A solid foundation in the fundamentals of finance
Core courses immerse you in the key concepts of finance. In-depth and rigorous, they represent the most advanced, relevant and innovative thinking in finance today. Mix theory with practice to build a base for a successful career.
Delivered by industry leaders and world-class faculty, you’ll deepen your finance understanding, explore the role of finance in society, and gain the essential tools, techniques and skills that top recruiters demand.

Course listing
Lay the groundwork for your learning before term starts. Our two online modules in accounting and quantitative methods are designed by LBS faculty, utilise rigorous testing and integrate seamlessly with the rest of your core work.
Hone your ability to analyse and interpret financial statistics. Gain the techniques and confidence to assess risk, inference, significance, regressions and model credibility.
Familiarise yourself with the language of finance and gain the expertise to scrutinise company reports. Analyse financial information and judge a firm’s prospects based on performance, patterns in their financial statements, profit drivers, assets and obligations:
- Use financial information in various decision-making settings
- Learn to analyse financial information and statements and draw inferences about a firm’s past performance and future prospects
- Understand the main sources of reporting choices and creativity in accounting practice, and how to control for this when analysing, valuing and comparing several firms.
Learn the frameworks for financial decision-making through a robust understanding of the principles and practice of financial management. Explore advanced theories in the valuation of investments, management of portfolios and risk management strategies:
- Articulate the principle of “no-arbitrage” and why this is an important concept for valuing financial assets
- Calculate the value of risk-free and riskless cash flow streams, including those accruing to real investment projects and financial assets
- Hedge an asset or liability’s exposure to changes in interest rates
- Understand why the term structure of interest rates is important
- Explain the theoretical basis for modern portfolio theory including its implementation and limitations
- Model and evaluate portfolio risk using factor models
- Value forward and futures contracts using the principle of no-arbitrage
- Value options using replicating portfolios, binomial option pricing, and the Black-Scholes model.
Why do companies make the investment and financial decisions they do? Understand the principles of project appraisal and firm valuation, financial structure and pay-out policy, using real-life case studies. Test your assumptions and judgements with your peer group and faculty:
- Assess the merits of real investments
- Compute corporate and project-level costs of capital
- Value corporate targets using discounted cash-flow and multiples-based methods
- Analyse financial structure decisions and credit risk at a quantitative level
- Understand the incentive effects of leverage decisions and the role of information in financial decisions
- Analyse corporate payout policy.
What role does finance play in society? How do we create financial systems that are fit for purpose? This unique course asks you to reflect on finance from a wider perspective, and gain a deep understanding of its past, its future and your role in this.

More choice than any other Masters in Finance programme
Choose from 65+ electives and carve out a path to your desired career. Enjoy flexible formats and study alongside students from across our degree portfolio.
Explore electives on offer