Financial Market Analysis (FMAx)
Source details
- Canonical URL
- Financial Market Analysis (FMAx)
Other formats
Bibliographic details
- Published: July 23, 2025
Upcoming offerings
| Start date | End date | Location | Delivery Method | Session No. | Primary & (Interpretation) language | Apply |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 1, 2026 | April 15, 2027 | Course conducted online | Online Training | OL 26.136 | English | Apply online by April 1, 2027 |
Overview
- This online course introduces participants to the fundamentals of financial analysis that are in the toolkit of policy makers.
- Tools covered are used to study the characteristics of various financial instruments and their pricing, analyze portfolios of assets, and to gain familiarity with the basics of risk management.
- Mastery is essential for participants who wish to participate in more advanced and policy-oriented IMF courses in financial or macrofinancial areas.
- The course covers, among other topics:
- the pricing of fixed-income securities and equity;
- the term structure of interest rates;
- portfolio allocation and diversification;
- an introduction to risk management.
Topic
- Financial Sector Issues
Target Audience
- Officials in central banks, ministries of finance, and regulatory agencies who have experience with macroeconomics and are interested in building their expertise in finance.
Qualifications
- Participants are expected to have some familiarity with basic statistics and probability techniques.
- Basic Microsoft Excel skills are essential.
Course Objectives
Upon completion of this course, participants should be able to:
- Price a variety of financial assets (fixed income securities and equities) using the present value (PV) principle.
- Measure and compare different yield measures for financial assets.
- Construct and estimate a yield curve on the basis of readily available information and use several theories to interpret its behavior.
- Relate differences in the valuation of single equities or markets to economic fundamentals.
- Apply principles of diversification to historical return data to construct an optimal portfolio of risky assets and assess likely changes in its composition as macroeconomic conditions change.
- Assess the market risk of an investment by calculating its value at risk (VaR), stressed VaR, and expected shortfall, and apply back-testing to evaluate the accuracy of past VaR.
Videos
- FMAx Promotional Video
- Presented by the IMF Institute for Capacity Development, this course introduces participants to the fundamentals of financial analysis that are in the toolkit of policymakers.
- These tools are used to study the characteristics of various financial instruments and their pricing analyze portfolios of assets and become familiar with the basics of risk management.
- Speaker: Adolfo Barajas