ECON 4340

I will try to make this as comprehensive a review as possible. I will try to remain unbiased even though I loved the course and Professor Burton. The idea of this review is to present all information you should have since there is a lot of conflicting stories. The first part will focus on Burton as a prof (which I will also post on his other class ECON 437) and then the second part will focus on this course specifically.

**All about Professor Burton** - This applies to both ECON 434 and 437

Lecture style: Professor Burton is very knowledgable in this subject, having taught it many times and having worked on the Street himself. Because of this his lectures are in tune with what I -- and maybe you -- imagine old school high level classes to be like. He posts slides that he rarely actually uses and more so talks about the subject matter. This is probably the first point of contention people have and you have read about him. The best way I can describe his class in one sentence is: if you view going to class as a machine where you input your time and through listening to him explain the subject you output a grade, this is not the class for you. As you can see in the grade distribution it is hard to get lower than a B. You can easily get an A by just reading his book. His book is the most important thing for the exam. He wrote it and has used it for years for this course so you can imagine that he will want you to word things how he words them in the book -- and in class -- when giving answers on the exams. I will touch more on the exams later. This was a long winded way of saying that if you go to class treat it like a seminar where you essentially get to hear a very knowledgable guest speaker talk about theory of financial markets and often about the current state of financial markets. Again, he does sometimes include pieces of information such as how to word an idea on an exam. In summary, I believe people find his lectures boring because he does not always talk about things that will be on the exam.

Style of exams (still applies to both classes):
You will have 2 midterms and a final that are weighted 30%, 30%, and 40% respectively. The most annoying thing about these classes is the arbitrary grading. I took these classes with a friend and we would often say very similar if not the same things on exams and the grader would mark them differently. It seems that there may be a keyword that he wants you to mention. I do want to say that this should not be the deciding factor in taking vs not taking his class as he has mentioned that he is working on that. This also produces a relatively small variance in your numerical grade. In other words if you put the effort in to get an A, this grading inconsistency will not get you a B.

Interacting with students:
He is extremely nice and offers students to go to lunch with him on Tuesday and Wednesday (this may change if his new condo is built by the time you take the class). You go to Farmington and he talks about life and asks you about yourself. If the topics are finance focused it is more so about subjects not directly about class. I recommend doing this multiple times as it seems not many people take advantage of it and it will allow him to get to know you better.

Grading (again same for 434 and 437):
This is another one of the most annoying parts of his class. This, in my opinion, is more psychologically annoying but unless you plan to change your effort in a class by your grade it is pretty inconsequential. Basically you get your numerical score (out of 100 points) back on midterms, but the class is curved so if you do better than average you get some form of A (A, A-, etc.,) and below average is the same for a B. No offense to anyone who got a C but he alludes to the fact that you really have to suck to get a C. He does the grading at the end of the semester so you may not know where you stand until then. When I took 434 he would tell us the average of the midterms so you kind of knew but for 437 he hasn't told us at all.

Content (434 specific):
Midterm 1 content is all about fixed-income assets. You go over duration and duration risk. How treasuries are priced and how and when coupons are paid on them. He provides equations for the duration of a bond but you don't need to do the math in the exam, just give a realistic answer (he gives examples in class).
Midterm 2 content is all about equities, specifically the CAPM. You need to know the people he talks about: Markowitz, Tobin, and Sharpe. The questions he gave on this exam were extremely open-ended so you needed to brain-dump everything you knew about them in order to reach how the CAPM came about.
The final includes midterm 1 and 2 content but was weighted more heavily towards derivatives. Knowing what an option, future/ forward, and a swap.

This class was honestly not bad at all. I don't know why there are so many negative reviews. This class has no homework so I didn't do much work for it other than studying for the exams. Just two midterms, each weighted 30% of our grade, and a final worth 40%. The class itself was a little boring and tended to go off-topic. We learned many things that we weren't going to be tested on, but the exams were not nearly as bad as some of my other econ classes and they're curved pretty generously. Professor Burton also does a brief review session before each exam which gave us a pretty good idea of what topics to focus on. The final was cumulative but we didn't really get tested on much of what we learned after Thanksgiving (I'd say 1/5th of the final was new content). Overall, it was one of my easier 4000-level electives. Just study what he says during the review + some vocab terms from the textbook and you'll most likely be fine. #tCFF23

Professor Burton is a great guy and has more finance experience than anyone else at this school, but that does not make him a great professor. As nice as he is (takes students out to lunch just to get to know them throughout the semester), I did not find his lectures beneficial towards my understanding of the material. The most useful reason for going was that so I could know what would be on the exams. Even so, the exams were rather arbitrary. Our second exam was one page of paper front and back and testing us on very specific topics, despite the large amount of content that was supposed to be on it. Also, the grading is pretty rigid. If you aren't word for word from the textbook (which he wrote, and is relatively straightforward), you'll get points taken off. In my opinion, this is not a productive way of testing students. I found myself studying for hours just to memorize words instead of actually trying to understand the concepts. To be quite frank, I'm coming away with this class with little memory of anything, other than Burton's many life stories – which are great.

