Stocks & Crypto Investing

Course Overview

• Total Duration: 12 Lecture Hours + 5 Homework Hours
• Format: Blended (10 Hours Online, 2 Hours In-Person)
• Schedule: 4 Hours per week over 3 weeks (Evening sessions)
• Target Audience: MBA students, young professionals, and self-employed investors
• Core Objective: Synthesize macroeconomic trends, asset-specific fundamentals, and chart-based sentiment to make informed investment decisions, with a primary emphasis on fundamental evaluation

Weekly Breakdown & Lecture Modules

Week 1: Macro Environment & The Crypto-Stock Divide (4 Hours Online)

Focus: Setting the economic stage and understanding market mechanics.

• Lecture 1: Macroeconomic Drivers (2 Hours)
  • Interest rates, inflation, and central bank policies (Fed/ECB).
  • How liquidity cycles dictate capital flow between defensive assets and risky assets stocks and crypto.
  • Tracking leading macro indicators: Yield curve, CPI, and the U.S. Dollar Index (DXY).
• Lecture 2: Market Architecture & Market Structures (2 Hours)
  • Order books, liquidity pools, market makers, and exchanges (NYSE vs. Binance).
  • Structural differences: Equities (regulated, earnings-driven) vs. Crypto (24/7, tokenomics-driven).
  • Homework 1 Assigned (1.5 Hours): Macro Regime Analysis. Students select a current macroeconomic indicator anomaly and write a brief impact projection on both the S&P 500 and Bitcoin.

Week 2: Deep-Dive Fundamentals — The Core Focus (4 Hours Online)

Focus: Evaluating the intrinsic value of businesses and digital assets.

• Lecture 3: Equity Fundamental Analysis (2 Hours)
  • Dissecting the big three: Income Statement, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow.
  • Core valuation metrics: P/E, EV/EBITDA, P/S, and Free Cash Flow (FCF) yield.
  • Assessing competitive moats and management quality for sustainable growth.
• Lecture 4: Crypto Fundamental Analysis & Tokenomics (2 Hours)
  • Evaluating Layer 1s vs. DApps: Network effects, Total Value Locked (TVL), and active addresses.
  • Supply dynamics: Inflationary vs. deflationary tokens, staking burns, and vesting schedules.
  • Utilizing on-chain analytics tools (Glassnode, DeFiLlama) to find underpriced protocols.
  • Homework 2 Assigned (2 Hours): The Dual Valuation Project. Students perform a fundamental health check on one stock (using a 10-K report) and one crypto asset (using its whitepaper and on-chain data).

Week 3: Chart Sentiment & Synthesis (2 Hours Online + 2 Hours In-Person)

Focus: Merging data with market psychology and executing live strategies.

• Lecture 5: Technical Analysis & Sentiment Tracking (2 Hours Online)
  • Market psychology: Support, resistance, and key trendlines.
  • Volume analysis: Confirming fundamental moves vs. retail hype traps.
  • Sentiment indicators: Fear & Greed Index, options put/call ratios, and open interest.
• Lecture 6: Capstone Integration & Live Pitch (2 Hours In-Person)
  • Interactive Workshop: Merging the triad. How to avoid “value traps” using charts, and how to avoid “chart traps” using fundamentals.
  • Live student presentations and peer review of the final investment theses.
  • Homework 3 Assigned (1.5 Hours): The Capstone Investment Thesis. Create a 3-slide investment pitch combining a macro thesis, a fundamental deep-dive, and a chart-vetted entry point for one asset.

Homework & Assessment Breakdown (5 Hours Total)

• Assignment 1: Macro Mapping (1.5 Hours)
  • Task: Identify the current phase of the economic cycle. Determine if current conditions favor defensive stocks, growth stocks, or digital assets.
• Assignment 2: Fundamental Comparative (2 Hours)
  • Task: Calculate and compare the FCF yield of a chosen stock against the protocol revenue/TVL ratio of a crypto asset. Deduce which asset offers a safer margin of safety.
• Assignment 3: The Integrated Pitch (1.5 Hours)
  • Task: Build a capstone proposal. Students must defend an asset buy/sell recommendation based strictly on the formula: Good Macro + Strong Fundamentals + Favorable Chart Sentiment.

Analytical tools and resources students will get familiar with

• Macro/Stocks: TradingView (Charting), SEC Edgar (Company Filings), Finviz (Screener).
  
  
• Crypto On-Chain: DeFiLlama (TVL/Protocol fees), CoinMarketCap/CoinGecko (Supply data).