Financial Market Structure

Financial market structure is about how legislation, technology, and trading rules and traditions influence trading strategies and market quality, such as efficiency and liquidity.

Efficiency and liquidity are often taken for granted in financial economic theory, but in reality, they vary considerably, both over time and across assets (for example stocks, bonds, and derivatives). This course aims to provide students with a basic understanding of how variation in the market structure affects market quality and trading strategies, such as market making, arbitrage, and block trade execution.

The course combines basic theoretical and empirical concepts with current issues in the field. In addition to lectures and seminars based on the textbook and academic articles, the course includes quantitative analysis of high-frequency market data, as well as several guest lectures.



Teaching Format

The teaching consists of lectures and seminars and requires a significant portion of self-study on the part of students.

The course workload is 200 hours, equivalent to 7,5 higher education credits.

The language of instruction is English.

The teaching takes place on campus and online.

For more detailed course information, see the study guide, published on the learning platform when the course commences.


Assessment

Assessment for the course will be continuous and is carried throughout the different course activities. Each assessment task is weighted in relation to its importance in the overall assessment of the course. The student’s results from the different assessment tasks are added up to a total course score that will then translate into the final grade for the course.

Assessment tasks
The course contains the following weighted assessment tasks:
1. Individually written examination: assesses intended learning outcomes 1–3; constitutes 70% of total course score.
2. Written group assignment: assesses intended learning outcomes 1–3; constitutes 15% of total course score.
3. Active participation in seminars, and individual assignments: assess intended learning outcomes 1 and 3; constitute 15% of total course score.

The examination is conducted in English.


The schedule will be available no later than one month before the start of the course. We do not recommend print-outs as changes can occur. At the start of the course, your department will advise where you can find your schedule during the course.


Note that the course literature can be changed up to two months before the start of the course.


Course reports are displayed for the three most recent course instances.








Course Coordinator: coursecoordinator@sbs.su.se
Head of Course: Björn Hagströmer

Cookie settings

By allowing third-party services, you accept their cookies and the use of tracking technologies necessary for them to function properly.