STAT7055

Introductory Statistics for Businessand Finance

This course aims to facilitate an understanding of basic statistical techniques used for the analysisof financial and investment data.

Mode of Delivery In personRequisite and Incom-patibility

Students can’t enroll in this course if enrolled in the Master ofStatistics, Master of Actuarial Studies or Master of ActuarialPractice.

Co-taught Courses STAT4055. Graduate students attend joint classes withundergraduate students but are assessed separately.

Course Convener Gen NowakOffice: CBE Building (26C) Rm 3.66Phone: +61 2 612 57294Email: gen.nowak@anu.edu.auOffice hours: Please see the Wattle site.Research interests: Statistical genetics, spatio-temporal data analysis, penalised

regression.Tutors Please see the Wattle site.Student Administrator Maria Lander

Email: maria.lander@anu.edu.au

SEMESTER 12018

COURSE OVERVIEW

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the requirements for this course, students will be able to:1. Explain and use basic financial statistical techniques and concepts;2. Use a variety of statistical approaches to analyse financial and investment data;3. Solve problems using the principles of probability;4. Recognise and use different statistical distributions;5. Perform calculations and interpret results of a variety of estimation techniques;6. Conduct and explain the results of a hypothesis test;7. Carry out and interpret an analysis of variance test and compare the difference between two

or more sets of data;8. Apply and interpret regression models.

Assessment Summary

Assessment Task Value Date Linked Learning Outcomes1. Wattle quiz 5% Week 5 or 6 1 through 42. Mid-semester exam 30% Week 6 or 7 1 through 53. Final exam 65% Examination period 1 through 8

Research-Led Teaching

Statistics provides a way of analysing and understanding data and the variability present in data.Hence statistics is a necessary backbone for almost every area of research. This course willtake examples from business, finance and science to introduce fundamental statistical conceptsto prepare students for future courses and research projects.

Feedback

Staff FeedbackStudents will be given feedback (through both verbal and written comments) in the following formsin this course:

• To the whole class during lectures.• Within tutorials groups.• Individually during consultation hours.

Student FeedbackANU is committed to the demonstration of educational excellence and regularly seeks feedbackfrom students. One of the key formal ways students have to provide feedback is through Stu-dent Experience of Learning Support (SELS) surveys. The feedback given in these surveys isanonymous and provides the Colleges, University Education Committee and Academic Boardwith opportunities to recognise excellent teaching, and opportunities for improvement.For more information on student surveys at ANU and reports on the feedback provided on ANUcourses, go to

http://unistats.anu.edu.au/surveys/selt/students/ andhttp://unistats.anu.edu.au/surveys/selt/results/learning/

Policies

ANU has educational policies, procedures and guidelines, which are designed to ensure that staffand students are aware of the University’s academic standards, and implement them. You can findthe University’s education policies and an explanatory glossary at: http://policies.anu.edu.au/Students are expected to have read the Academic Misconduct Rule before the commencement oftheir course.Other key policies include:

• Student Assessment (Coursework)• Student Surveys and Evaluations

Resources

TextbooksThe recommended textbook for this course is Statistics for Management and Economics, 11thEdition, by Gerald Keller. A copy will be made available on reserve loan in Chifley library.For additional reference on some background mathematical knowledge, see chapters 1 to 6 ofBasic Mathematics for Economists, 2nd Edition, by Mike Rosser.

Course URLAll course materials, including lecture slides, lecture recordings, tutorial questions, tutorial solu-tions, etc., will be made available on the Wattle site https://wattle.anu.edu.au. Students are ex-pected to check the Wattle site for announcements about this course, e.g., changes to timetablesor notifications of cancellations.

Email Communication

To safeguard student privacy, it is university policy that all email communication with students mustbe through their official ANU email account. Please make sure to use your ANU email account asI will not respond to emails sent from non-ANU email accounts.

COURSE SCHEDULE

Week Summary of Activities Assessment1 Descriptive statistics. Lecture.2 Probability. Lecture and tutorials.3 Discrete random variables. Lecture and tutorials.4 Continuous random variables. Lecture and tutorials.5 Sampling distributions. Lecture and tutorials.

