Advanced Financial Modelling

About the course

This course aims to show how sophisticated speadsheet techniques can be applied to a range of business and finance analyses.

To maximise the breadth and depth of the applications covered in this course in the time available a range of advanced presentation methods are used:

• Before starting each model, course participants are given a demonstration version of the finished model. This shows the make-up and dynamics of the model but without revealing the formulae used. This allows participants to visualise the end-goal of each example and helps them in the design process.
• Participants receive automatic and immediate feedback about the correctness of their models as they build those models. This allows them to see whether they are on the right track.
• Participants have the flexibility of building models in their entirety or of focussing on certain parts of particular interest and having the remainder of the model filled out automatically.
• Participants receive a CD at the conclusion of the course containing answers to all of the course exercises

About the facilitator

This course's facilitator is Alex Palfi. Before joining Tykoh, Alex had ten years of experience with Macquarie Group in quantitative finance and in presenting workshops internationally. He has presented courses in financial modelling, financial mathematics, financial programming, valuation, and option pricing and risk management in Europe, North and South America, Africa, Asia and in Australia & New Zealand.

Alex has worked in Investment banking, commercial banking and software development industries. Alex's university qualifications are in engineering. He obtained Bachelors and Masters degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand.

Audience

This course's intended audience is those who wish to apply sophisticated spreadsheet techniques in business and financial analysis.

Level

This is an advanced level course.

Duration

The course is one day in length.

Prerequisites

You will need Excel skills at an intermediate level at least. You should be able to use formulae, create charts and understand how cells are referenced (e.g. $A1:$B5).

Format

The course has a "hands-on" format. Each participant works with a laptop for the major part of the course on practical examples illustrating the topics covered.

The course begins by giving an overview of three potential benefits / "take-aways" of attending the course:

• That one of the solutions covered applies to a problem you're aiming to solve
• That one or more techniques used in one or more examples covered can be re-used in a new context
• That the skills you acquire in developing solutions to complex problems can be re-applied in new situations

The structure of the course examples and exercises is then discussed. The structure of each example is composed of:

• Overview - a brief description of the modelling problem to be solved
• Assumptions - the key inputs / assumptions the model will require
• Outputs - an outline of the charts / data and tables the model should generate
• Challenges - a list of the main "tricky" / challenging parts of the problem
• Framework - an outline of the techniques needed to solve the problem
• Applications - examples of other problems where the techniques used in the model can be applied

Then follow these course examples:

• Growth - A model with complex periodicity / timing requirements
• Due vs Received - A model which projects rolling KPIs
• Capacity Analysis - A model which analyses the cost and performance of capacity allocation strategies
• Slice and Dice - A model that evolves and analyses multidimensional data and relationships (of a demographic nature)
• Resource Utilisation - A model that analyses resource usage, service times, backlogs, etc as a function of demand profiles and capacity

Register

You can register your interest for any of our courses by selecting the "Register" menu item at the top of this page.