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FINM202 Financial Management Assessment 3 Group Report

ASSESSMENT BRIEF

COURSE: Bachelor of Business / Bachelor of Accounting

Unit:

Financial Management

Unit Code:

FINM202

Type of Assessment:

Assessment 3 – Group Report (4-5 students in a group)

Length/Duration:

2,000 words (excluding executive summary, table of content, heading & subheading, references, appendix & tables)

Unit Learning

Outcomes addressed:

Understand the basic concepts and theories of financial management.

Explain the goal of financial decisions and the importance of financial information.

Calculate financial ratios and interpret the outcome.

Examine financial instruments and their valuation.

Relate time value of money, risk and return and cash flow to making informed business decisions including capital budgeting.

Prepare and develop a working capital management plan.

Evaluate the concept of optimal capital structure

Assessment Task:

Written Report

Total Mark:

100 marks

Weighting:

20%

ASSESSMENT DESCRIPTION:  

Students are required to work in a group of 4- 5 students and  must register for their group with the lecturer in week 4 and 5 and are not allowed to change group members without the lecturer’s permission.

SCENARIO:

You have been working for the investment company. Recently your company has identified a group of potential clients who are interested in investing in shares but feel not confident due to lack of knowledge in the share market.  So your boss has requested you to prepare a business report for those potential clients so that they can see/learn:

A. In a long-term, statistics show that the average return on shares is always positive and shares with higher risk can yield higher return;

Two examples of previous successful investment portfolios of your company; and B.

C. Types of risks (systematic and unsystematic) and why diversification strategy is important using  the two examples shown in part B.

Below table shows the of what you need to discuss in your report.

Part

Task

Note

A

Basics terminologies of the Australian share market (ASX All Ordinaries, S&P/ASX200, CPI)

Construct of a table showing ASX all ordinaries, S&P/ASX200, and CPI index over the last 5 to 10 years.

Calculate the cumulative return for ASX all ordinaries and S& P/ASX200 over the last 5 to 10 years.

Calculate average nominal and real return for ASX all ordinaries and S&P/ASX200 over the last 5 to 10 years.

Calculate standard deviation of ASX all ordinaries and S& P/ASX200 index over the last 5 to 10 years.

Discuss that the average return on shares is always positive and shares with higher risk can yield a higher return.

Resources for part A will be provided in Moodle “Assessment 3” section.

B

Each member creates an account in the ASX homepage and participates in the share market game.

Play the game until week 9 and include a screenshot of the dashboard (clearly showing your name and your portfolio performance) of each member in the appendix of your report.

Choose the best two portfolios and include those two portfolios in the report as two examples of successful share investment cases of your company

Give a brief explanation about the two investment portfolios (ex, amount of investment, shares purchased, total return, etc.)

Detailed instructions for the share market game will be provided in Moodle “Assessment 3” section.

C

Discuss different types of risks (systematic and unsystematic) with examples.

Discuss how diversification strategy is related to the risks.

Discuss why diversification strategy is important using the two examples shown in part B.

Give real examples of the two types of risk.

Explain how diversification improved the return of the two investment portfolios shown in part B.

Please don’t forget that the purpose of this business report is to convince the potential clients so that they can invest in shares. Your report must be in a proper business report format discussing all the aspects listed in the above table.

MARKING GUIDE (RUBRIC):

Marking Criteria

Lecturer Expectation

Marks

Comments

Part A (35/100) 

Basics terminologies of Australian share market

5

ASX All Ordinaries, S&P/ASX200, CPI

Construct of a table showing ASX all ordinaries, S&P/ASX200, and CPI index over last 5 to 10 years.

5

Calculate the cumulative returns

5

Calculate average nominal and real return

5

Calculate standard deviation of ASX all ordinaries and S&P/ASX200 index over last 5 to 10 years.

5

Discuss that the average return on shares is always positive and shares with higher risk can yield higher return.

10

Part B (20/100)

a screenshot of the dashboard of each member in appendix of your report.

5

Show your name and your portfolio performance

Two investment portfolios are included in the report as examples of successful share investment cases

5

Brief explanation about the two investment portfolios

10

amount of investment, shares purchased, total return, etc.

Part C (20/100)

Discuss different types of risks (systematic and unsystematic) with examples.

5

Discuss how diversification strategy is related to the risks.

5

Discuss why diversification strategy is important using the two examples shown in part B.

10

Report Format (15/100)

Executive Summary

4

A brief summary of each section of the report

Table of contents

3

Sub-headings

4

Appropriate use sub-headings to make the report easier to understand.

Conclusion

4

Good summary. No new ideas should be introduced in conclusion.

Referencing (10/100)

Harvard Referencing

5

Proper Referencing Style

5 Academic references

5

Word limit

1800 - 2200 words

Penalties may apply

GENERAL NOTES FOR ASSIGNMENTS

Assignments should usually incorporate a formal introduction, main points and conclusion, and will be fully referenced including a reference list. 

The work must be fully referenced with in-text citations and a reference list at the end. We strongly recommend you to refer to the Academic Learning Skills materials available in the Moodle. For details please click the link http://moodle.kent.edu.au/kentmoodle/course/view.php?id=5 and download the file “Harvard Referencing Workbook”. Appropriate academic writing and referencing are inevitable academic skills that you must develop and demonstrate.

We recommend a minimum of FIVE references, unless instructed differently by your lecturer. Unless specifically instructed otherwise by your lecturer, any paper with less than FIVE references may be failed. Work that includes sources that are not properly referenced according to the “Harvard Referencing Workbook” will be penalised.

Marks will be deducted for failure to adhere to the word count – as a general rule you may go over or under by 10% than the stated length.

GENERAL NOTES FOR REFERENCING  

High quality work must be fully referenced with in-text citations and a reference list at the end. We recommend you work with your Academic Learning Support (ALS) site (http://moodle.kent.edu.au/kentmoodle/course/view.php?id=5) available in Moodle to ensure that you reference correctly.

References are assessed for their quality. You should draw on quality academic sources, such as books, chapters from edited books, journals etc. Your textbook can be used as a reference, but not the lecturer notes. We want to see evidence that you are capable of conducting your own research. Also, in order to help markers determine students’ understanding of the work they cite, all in-text references (not just direct quotes) must include the specific page number/s if shown in the original. Before preparing your assignment or own contribution, please review this ‘YouTube’ video by clicking on the following link: Plagiarism: How to avoid it

PLAGIARISM: HOW TO AVOID IT

You can search for peer-reviewed journal articles, which you can find in the online journal databases and which can be accessed from the library homepage. Wikipedia, online dictionaries and online encyclopaedias are acceptable as a starting point to gain knowledge about a topic, but should not be overused – these should constitute no more than 10% of your total list of references/sources. Additional information and literature can be used where these are produced by legitimate sources, such as government departments, research institutes such as the NHMRC, or international organisations such as the World Health Organisation (WHO). Legitimate organisations and government departments produce peer reviewed reports and articles and are therefore very useful and mostly very current. The content of the following link explains why it is not acceptable to use nonpeer reviewed websites: Why can't I just Google?   (thanks to La Trobe University for this video).