Master’s Degree in Quantitative Finance and Risk Management draws on the recognized excellence of our engineering school in quantitative finance, and makes great use of the collaborations with the Universities of Paris-Dauphine and Cergy-Pontoise. The Master is primarily going to appeal to international students, "free movers" or those from our partner universities or for high-potential foreign engineers who are looking for an international career in the domain of finance. This program leads to a Master degree and a Diplôma accredited by the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research.
Objective
This Master’s degree covers the whole chain of quantitative finance, from theoretical aspects to the application in a professional setting. The chain can be described as follows:
o Description of the market and financial products
o Mathematical models of finance
o Mathematical models of risk
o Numerical resolution: computer-aided simulation
o Calibration and asset evaluation
Specific details of the Master:
o The Master came from the Financial Engineering option (IFI) taught at the ESITI for the last 13 years (all students from the option have found work as soon as their compulsory internships finished, and have an average salary 20% higher than the norm in this sector).
o In and of itself, the Master is intrinsically international.
o The theoretical teaching of this Master is very thorough, covering everything needed to know in the associated professions. As a consequence, the students are very adaptable within the work market.
o The Master offers a 3-skilled approach, in Computer Science, Mathematics and Finance.
Practical information
The Master’s degree counts for 120 ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) in total and lasts two years. The training lasts 1316 hours (646 hours in M1 and 670 hours in M2). The semesters are divided as follows:
o M1 courses take place from September until June and count for a total of 60 ECTS
o M2 courses take place from September until mid-April and count for a total of 44 ECTS
o A five-month internship (in France) from mid- April until mid- September for 16 ECTS. Usual indemnities are around 1000 € per month.
Non-French speakers will be asked to participate to a one week intensive French course that precedes the start of the program and allows students to gain the linguistic knowledge necessary for daily interactions.
Organization
M1 modules are taught from September to June (60 ECTS, 646 h):
• Mathematics
• Measure and Integration (2 ECTS, 20 h)
• Functional Analysis (3 ECTS, 30 h)
• Stochastic Processes-Discrete/Continuous Time (5,5 ECTS, 55 h)
• Optimization (2,5 ECTS, 30 h)
• Jump Processes and Application (3 ECTS, 30h)
• Partial Differential Equations (3 ECTS, 30 h)
Calibration, Simulation and Numerical Analysis
• Monte Carlo Simulations (3 ECTS, 30 h)
• Finite Difference Methods (2,5 ECTS, 25 h)
• Calibration of Financial Models (2 ECTS, 20 h)
• Bloomberg trading room (3ECTS, 30h)
• C++ and Object Oriented Design (2 ECTS, 20 h)
• VBA Programming (3 ECTS, 30 h)
• Interdisciplinary Project (5 ECTS, 5 h)
Finance and Insurance
• Introduction to Quantitative Finance (3 ECTS, 25 h)
• Risk Management in a mono-period Financial Market & Derivatives (4 ECTS, 40 h)
• Contingent Claims Valuation (3 ECTS, 30 h)
• Portfolio Management and Financial Risks (3 ECTS, 30 h)
• Mathematics Applied to Insurance (3 ECTS, 30 h)
• French as Foreign Language
• French as Foreign Language (4,5 ECTS, 96 h)
M1 modules are taught from September to June (60 ECTS, 646 h):
• Mathematics
• Measure and Integration (2 ECTS, 20 h)
• Functional Analysis (3 ECTS, 30 h)
• Stochastic Processes-Discrete/Continuous Time (5,5 ECTS, 55 h)
• Optimization (2,5 ECTS, 30 h)
• Jump Processes and Application (3 ECTS, 30h)
• Partial Differential Equations (3 ECTS, 30 h)
• Calibration, Simulation and Numerical Analysis
• Monte Carlo Simulations (3 ECTS, 30 h)
• Finite Difference Methods (2,5 ECTS, 25 h)
• Calibration of Financial Models (2 ECTS, 20 h)
• Bloomberg trading room (3ECTS, 30h)
• C++ and Object Oriented Design (2 ECTS, 20 h)
• VBA Programming (3 ECTS, 30 h)
• Interdisciplinary Project (5 ECTS, 5 h)
• Finance and Insurance
• Introduction to Quantitative Finance (3 ECTS, 25 h)
• Risk Management in a mono-period Financial Market & Derivatives (4 ECTS, 40 h)
• Contingent Claims Valuation (3 ECTS, 30 h)
• Portfolio Management and Financial Risks (3 ECTS, 30 h)
• Mathematics Applied to Insurance (3 ECTS, 30 h)
• French as Foreign Language
• French as Foreign Language (4,5 ECTS, 96 h)
M2 modules take place from September to Mid-April (60 ECTS, 670h)
• Mathematics
• Mathematical Statistics (2 ECTS, 21 h)
• Mathematical Tools in Finance (4,5 ECTS, 54h)
• Calibration, Simulation and Numerical Analysis
• Advanced Numerical Methods for PDEs in Finance(2,5 ECTS, 30 h)
• Advanced Spreadsheet Programming (2 ECTS, 24h)
• Simulations (2 ECTS, 24 h)
• Calibration (3 ECTS, 30 h)
• Theoretical and Practical Finance
• Theory of Contingent Claims (4,5 ECTS, 54 h)
• Interest Rate, Exchange and Inflation Markets (2,5 ECTS, 30 h)
• Portfolio Managment (2,5 ECTS, 30 h)
• Imperfect Markets (2 ECTS, 20 h)
• Dynamic Hedging and Risk Measures (2 ECTS, 21 h)
• Business Evaluation (2,5 ECTS, 35 h)
• Jump Processes and Applications (2 ECTS, 21 h)
• Careers and financial products (2 ECTS, 30 h)
• Practical Fixed Income Management (2 ECTS, 24 h)
• French as Foreign Language
• French as Foreign Language (4 ECTS, 72 h)
• Master's Thesis (9 ECTS, 150 h)
• Internship (22 weeks from mid-April to)
Teaching
Fourteen external teachers (lecturers from universities, teacher-researchers, professors etc.), supported by a piloting committee, will bring together the training given in Cergy.
All the classes will be taught in English, with the exception of:
• The class of FLE (French as a foreign language), where the objective is to teach the students how to understand and express themselves in French.
• Cultural Openness, where the objective is to enrich the students’ knowledge of French culture.
The EISTI offers an e-learning site to all its students, which complements everything the students will learn through their presence and participation in class:
• class documents, practical work and tutorials online
• questions and discussions between teachers and students, and among students
• a possibility of handing work in online
All Master’s students are equipped with a laptop for the duration of the program that remains the property of the EISTI.
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