Mathematics 280, Summer 2017

Illinois State University – Mathematics Department

Instructors

Classes Meet

This class is held online.

Office Hours

By appointment. You can also make an appointment at http://smartURL.it/appointment. Contact the instructor by e-mail (krzysio@ilstu.edu), or inside ReggieNet, or call/FaceTime (309-287-1711).

Textbooks

There will study notes, exercises and videos provided online, which will cover all required material. You can also use any of the books listed as textbooks for the Course FM professional actuarial examination. but note that this class covers also some basic introduction to derivative securities, moved to Course MFE professional actuarial examinations, effective June 2017. The class materials posted online, as well as video lectures will refer to this text: BTDT Study Manual for the Course FM Examination, 2017 Edition, by Krzysztof Ostaszewski, available here. If you purchase the manual, contact Dr. Krzysztof Ostaszewski to receive supplementary materials on introduction to derivative securities (but again, that material is also posted in Reggienet).

Objective

The objective of this class is to present the main concepts of basic deterministic financial mathematics. These include: time value of money, mesurement of interest, annuities, loans, bonds, stocks and preferred stocks, duration, convexity, immunization, and derivative securities such as forwards, futures, options and swaps. The class will cover the entire material tested on the Course FM professional actuarial examination, plus some introductory derivative securities material. Note that the next available testing period for Course FM professional actuarial examination is August 3-14, 2017, and the deadline to register for this testing period is June 27, 2017. You can find all dates for Computer Based Tests for professional actuarial examinations here.

Grading

There will be four take home mid-term examinations, and two supervised final examination. You must schedule your supervised final examinations on campus of Illinois State University or at another supervised secure location (e.g., at a local university or community college at a location where you are, or at an insurance company office). One of the two examinations must be taken by Monday, July 31, 2017 at the latest, and the second one must be taken by Monday, August 7, 2017 at the latest. You are required to work on your take home tests by yourself, without obtaining help from anyone else, and submit written solutions (make it one file for each assignment) in ReggieNet, or send your work as an e-mail attachment to the instructor (make it one file for each assignment) or by sharing it through some other secure file sharing service. The better of the two finals will count as 40% of your grade, and the best two of the remaining five tests (four take home tests, and the second final) will count as 30% of your grade each. You will also get up to 10% extra credit for the best of the remaining tests. The grading scale will be as follows: 90% or better — A, 80% to 90% — B, 70% to 80% — C, 60% to 70% — D, below 60% — F. If you have an A after the first final, you will not be given the second final. After each test is graded, you will receive an e-mail with information on how to log in to a secure site where you will be able to view your grade(s). You will also receive a PDF file of your test with grading indicated, and you can submit any questions you might have about the grading to the class instructor. You will also receive model solutions of all tests after the tests are given.

Disability concerns

Any student needing a special accommodation for a documented disability should contact Disability Concerns at Fell Hall, Room 350.

Important dates

Illinois State University important dates information for the Summer 2017 semester is given here: http://www.registrar.ilstu.edu/downloads/calendars/summer2017cal.pdf.

Schedule of classes

• Monday, May 15, 2017: Classes start.
• Friday, May 19, 2017: You are expected to have watched all Week 1 video lectures and have studied the corresponding material, including going through all listed Week 1 exercises.
• Friday, May 26, 2017: You are expected to have watched all Week 2 video lectures and have studied the corresponding material, including going through all listed Week 2 exercises. You will receive Take Home Examination 1, covering material through May 26, 2017, for which your solutions are due June 25, 2017, by 11:59 p.m. U.S. Central Time. Submission in one file named FirstnameLastname-Test1 is strongly prefered.
• Friday, June 2, 2017: You are expected to have watched all Week 3 video lectures and have studied the corresponding material, including going through all listed Week 3 exercises. You will receive Take Home Examination 2, covering material through June 2, 2017, for which your solutions are due July 3, 2017, by 11:59 p.m. U.S. Central Time. Submission in one file named FirstnameLastname-Test2 is strongly prefered.
• Friday, June 9, 2017: You are expected to have watched all Week 4 video lectures and have studied the corresponding material, including going through all listed Week 4 exercises. You will receive Take Home Examination 3, covering material through June 9, 2017, given to you, and due July 10, 2017, by 11:59 p.m. U.S. Central Time. Submission in one file named FirstnameLastname-Test3 is strongly prefered.
• Friday, June 16, 2017: You are expected to have watched all Week 5 video lectures and have studied the corresponding material, including going through all listed Week 5 exercises. You will receive Take Home Midterm Examination 4, covering material through June 16, 2017, given to you, and due July 17, 2017, by 11:59 p.m. U.S. Central Time. Submission in one file named FirstnameLastname-Test4 is strongly prefered.
• Monday, July 31, 2017: You must take your first supervised final examination on or before this date. Please schedule it at least four days in advadvance. The arrangement must be approved by the instructor. The test can be supervised by a professor at a university or a community college, or a credentialed actuary, who agrees to do this and coordinates this process with the class instructor. You can always come to take the supervised test at Illinois State University, but you are not required to, any supervised setting is acceptable, as long as approved and agreed upon by the class instructor. Please ask Dr. Ostaszewski if you are uncertain of anything.
• Monday, August 7, 2017: You must take your second supervised final examination on or before this date. Please schedule it at least four days in advadvance. The arrangement must be approved by the instructor. The test can be supervised by a professor at a university or a community college, or a credentialed actuary, who agrees to do this and coordinates this process with the class instructor. You can always come to take the supervised test at Illinois State University, but you are not required to, any supervised setting is acceptable, as long as approved and agreed upon by the class instructor. Please ask Dr. Ostaszewski if you are uncertain of anything.

All deadlines are final and will not be extended under any circumstancs. For any form of submission, the date and time sent must be prior to the deadline. Please make appropriate allowance for technology failures.

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All information contained here is, to our best knowledge, correct, but it is merely a representation, and should not be considered to be any form of professional advice. This electronic publication should not be misconstrued as the official position of Illinois State University, or its Department of Mathematics. We are glad to provide as much information as possible here, but we kindly ask that in any decision related to matters listed here you seek additional counsel and information. Comments on this Home Page are welcome and should be sent to Dr. Krzysztof Ostaszewski  at his e-mail address: krzysio@ilstu.edu.