Introduction to Financial Markets 2021-22
Individual Report
The assignment is a follow-up to the first assessment. This is an individual report. The length of the essay is 2,000 words (+/- 10%) excluding cover page, references, and appendices.
Required:
Conduct a case study on how financial technology (fintech) has impacted the manufacturing industry. Compare and contrast a manufacturing company that has implemented fintech against a ‘traditional’ manufacturing company. Your case study needs to include the following elements:
a. [10 pts] Collect daily data for both public companies: The adjusted closing share prices from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2021. You can use ‘SFA Alternative Sources of Data’ excel file provided on Blackboard to find a list of databases where you can extract the required data or any of the databases that we discussed in week 1 ‘treasury hunt’ exercise. The data are not restricted to only UK as you can choose any country provided that you have the same number of observations for all your datasets (i.e., ensure that the number of rows in your datasets are the same). Show these excel data in the appendix of your work.
b. [15 pts] Present these two sets of the price data (of both companies) in separate diagrams (using Excel) in your essay. Use ‘the appropriate graph’ in terms of how to present the dataset.
c. [25 pts] Perform correlation analysis (Pearson) between the two companies’ data.
➢ You can use excel to calculate correlations between daily return of the two companies. Note that correlation is not a plot but just a number between -1 and 1. Make sure you only use adjusted closing price (or ‘equivalent’ depending on the data source).
d. [20 pts] Compare and analyse the two mentioned trends. Plot two trends in the same graph (you can use Excel for this).
➢ Plot these trends on your own in Excel.
e. [10 pts] From your observation, argue whether there is a relationship between the two trends.
f. [10 pts] Explain possible reasons for the behaviour of the trends and the relationship between the two datasets, with your critical opinions and the support of at least one academic journal article.
g. [10 pts] The referencing format should be Harvard referencing style.
This essay should be submitted via Turnitin via the module blackboard site. You are
expected to understand the university regulation on academic offence. The rules on late submission and plagiarism are applied and fully enforced by the school.
Submission of Coursework
Unless explicitly stated otherwise in writing by the module leader, all coursework on
this module is submitted via Turnitin within Blackboard only. It will automatically be
scanned through a text matching system (designed to check for possible plagiarism).
- DO NOT attach a CA1 form or any other form of cover sheet;
- Do NOT attach your data;
- YOU MUST NOT include your name on the first page of your assignment and;
- Use your STUDENT ID as the file name for the submission.
To submit your assignment:
- Log on to Blackboard at http://learning.westminster.ac.uk;
- Go to the relevant module Blackboard site;
- Click on the ‘Submit Coursework’ link in the navigation menu on the left-hand side, as advised by the module teaching team;
- Click on the link for the relevant assignment;
- Follow the instructions.
You will be given details by the module teaching team about how and when you willreceive your marks and feedback on your work.
REMEMBER:
It is a requirement that you submit your work in this way. All coursework must be submitted by 13.00 on the due date.
If you submit your coursework late but within 24 hours or one working day of the specified deadline, 10% of the overall marks available for that element of assessment will be deducted, as a penalty for late submission, except for work which is marked in the range 50 – 59%, in which case the mark will be capped at the pass mark (50%).
If you submit your coursework more than 24 hours or more than one working day after the specified deadline you will be given a mark of zero for the work in question.
The University’s mitigating circumstances procedures relating to the nonsubmission or late submission of coursework apply to all coursework.