Assignment
The first part of the discussion should be fun. Many of you without a background in finance may have gotten your impression of the finance world from TV or movies. Even the highly prestigious Certified Financial Analyst (CFA) Institute has published Top 20 Films about Finance: From Crisis to Con Men.
Share what your impressions are based on a recent TV show or movie, or one of the movies from the CFA Institute's list if you can find one of the movies online. If you haven't watched anything finance-related lately, check out the one of these movies: The Big Short, Margin Call, or Wall Street (the original one, not the awful sequel). TV shows include Billions or some early episodes of Silicon Valley that involve getting finance for the new company. Post your thoughts in the first week of the module.
For the second week of the module, dig into the assignments and start to use Microsoft Excel. There are some videos on Excel in the background reading page, but find an additional video or two that helps you get started. Share the link with your classmate and discuss the usefulness of the video you found.