S6001 Master of Financial Mathematics

The course is structured in three parts: Part A. Orientation studies, Part B. Specialist studies, Part C. Applied professional practice.

Part A. Orientation studies

These studies provide an orientation to the field of financial mathematics. You will choose studies that complement your current knowledge relevant to financial mathematics, including principles of econometrics, mathematical methods and stochastic processes.

Part B. Specialist studies

These studies will provide you with advanced knowledge and skills relevant to thoughtful, innovative and evidence-based practice in financial modelling and analysis. You will acquire core knowledge of and skills in stochastic calculus, quantitative risk management, interest rate modelling and computational methods in finance. You will complement these with study in areas of your choice, including financial econometrics, Markov processes, statistical learning in finance, and machine learning.

Part C. Applied professional practice

These studies will provide you with the opportunity to apply your knowledge skills developed in Part A and B to 'real life' problems. For those who achieve a distinction average (70%) in Part B, you can complete a major industry project or industry internship. For those who do not meet this requirement, you can complete a minor industry project or industry internship, as well as taking additional elective units from mathematics, business/economics and IT, to further supplement your studies. If you are admitted to the course with a recognised honours or equivalent in mathematics or statistics, you will receive credit for this part. However, should you wish to complete a 24 point research project you should consult with the course coordinator.

Masters entry points

Depending on prior qualifications you may receive entry level credit (a form of block credit) which determines your point of entry to the course:

• If you are admitted at entry level 1 you complete 96 credit points, comprising Part A, Part B and Part C
• If you are admitted at entry level 2 you complete 72 credit points, comprising Part B and Part C
• If you are admitted at entry level 3 you complete 48 credit points, comprising Part B.

Note: If you are eligible for credit for prior studies you may elect not to receive the credit and complete one of the higher credit-point options.

Course progression map

The course progression map provides guidance on unit enrolment for each semester of study.

The course comprises 96 points structured into three parts: Part A. Orientation studies (24 points), Part B. Specialist studies (48 points) and Part C. Applied professional practice (24 points).

Units are 6 points unless otherwise stated.

Part A: Orientation studies (24 points)

Core units

You must complete the following unit: 

• MTH3251 Financial mathematics

And one of the following units:

• MTH3241 Random processes in the sciences and engineering
• MTH3260 Statistics of stochastic processes

Elective units

You must complete two units from the following list of units or one unit from the core units above not previously completed and one unit from the list below:

• ETC3400 Principles of econometrics
• ETC3420 Applied insurance methods
• ETC3460 Financial econometrics
• MTH3051 Introduction to computational mathematics
• MTH3140 Real analysis
• MTH3320 Computational linear algebra
• MTH3330 Optimisation and operations research
• MTH3160 Metric spaces, Banach spaces, Hilbert spaces
• MTH3230 Time series and random processes in linear systems

Part B: Specialist studies (48 points)

Core units

You must complete the following two units:

• MTH5210 Stochastic calculus and mathematical finance
• MTH5510 Quantitative risk management

And three of the following units:

• MTH5520 Interest rate modelling
• MTH5530 Computational methods in finance
• MTH5550 Quantitative trading and market microstructure
• MTH5560 Partial differential equations for finance

Elective units

You must complete three units from the following list of units or one unit from the core units above not previously completed and two units from the list below: 

• BFF5270 Funds management
• BFX5260 Treasury and financial markets
• ETX5460 Advanced financial econometrics
• FIT5197 Statistical data modelling
• FIT5201 Machine learning
• FIT9136 Algorithms and programming foundations in Python
• MTH5220 The theory of martingales in discrete time
• MTH5230 Markov chains and random walks
• MTH5540 Statistical learning in finance
• MTH5331 Optimisation for data analytics
• MTH5010 Special topics in advanced mathematics 1
• MTH5020 Special topics in advanced mathematics 2

Part C: Applied professional practice (24 points)

You complete one of the following options:

MTH5840 Minor industry placement (12 points) or MTH5820 Minor industry research project (12 points) plus two units, not previously completed from the list of Part B elective units.

or

MTH5830 Industry placement (24 points)

or

MTH5810 Industry research project (24 points)