If you're good at memorization, this class will be good. Just read his textbook and memorize word for word the assigned chapters. The content is tricky at times, but overall pretty straightforward. Minimal calculations, more just definitions and concepts (CAPM, futures & forwards, duration, default-free vs. risk-free, etc.). Also, if you're someone who hates busywork than you'll like this class. All you have are two midterms and a final exam, no weekly responses, problem sets, or discussion sections.

To get an A in this class, read and memorize his textbook, look over his PPTs, go to class the day before the exam to hear what he has to say about content, and have lunch with him. At the end of the day, Professor Burton does seem to care about his students and he does have so much experience in the financial world. There is a lot to be learned from him, maybe not necessarily when it comes to financial markets, but more when it comes to life.

This course is honestly terrible. You will have covered very little material in class because professor Burton tends to spend about 45 minutes a class telling stories about himself. The exams come from a textbook (written by Burton) that does a horrible job defining terms properly. Basically be prepared to memorize vocabulary words from the chapters. The class requires 0 outside work but is definitely not worth taking. Pretty disappointing that UVA would allow a course like this to have been taught for so long.

Honestly, this class wasn't that bad - I don't know what the hollering is about. Here was my three step process to do well in this class (without attending a single lecture): 1. Everything comes from the textbook chapters. Read them and outline the big items. This will be your only work in the class. 2. PowerPoint slides. Literally all of the 'key words' come from here. 3. Don't go to lecture - they're useless. One time during a test review he talked about his stock picks the entire time. All in all, this class really just teaches you about investment in portfolios (big picture), but I still thoroughly enjoyed the class. This class is literally just definitions - if you have a good memory, you'll do fine. I also knew nothing about finance going in, and I really do think that if your in the same boat you'll come out with a solid foundation of understanding.

Overall, the course itself is one that I would recommend to those that have a genuine interest in learning more about financial markets or finance in general; the exams do not assess super specific aspects of the topics covered, with a few exceptions. Attendance at lectures is pretty abysmal – a lot of people skip lecture because Prof. Burton sometimes spends a lot of time talking about recent economic news that is interesting but not vital to learn if a good grade is all you are after. Other than those tangents, lectures are typically just a lot of paraphrasing from his textbook, so do with that information what you will. I find going to lecture made my life a lot easier come exam time. On that note, reading the textbook is VITAL to success in the course; I find that reading the assigned chapters as soon as they are posted helps a lot to fully grasp what is being talked about in lecture. Burton is really good at emphasizing what he likes to assess on exams during lectures, so that is a big incentive to show up even though it's early in the morning (9:30am). The lecture slides online are kind of hit or miss in my opinion; some contain super useful examples that show up again on exams, but others are not super helpful as far as studying goes. Again, I cannot emphasize enough that you MUST READ THE TEXTBOOK. Also, as you read, be sure to TAKE NOTES on the book as well, and then compare them to what you got out of each lecture to be sure you are covering all of the important topics. Basic rule of thumb is the more time Burton spends on a topic, the more specifically and heavily it will be assessed. Burton also loves to get to know students and typically treats students to lunch and dinner each week, so take advantage of that too. TLDR: Burton is a fair professor, and if you read the textbook and take some notes on it, you can expect at least a B. #tCFfall2021

I'll say similar things to my review of Burton's Behavioral Finance class (I took both, stupidly):
I understand this is something of an unpopular opinion but I absolutely could not stand Ed Burton. His lectures are pointless - he goes off on useless tangents just so he can brag about himself at least three times per class. Learning course material is confined almost exclusively to doing the readings on your own. HOWEVER, he will specifically put questions on the exams that are only answerable if you attended lecture. It's clear his ego is the size of the lecture hall he teaches in, and he fetishizes the fact that he's the professor and you're his student. You're going to hear, "I"m on the board of SL Greene" 999999 times in the semester. I just hated listening to him every Tues/Thurs. The class is very little work outside of keeping up with the readings and the curve is generous, it's just such a chore to attend.

There is nothing wrong w the material but Burton is an awful lecturer. I can't hear a lot of things he says and sometimes he is just rambling. ill be sitting in his class for 20 min and sleeping. The tests requires u to remember lots of definitions and the TAs are harsh graders.

