Course details
By distilling key information regarding cash flow levels and risks, financial modeling helps decision-makers make informed choices based on data analytics that move their firms forward. In this course, learn how to build financial models that can be used in corporate finance, investment banking, commercial banking, and portfolio management. Professor Michael McDonald covers financial statement models, investment banking models, M&A models, buyout models, and DCF models—all using Microsoft Excel. Throughout the course, Michael includes exercises—together with downloadable exercise files—that can provide you with a practical understanding of these key topics.
Instructor
Michael McDonaldPartner, Morning InvestmentsMichael McDonald is a researcher and professor of finance at Fairfield University.
He has extensive programming skills in SAS, Stata, Python, R, and SQL, among other programming languages. His past work experience includes using these programming languages to analyze big data sets in finance and economics and develop trading strategies based on data mining. He has done extensive work in investment banking, at tech startups, hedge funds, and on a wide variety of consulting projects. He has a track record of authoring creative and practical course materials for a variety of subject areas across business disciplines.
Michael’s core knowledge is focused on financial markets and investment decision-making. He has helped advise firms on capital investments, valuation issues, and capital allocation to enhance business strategy. He is the author of multiple research studies addressing complex questions across the finance discipline. Michael’s work has been cited by the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, the CFA Institute, and many others.
Using Excel for financial modeling
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– [Mike] Hi there, I’m Mike McDonald. I’m a professor of finance, a frequent consultant to industry, and a Wall Street veteran. In this course on financial modeling, I want to show you how to build financial models for use in corporate finance investments and banking. We’re going to learn how to do financial forecasts in a model to understand where a firm is headed in the future. We’re also going to see how we can evaluate financial models to answer important questions for the firm. Finally, we’re going to learn how to update our models to make them easier to read, avoid problems like circular references, and build in advanced tools like scenario analysis. All of this will be done through the lens of Excel, the key tool in finance. If you’re a premium member, there are exercise files available for the course that’ll enrich your learning. So if you’re ready to start on your way towards a model future in finance, then come with me, and let’s begin.