NU Splash Biography

Over the course of human history, innovation has been the key to financial growth and economic prosperity. Yet, underlying this success lies a hidden problem inherent in most innovation that ultimately fueled many financial crises. In the first part of our class, I will cover the basics of innovation, and then extensively cover the details of what actually happened in the financial crisis, and how 'history repeats itself'. I will be covering information about any of the following: the gold standard, bank runs, securitization, mortgage backed securities, insurance, and credit default swaps. This material will be covered, but having some background information beforehand might be helpful to better understand the concepts. In the second part of the class, I will give some insights on how you might be able to start investing and a basic overview of options and stocks. I will cover the following: *What is a stock and why do they exist? *Important ratios *Technical Analysis: How to read charts and profit from certain price signals *What is a derivative? What types of derivatives are out there? *What is an option? Why options? *The elements of an option, and how to take advantage of these elements *Trading the option (beginning trading ideas) *Stocks or options?