I am absolutely flabbergasted by how positive the reviews on here are. NO ONE SHOULD SIGN UP FOR THIS AWFUL AWFUL CLASS. The review below me hit the nail on the head. Burton really should not be teaching.

To start, he made us read a 600 page book and didn’t even ask a single question about it. He wont use a mic in class which makes it extremely hard to hear his nonsensical ramblings. 80-90% of what is discussed in class is completely irrelevant. This class would more aptly be named BURT 4340 The History and Opinions of Edwin Burton and his Rich Friends. He literally spent all but 5 min of a lecture once rambling about himself and then said right before the class ended to just read the book chapter. The book isn’t helpful because its riddled with errors in grammar and content on top of pages of completely uncovered information. Test questions are very open-ended, often irrelevant and its almost impossible to know what Burton wants. Even if you did its often hard to fit since there is so much you could say and not enough room. His teaching style is so inconsistent that not even the TA’s know what the right answers are on the exams and he only gives one day to correct tests. This is so dumb considering your test is bound to have grading errors because the TA’s have no clue what Burton wants. I somehow did well but I could very easily see how someone could know as much as me and still get a poor grade due to the ludicrous grading of the tests. There aren’t any practice questions for the math which makes no sense. Even if anyone could answer your questions, its tough to get answers since Burton wont answer emails and the TA’s don’t have office hours. He also has this weird obsession with Michael Milken which really isn’t that important to the material in the class but he chooses to focus on him a lot.

Overall, one of the worst professors I have ever had and it shows in absolutely abysmal lecture attendance. This class and professor are an embarrassment to UVA and its mind-boggling that UVA still offers it. The only pros to this class are that it has 0 work, you dont need to attend it and its a finance class in the ECON dept.

This course, with this professor, is wild. Burton is an amicable septuagenarian, who clearly has accomplished a lot in his career, but he really should not be teaching at this point. For one, his 'textbook' (which is a series of word docs he wrote) is riddled with errors, contradictions, and inconsistencies. For example, he asked for the definition of 'risk aversion' on an exam, and I gave the definition verbatim from the textbook, but did not receive full credit, because the TA said that definition was incomplete. Like, what? Second, the lectures themselves are rollercoasters of weirdness - the majority of what he says every class is irrelevant. Finally, the way grading is done is extremely dicey. Exams consist of definitions and free responses, and all grading is done by a gaggle of ECON TA's. But because Burton writes the exam questions so poorly (and teaches the course concepts so loosely and inconsistently), the feasible set of answers for questions is huge, but the set of answers the TAs are allowed to give credit to is small. So even the vigilant and studious student can get shafted when they know the concepts but don't use the correct buzzwords or explain things 'thoroughly' enough. At the end, Burton puts all the scores in to a mysterious black box and basically everyone gets an A, B or C. I had a B+ average from the first to MTs, got an A on the final, and got an A in the class, so happy about that, but not sure if it was worth all the stress and doubt I had through this. 2 mid-terms and a final, weighted 30/30/40.

If you are an Econ major- definitely take this course. It's not hard to get an A in as long as you do the readings. Tbh, I wouldn't do some of the readings till when we actually had to study for the exam and ended the class with an A since all the info on the tests comes from the textbook (by textbook I mean word documents averaging from 7-13 pages). I maybe looked at the powerpoint or notes a few times for info I could not figure out on my own. Also, his lectures are pretty interesting and he tells you important stuff you need to know for the exams. 10/10 would recommend going to lunch with him because he's a great person to talk to and cares about his students!

Burton is a GREAT Professor and individual. He is super knowledgeable and provides a ton of professional advice and assistance which is huge advantage. He also provides so much life advice.
The class itself is pretty straight forward.... It really doesn't matter whether you go to lecture or not, the SAME material is in the textbook and lecture. But, going to lectures there are more opportunities to go to dinner, lunch and trips with him. Also if you go to lectures he will give hints (wink wink nudge nudge) about important information for the test. But, also in lecture there are tangents that don't have much relevance to the material being tested. So, I would suggest going, but if you go and half pay attention that is also sufficient . After the first two months there will probably be 50 people show up to lecture out of a class of 200. The class is structured 3 exams; two midterms and a final. Each exam is structured with IDs and then Main concepts. I would say there is probably about 10 IDs and 5 short answer questions with multi parts per question. Just be careful with IDs sometimes the graders want really specific information. Also ALWAYS go to TAs to get corrections... people on here have said they hard, but tons of people have gotten points back so don't be lazy and not go! Information in the Powerpoints is super important and if you are cramming for the exam thats what I would say is essential to know for the exam. The averages for test are usually in the mid 80s. Math for this course is a minimial and save yourself time and don't read the summer reading he will most likely just scrap it by the time the semester is there.

