Post-graduate students offered hedge fund course

Colonial First State(CFS) has developed Australia’s first specialised post-graduate program in hedge funds, offered in conjunction withMacquarie Universityas part of its Master of Applied Finance degree.

Designed by CFS hedge funds investment director David Bell and senior members of the group’s hedge fund team, the course aims to give a broad introduction to the hedge funds industry, looking at the different investment strategies as well as portfolio construction.

Bell says the hedge fund course was developed to fill a gap in the current structure and he approached Macquarie University due to its past history of launching new and innovative courses.

“There are dedicated courses on every other asset class; students learn about them in a university degree,” he says.

According to Bell the course is delivered in three parts, beginning with the key features of the industry such as transparency, leverage and short selling. The bulk of the course is then devoted to individual strategies, how they work and the infrastructure, followed by what Bell calls the ‘legends and disasters’ of the industry.

The lecture program, run by Bell, is delivered as a 22-hour intensive elective over Thursday and Friday nights and the weekend. The first hedge fund course was recently completed in Sydney to a full house of 40 students.

“The feedback from students was positive. It [the course] went really well and it gave an overview of the industry which they couldn’t get anywhere else,” Bell says.

CFS hedge funds head Damien Hatfield was a guest lecture for the Sydney course along with Vertex Capital’s Kim Ivey andBasis Capital’sSteve Howell.

Melbourne students are next in line for the course, which will begin in September, while Hong Kong and Singapore will be added to the list next year.