Prof. John Cochrane
Welcome to the 35150 web page. You’ll find documents, programs, announcements and hints here.
Last update: Dec 5 2007
TA, Denis Chaves dchaves@ChicagoGSB.edu
Class: Campus, F 1:30-4:30, HCC03. Saturday 9-12, Gleacher 206.
Note: If you are registered for one section, you are welcome to attend the other. The only rule is that people registered for the section get the seats if there aren’t enough.
Review sessions: Wed 5:30-6:30 HC C03 except 12/5, when it will be HC02; Sat 12-1 GC 206.
Exam: As per official GSB schedule, campus F December 7 3-6, Gleacher Sat December 8, 9-12 AM
Note: you must take the exam at this, the scheduled time time. Don’t make plans that conflict with the final!
FAQ:
Q: Is there a first class assignment set?
A: Yes! Download it below.
Q: Am I ready to take this class?
A: Read the prerequisite discussion in the outline and course policies. I am not enforcing prereqs in the bidding system, so read carefully!
Q: What computer stuff do I need?
A: We will run regressions with some pretty large data sets. It will be very hard to do the class in excel ( I used to say impossible, but an excel genius proved me wrong. He did have to do a lot visual basic macros though). I recommend Matlab and will support it. Matlab is available on the PCs in both HPC and Gleacher if you want to try it out. If you know another programming or regression language, you should be able to use that. R, S+ ,Mathematica, c++, Gauss will all work, so if you’re comfortable with them they should work fine. (Hedge funds seem impressed with c++ and matlab abilities.)
Q: I can’t register yet / will still be in the
Q: I can’t register yet. What should I do?
A: There is always room in this class after DAS, as some students confront the workload and drop. Come to class, do the assignments and form a group as if you were registered. It’s virtually 100% sure you will get a space!
Outline and course policies and lots of other information Read before the first class.
Week 2 questions In week 2, we’ll go through the two Fama-French papers. I will run the class (and remaining papers) by asking you to describe the papers, using these questions as a guideline. I’m going to call on you, and answers will be part of your participation grade. Thus, read the papers, and be ready to answer these questions, as well as discuss the papers more generally.
Lee and Swaminathan Table 5 (I couldn’t seem to paste it in to the overheads)
Week 3 overheads and detailed notes. The first part are the overheads I will show in class. The second part are detailed notes. The third part are extras that I won’t cover in class but you might find interesting.
Week 4 detailed notes Same material, much more detailed comments.
Week 5 notes My introduction, plus answers to all the questions
Week 6 notes on Hedge funds.
Link to hf-implode.com
Week 7 notes on short sales, liquidity and over pricing”
Week 8 notes on expectations hypothesis and its failures
Week 8 Overheads Same stuff, short version for class presentation
Week 9 notes on term structure models. Includes final update (11/15)
Week 10 notes on portfolio theory (Slight update 12/29)
Course review outline
Problem set 1 questions Due on first class. (Includes matlab hints)
Data for problem set 1
Matlab program regress_jc (you can use this to run regressions)
Matlab programs tinv.m and fcdf.m used by regress_jc You shouldn’t need these – they are part of the statistics toolbox. But if you don’t have that toolbox, you’ll need these. (They are used to find probability values for t and f tests).
Problem set 1 answers
Matlab program for problem set 1
Problem set 2 questions (use problem set 1 data)
Problem set 2 answers
Matab program for problem set 2.
Olsgmm function called by the matlab program (put this in the same directory, matlab will find it as needed)
Problem set 3 questions
Fama French Factors
Fama French Portfolios
Size data
Beme data
Problem set 3 answers
Matlab program for problem set 3
Tsregress matlab function called by the above
Matlab program for consumption problems
Problem set 4 questions
Problem set 4 answers
Problem set 5 questions
Problem set 5 answers
Problem set 5 matlab program
Program tsregress2
Problem set 6 questions
FF industry portfolios
Problem set 6 answers
Matlab program1 (industry) program2 (Fama French)
Data for problem set 7 (binary matlab data file, you can’t see it with a text editor. Save as)
Same data in matlab 6 format. (much bigger). Try only if the last one didn’t work.
Same data as a huge text file (zip file). YOu can use this if you’re using some other program (sas, splus,r)
Problem set 7 answers
Matlab program
Problem set 8 questions
Fama French momentum factor, Ibbotson bond factors
Hedge fund data
(Investible hedge fund data. Not used in problem set. )
Problem set 8 answers
Matlab programs hedge fund questions; a function used by the hedge fund program
Problem set 9 yield curve data
Problem set 9 answers
Problem set 10 answers
Matlab program
Problem set 11 questions.
Problem set 11 answers
Matlab program
Final Exam
Information
Final exam regrade policy: I will only change an exam grade if the question is almost completely right but I graded it almost completely wrong. I will not haggle about partial credit. Reason: I assign partial credit very carefully so that the same wrong answer gets the same number of points. Thus, I can't change your partial credit without changing everyone else's. (Yes, many people get the same wrong answer.) Fairness across exams is very important to me.
If you believe I have graded your exam incorrectly, submit the exam with an explanation in writing to my mailbox in HPC (US mail to GSB or livery from downtown works if you're not on campus). I reserve the right to regrade the entire exam.
I will happily correct arithmetic errors (adding up your grades) with no fuss.
Matlab
The econphd web page has links to a number of good matlab tutorials. (Scroll down to the bottom)
Kipp Martin is now teaching a winter quarter course 36104 on excel and matlab
Data
WRDS state-of-the-art web-based data management services are available through the use of the MBA WRDS account. WRDS allows Students to query and retrieve information from a wide variety of databases across multiple disciplines such as Accounting, Finance, Marketing, Management, Insurance, Banking and Economics.
For winter quarter, the account will valid from January 3 through March 30, and you can access the WRDS account through http://wrds.wharton.upenn.edu. This account is to be used only for your GSB related class research. Any other use would violate our agreement with CRSP and WRDS. The username for this quarter is listed below.
If you have any questions, please call the Computing Services Help Desk at 773- 702-7414.
Username: gsbwin07
Password - Contact the helpdesk at 773-702-7414 after the start of the quarter.