internship position:
  Intern – Associate
  Global Asset Allocation
  Mellon Capital Management
• Current position:
  Research Analyst
  Global Asset Allocation
  Mellon Capital Management

"The MFE Program not only teaches its students the most cutting edge quantitative methods, but it also opens the doors to the upper echelons of the finance industry."

Paul Chered, MFE 06

• Previous degrees:
  Masters in Business Administration
  Drucker Business School
  Claremont, CA
  
  Bachelors in Applied Mathematics
  Kiev State University
  Kiev, Ukraine
• Positions prior to MFE:
  Business Systems Consultant
  Romero & Boston CPAs
  Diamond Bar, CA
• MFE internship position:
  Associate
  Investment Banking Division Strategies
  Goldman, Sachs, & Co., New York, NY
• Current position:
  Associate
  Investment Banking Division Strategies
  Goldman, Sachs, & Co., New York, NY

"Finance students aspiring to be drivers of financial innovation in the years to come must intimately understand financial mathematics, but more importantly they must acquire skills to discern the intuitive links between mathematics and real world problems faced by corporations and investors. The Berkeley MFE provides fertile ground for an ambitious student to develop both skill sets."

Curriculum

March 26, 2007 - March 14, 2008

The full program consists of 28 required units including an Applied Finance Project (1 unit = 15 class hours).

Please note that not all electives will be offered every year. This schedule is tentative and will be updated every term.

Spring 2007: March 27 - May 24, 2007 (8 weeks)
Fundamentals of Financial Economics (3 units) - Mark Rubinstein
Empirical Methods in Finance (2 units) - Rossen Valkanov
Introduction to Stochastic Calculus (2 units) - Jaime Casassus
Financial Institutions Seminar I

Summer 2007: June 4 - August 3, 2007 (8 weeks)
Derivatives: Economic Concepts (2 units) - Mark Rubinstein
Derivatives: Quantitative Methods (2 units) - Domingo Tavella
Fixed Income Markets (2 units) - Francis Longstaff
Accounting and Taxation of Derivatives (1 unit) - Suneel Udpa
Financial Institutions Seminar II

Fall 2007: August 13, 2007 - January 4, 2008 (22 weeks*)
Required Course:
Financial Risk Measurement and Management (2 units) - Philippe Jorion

Choose 5 units of electives:
Advanced Computational Finance (2 units) - Domingo Tavella
Success and Failure in Financial Innovation (1 unit) - John O'Brien
The Design of Securities for Corporate Financing (1 unit) - Mukesh Bajaj
Credit Risk Modeling (2 units) - Jeffrey Bohn
Equity & Currency Markets (2 units) - Richard Meese and Ron Kahn

Winter 2008: January 14 - March 14, 2008 (8 weeks)
Choose 7 units of coursework:
Asset-backed Security Markets (2 units) - Nancy Wallace and Dwight Jaffee
Dynamic Asset Management (2 units) - Hayne Leland
Behavioral Finance (2 units) - Terry Odean
Real Options (2 units) - TBA
Applied Finance Project (Required) (1 - 3 units)
Independent Study (1 - 3 units) - Richard Stanton and Nancy Wallace

* The internship/applied finance project begins October 15, 2007 and ends on January 4, 2008 or January 11, 2008

The MFE program requires satisfactory completion of 28 units of coursework. In addition to coursework, the MFE educational experience includes the following:

Financial Practice Seminars: MFE students are encouraged to attend weekly discussions held by finance practitioners. In the first term speakers discuss jobs available to graduates of the MFE and the skills needed to contribute to a firm's mission. In the second term, speakers provide insights into the way the financial world is changing: new products and needs; evolving data and information systems; and similar topics.

Applied Finance Project: MFE students are required to complete an applied finance project that develops or uses quantitative finance tools and techniques learned in the program or internship.

Internship Program: While not required for graduation, students are encouraged to have an internship during the break from mid-October to mid-January. The MFE Office and the Haas Career center work with students to locate opportunities for students.