Wattle quiz6 Estimation. Lecture and tutorials. Mid-semester

exam7 Hypothesis testing. Lecture and tutorials.8 Comparing two populations. Lecture and tutorials.9 ANOVA and Chi-squared tests. Lecture and tutorials.10 Simple linear regression. Lecture and tutorials.11 Multiple linear regression. Lecture and tutorials.12 Review. Lecture and tutorials.

Examination Period Final exam

The course schedule above may be modified as we progress through the semester to allow us totake more or less time with different sections of the course as required.

ASSESSMENT REQUIREMENTS

As an academic integrity control, students may be selected for a 15 minute individual oral exami-nation of their written assessment submissions.Any student identified, either during the current semester or in retrospect, as having used ghostwriting services will be investigated under the University’s Academic Misconduct Rule.

Assessment Tasks

Assessment Task 1: Wattle quizDetails of task: An optional online Wattle quiz will be held during week 5 or 6. It may includematerial covered in weeks 1 to 4, inclusive. The quiz will be redeemable through the mid-semesterexam. That is, if you perform better on the mid-semester exam than on the quiz, the quiz will beworth 0% and the mid-semester exam will be worth 35%. Otherwise, the quiz will be worth 5%and the mid-semester exam will be worth 30%. Since this quiz is redeemable and optional, noextensions will be offered and no deferred or make-up quizzes will be offered.

Assessment Task 2: Mid-semester examDetails of task: The mid-semester exam will be held in week 6 or 7. It may include materialcovered in weeks 1 to 6, inclusive. Depending on how you perform on the quiz, the mid-semesterexam will be worth either 30% or 35%. See the quiz details above.

Assessment Task 3: Final examDetails of task: The final exam will be held during the university examination period at the end ofthe semester. It may include material from the entire semester. The final exam will be worth 65%.

Examinations

Please note that the exact dates and locations for the mid-semester and final exams are centrallytimetabled and will be made available during semester. Details regarding the permitted materialsfor the mid-semester and final exams will be publicised in class and on Wattle closer to the examdates.

Scaling

Your final mark for the course will be based on the raw marks allocated for each of your assess-ment items. However, your final mark may not be the same number as produced by that formula,as marks may be scaled. Any scaling applied will preserve the rank order of raw marks (i.e. if yourraw mark exceeds that of another student, then your scaled mark will exceed the scaled mark ofthat student), and may be either up or down.

PRIVACY NOTICE

The ANU has made a number of third party, online, databases available for students to use. Use ofeach online database is conditional on student end users first agreeing to the database licensor’sterms of service and/or privacy policy. Students should read these carefully.In some cases student end users will be required to register an account with the database licensorand submit personal information, including their: first name; last name; ANU email address; andother information.In cases where student end users are asked to submit ‘content’ to a database, such as an assign-ment or short answers, the database licensor may only use the student’s ‘content’ in accordancewith the terms of service including any (copyright) licence the student grants to the databaselicensor.Any personal information or content a student submits may be stored by the licensor, potentiallyoffshore, and will be used to process the database service in accordance with the licensors termsof service and/or privacy policy.If any student chooses not to agree to the database licensor’s terms of service or privacy policy,the student will not be able to access and use the database. In these circumstances studentsshould contact their lecturer to enquire about alternative arrangements that are available.

TUTORIAL/SEMINAR REGISTRATION

Tutorial signup for this course will be done via the Wattle website. Detailed information aboutsignup times will be provided on Wattle or during your first lecture. When tutorials are available forenrolment, follow these steps:

1. Log on to Wattle, and go to the course site2. Click on the link ‘Tutorial enrolment’3. On the right of the screen, click on the tab ‘Become Member of . . . .’ for the tutorial class you

wish to enter4. Confirm your choice

If you need to change your enrolment, you will be able to do so by clicking on the tab ‘Leavegroup. . . .’ and then re-enrol in another group. You will not be able to enrol in groups that havereached their maximum number. Please note that enrolment in ISIS must be finalised for you tohave access to Wattle.

SUPPORT FOR STUDENTS

The University offers a number of support services for students. Information on these is availableonline from http://students.anu.edu.au/studentlife/