How are they different: Princ. of Finance, or Money, Banking, & Fincl Markets

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by blaterson, Jun 18, 2009.

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  1. blaterson

    blaterson New Member

    Hi to anyone with business major knowledge. In my undergraduate business program, distance learning, I am trying to choose one course over the other to fill a requirement, and I went to the bookstore to have a look through similarly titled books.

    One class is Foundations of Finance: The Logic and Practice of Financial Mgm't, and the other class is Economics of Money, Banking, and Financial Markets.

    On the one hand I am a person who is more interested in stock market watching and investing, rather than corporate work. It appeared in my limited opinion that the Finance class has maybe a chapter or two about basic investment knowledge and the rest of the book appeared to be various accounting formulas (more focus on "inside the company"), whereas it seemed the Money and Banking book was quite in depth about every aspect of the investment world (little focus on "inside the company"). It even talked about things like Technical Analysis and other stock market lingo. Is my observation correct, or are both subjects pretty much equal in content?

    On the other hand, if I go on to study for an MBA, I am thinking of focusing on finance, so therefore would it be better for me to take the Finance class now in preparation for that? I am confused on how the two courses and books differ and would like to hear what others have to say on them.
     
  2. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    Your basic course on Principles of Finance takes the internal view of financial management of the firm. A course on Money and Financial Markets is an advanced course which takes the view of management of a bank.
     
  3. blaterson

    blaterson New Member

    Hi thanks for the info.

    Well looks like I have to change my tune slightly as I went and looked at the books again. It appears that the money & banking book covers all that is money, including the knowledge of interest rates, "financial derivatives", and all the confusing stuff you see on the news but don't know what to make of. However I was wrong, that book does not go into any depth about the stock market for sake of investments. However, I was also wrong, in that the Principles of Finance book does indeed have a couple of sections that seem to apply to investments, namely how to analyze and valuate a specific company by reading it's financial statements (unless I am wrong about that!).

    I should admit I have a secret interest in the stock market, not enough that I know whether that is where I will or won't work, and not that I have much money for it right now, but I love to watch it at times and could see myself doing something along those lines. It seems the money & banking book gives a broad overview of all that affects the world of business, as CNBC and Bloomberg constantly announce news about such, but the Principles of Finance book gives a few in depth skills of specifically analyzing a company and it's worth, but not much else about stocks beyond that. It seems each course may have it's worth in the world of investment knowledge.

    Therefore I am kinda confused, should I go with the book that shows how to valuate a company, thereby giving me a direct skill if and when I want to make an investment (but still be clueless about all that other news), or go with the class that covers all that other general knowledge you see in the news so often (namely, interest rates, gov't policies), but doesn't help you much when you are about to send a "buy" order. Just as well I figure that a Finance MBA would be most of interest to me, so I also want to choose the class that would best lead up to that (i.e. study the stuff early on so later, I already know it.) It does seem the finance book would give one an employable skill (focus on a company's wealth), whereas money & banking would not, but just be good general knowledge to have anyways so you can understand the latest Fed announcments, gold news, bonds, oil etc.
     
  4. AUTiger00

    AUTiger00 New Member

    If you decide to do a MBA with a focus in finance you are going to have classes that address both of the topics you've described here so as far as giving you some advanced knowledge that will be applicable in an MBA program, both courses should provide you with that to some extent.

    I would recommend building a solid foundation by learning the basics of finance and moving on from there. You should take which ever class is going to allow you to learn how to calculate annuities, perpetuities, derivatives, etc. as all of those things will be beneficial when considering investments in the future whether that be common stock, bonds, mutual funds, etc. You're going to get mighty confused if you don't have a solid understanding of these things and then jump into a finance class where you're studying things such as options, hedging investments, shorting stocks and other more complex financial issues.
     

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