SYLLABUS
Macro-fundamentals of Financial Markets

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Financial market macro fundamentals are the foundation of trading and investment literacy.
If one does not understand such things as intermarket correlations, Central Bank policy or the mechanics of the yield curve, they are trading and investing with a significant handicap. A strong knowledge of macro-fundamentals will also help develop the career of anyone in the financial services industry. Unfortunately, there are many individuals in finance who lack this knowledge and are unable to respond to their clients appropriately.This course aims to remedy that by providing traders, investors and advisers of all levels of knowledge with an advanced toolkit for understanding how the global financial markets operate. 
 
There is rarely anything ‘textbook’ about financial market reactions. Markets are extremely dynamic and at times appear irrational to those who lack proper understanding. Therefore, macro-fundamentals need to be learned gradually in current markets, and ideally, with an experienced mentor to fill in the details. This course is modelled on this method. You will have access to a significant amount of highly relevant learning material and guided questions, weekly tutorials from a highly-regarded macro trader, and continual access to a variety of instructors, most of whom have over a quarter century of professional trading experience. 

Key ‘takeaways’ and topics to be covered in this course:
  • Learn to think like a macro trader with well-reasoned, long term trade ideas. 
  • Learn to interpret and weigh the significance of global macro and geopolitical events.
  • Understand how to gauge the impact of economic releases and Fed statements.
  • Implement knowledge of monetary policy into a trading strategy.

MODULES

1. Key Global Economic indicators and News releases:
  • Non-farm payrolls, CPI, PPI and other key indicators; their influence on key trading products.
  • How to prepare for and react to economic news releases and other financial market events.
  • Applying statistics: ‘expected versus actual’, anticipating institutional traders and ‘algos’.
 
2. Central Banks:
  • Interpreting ‘Fedspeak,’ policy meetings, parsing FOMC statements. 
  • Focus on US, ECB, Japan, Canada, Australia.
 
3.  Monetary Policy 
  • Understand monetary policy and fiscal policy as it applies to current financial markets. Market cycles and effects on stocks, bonds, forex, and commodities
 
4. Economic Crises and Geopolitical events
  • Case studies in financial catastrophes: how they can be averted and how to anticipate them. Significance (and non-significance) of geopolitical events.

5. Intermarket Correlations
  • Understand the macro-fundamental relationships and probabilities of product correlations. Learn to assess when commodities, currencies, and financial products are likely to track each other, de-couple or converge. 
 
6. Fixed Income Markets
  • Understanding the products: how they function and their effect on the economy. 
  • Yield curve basics: understand steepening, flattening; why and when it happens.
  • T-note auctions, characteristics of interest rate products and their significance
  • Forecasting economic trends from the credit markets.
 
7. The Financial Media, Research and Resources
  • Understand how ‘sell side’ analysts operate.
  • Learn how professional traders interpret and react to news events
  • Learn how to recognize valid news from the ‘noise.’
  • Know where to look for critical market intelligence. 

COURSE FORMAT

  • 10 weeks. Total class time: 15 hours 
  • Read weekly preparatory material, (course modules, recent articles and synopses)
  • Answer 2-3 focussed questions (homework)
  • Weekly skype discussions about global macro events: what happened and why. Theory is put into context.  Q&A, Homework assignments are critiqued. 1.5 hrs per week.
  • Journal /project which students develop throughout the term. Students will need to develop a trade strategy based on the answers to their homework questions. 

COURSE PRICE

$1850 USD​​

FEEDBACK ON SYSTEMATIC TRADING

Marco Ruiz
"In 2016, I took a Master in Trading course with Adam Jagiellowicz. He explained all the aspects of trading fundamentally andtechnically, making emphasis on Market Profile, price action and trading patterns. Adam made sure I understood all the subjects he explained, and to help me make continuous progress on my trading abilities, he continued to help me after the course. The market understanding and knowledge I got after the program is priceless and is something no school or university will provide"