FINM3045/6045 Assignments
All assignments in this course are about an individual project.
In this project, you act as a consultant to design an investment strategy for a profes-
sionally managed portfolio in Asian securities. You are expected to design an investment
strategy for a fund manager who will buy and sell securities for his/her portfolio. The port-
folio strategy must be a conceptual framework for a fund manager that sets its investment
policy for a long-term horizon, rather than recommending certain securities to trade at a
certain time in a short period.
Your role in providing consultancy. You are an analyst specializing in governance, law,
and institutions, which you learn in this course (after lecture 4). Assume your colleagues have
already done Macroeconomic analysis, Industry analysis, and Financial analysis of individual
firms. So you do not need to do your colleagues’ work.
The objective of the project. Please report (1) three Asian stocks a fund manager
might select based on your strategy; and (2) three Asian stocks a fund manager might want
to avoid based on your strategy. The stocks are recommended among the largest 10 stocks
(according to a reasonably recent ranking) in terms of market capitalization in each country.
You may include more than one stock from a country in your portfolio. You must summarize
why the fund manager might choose each stock.
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Assignment 1: Project Plan Each student should write down a proposed timeline for
the project to indicate the approximate weeks of the plan. The plan should be within one
A4 page. The deadline is 5 pm 23/08/2024 (end of week 5) via Turnitin. Assignment 1 is
worth 0% in your final marks.
Assignment 2: Project Report Each student should write down a project report. The
report must be no more than 3000 words, excluding the cover page, reference, and appendix.
Please format the document as a professional consultancy report, which includes
(1) Cover page;
(2) Executive summary;
(3) Introduction;
(4) Factual supportive information or analysis;
(5) Conclusion;
(6) Reference;
(7) Appendix (optional, up to three A4 pages).
The deadline is 5 pm 18/10/2024 (end of week 11) via Turnitin. Assignment 2 is worth 40%
of your final marks.
Submission requirement. Please name your files as FINM3045/6045 (ID number)-(Title),
e.g., FINM3045 u1234567-Title.dox, FINM6045 u1234567-Title.dox. You may lose marks for
not following the required file name. We do NOT accept any late submissions.
Some tips for working on the project. When you are working on the project, you must
take into account what you learn from the course. As you learn more as you proceed in this
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course, you should assess your ideas continuously throughout the course until you submit
the report on the due date.
When you examine which stocks you would want to recommend, do NOT try to examine
every single stock in detail at once. You should develop the criteria based on what you
learn from the course, then start to choose several stocks. You might apply the investment
criteria from other courses and narrow down the selection. But the main criteria should be
covered in this course (after Lecture 4). You need NOT report any macroeconomic (including
currency), industrial, and financial analysis or do any financial ratio analysis. You can repeat
the above steps until you find a good pick. You need not always find stocks that best fit a
criterion.
When you write the report, please do NOT create tables and figures with every piece of
information. Your logic and presentation of your report are also essential. DO please write
the report in a format of a professional report.
Please utilize web sources to gather information about individual firms. For example,
you can visit corporate websites, Yahoo finance, etc. You may use some library databases
as well.
Assessment rubrics. The assessment for the project report will be based equally on the
following rubrics:
• Strategy (to what extent and how do you apply concepts learned from this course)
• Logic (consistency and persuasiveness)
• Presentation (clarity of presentation)
AI policy You can use AI tools to assist in drafting and organizing your thoughts but
should not replace your own critical thinking and research efforts.
Acceptable Use:
• AI for brainstorming/generating ideas
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• Leveraging AI for language translation and improving grammar and style
• Employing AI to organize and outline your project report
Unacceptable Use:
• Using AI to write entire sections of your report without your input.
• Submitting AI-generated content as your own original work.
• Relying on AI to conduct research or analyze data instead of doing it yourself.
Originality
• Ensure that all sources of information are properly cited, whether obtained through
AI tools or traditional research methods.
• Include a reflective statement in your project report, detailing how AI tools were used
to support your work and what portions of the work were generated independently.
• Utilize AI to enhance the clarity and coherence of your writing, but ensure that the
core ideas and analysis are your own.
• AI can generate inaccurate and false information: do your own due diligence!
Transparency
• Disclose the use of AI tools in your project report. This includes specifying which tools
were used and how they contributed to your work.
• Failure to disclose AI use or submitting AI-generated content as your own will be
considered a violation of academic integrity.
At the end of your project report, include a section titled “Reflective Statement on AI
Use.” Here is a suggested template:
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Reflective Statement on AI Use
In the preparation of this project report, I used the following AI tools: [List the AI tools used,
e.g., ChatGPT].
These tools were employed in the following ways:
• Brainstorming and Idea Generation: AI was used to generate initial ideas and structure for
the report.
• Language and Grammar: AI helped improve the language, grammar, and overall readability
of the report.
• Organization and Outlining: AI assisted in organizing the sections of the report to enhance
logical flow.
All research, data analysis, and the core content of the report were conducted and written
independently. The AI tools used did not replace my original work but facilitated the process of
report writing.