This class is a lot like other reviews say. It is not the most interesting, but some of the content is important. Burton likes to ramble in lecture, so it moves quite slow. However, going to lecture makes studying for the tests really easy, especially because he overviews potential topics for the test. Because of the grading distribution, you can do well without going to class. However, class isn't horrible and I would recommend going and then just reading your notes to study for the midterms and final. Alternatively, you can also read the book, which he wrote. Both are good resources.

The easiest "high level" classes I've ever taken, you can easily get a B- without showing up by reading the textbook an hour a day the week before each exam.

The biggest problems with this class are:

1. The grad-school graders who aren't haven't taken the class and therefore can't interpret answers correctly. I had to argue for an extremely long time with a guy to get points back on an incorrectly-graded question.

2. An interest in financial THEORY is necessary to enjoy the lectures. If you're someone who just wants to get an A in a class with a marketable name you'll probably hate going to lecture because he talks about the mathematic and microeconomic bases for certain theories rather than teaching you about wall-street jargon. You're more likely to miss points if you can't grasp concavity then you are if you don't know about private equity.

3. Maybe the biggest problem is his absolute unwillingness to give less than a C. IDK how that one person got a C- above but they must have forgotten to show up to an exam. Many people don't pay attention the first few lectures, then most lectures will have less than 50% of people show up after the 1st midterm. It was kinda annoying to be around tons of people who literally had no idea what they were doing, and they were probably part of the reason the graders were such dicks during grading (one guy asked what risk-aversion was after 6 weeks of talking about it.) I wish he would fail the who get 5 standard deviations below the mean and maybe like 2% Ds and bring the rest of the grades up a little bit to differentiate between the clueless and the competent a little bit more. Might seem harsh but the average middle schooler with a copy of the textbook the night before would get higher score than some of these students.

If you want an overview of the most important topics in finance from someone who combines the academic perspective of a long time econ PhD with the fast faced, adrenaline-fueled wall street perspective, then it's the perfect class. If you're not in the comm school want to get a job in finance or banking, definitely take advantage to his connections to economists at federal reserves, contacts on wall street and ability to point you in the right direction for everything else.

I would only recommend this course for students truly interested in financial theory. The material is semi-interesting, but his lectures are brutal. For a 75-min lecture, you know it's bad when you can tell, every lecture, exactly when 45 minutes have gone by. Besides that, he's not very transparent with the grading rubric on the exams, and exams are returned with very little (if any) comments. But, it is an easy class to catch up on. He wrote the required reading for the course; the reading is essentially transcripts of his lectures (or, at least, the important stuff less his tangents), so if you go to lecture there's practically no reading. Burton is an interesting, smart, well-respected professionally, devoted-to-UVA professor, but I would look elsewhere to take an advanced Econ course that could really stimulate you intellectually.

This class deservedly has very mixed reviews. Professor Burton is undoubtedly one of the most experienced members of the economics department: he's been enveloped in the world of finance for the past forty years, as a teacher, a derivatives trader, a consultant, and a board member of multiple companies. Professor Burton is innately aware of his expertise, and isn't afraid to talk about his history actively for long durations of the lecture (he was a part of the largest arbitrage trading team in the 1980s and the Fed sucks!). Most people groan at this aspect of Burton and his apparent arrogance, tuning him out during these lengthy periods of seemingly pointless material.
For starters, I've taken both 4340 and 4370, and did fairly well in both, but even I got sick of his incessant rambling at times. That said, some of it is worth listening to (and his comments on the Fed appeared on an exam in 4340, but he said they would, and usually he says his rants won't appear). If you have the chance, taking the effort to meet Burton and interact with him goes a long way (he offers lunches to students, so it's not like it's that hard, and he even gave me a ride to my apartment just to talk about a question from class I had on his way home... also, I'm a guy so he wasn't creeping); he's probably one of the nicest people I've ever met, is very talkative, and is open to giving you any advice. I'd bet most people that give him a 1 rating didn't bother. If anything take a class with him to get to know him cause it's worth it. As far as 4340 goes, it takes minimal effort to do well. There were two readings: A Random Walk Down Wall Street, which he asked a single five point question on out of 100 in the first exam and never really talked about again (but is worth reading because it's actually a pretty good book), and 15ish chapters of his own textbook to read throughout the semester, probably a total of 10 pages per chapter so nothing too heavy. Go to class and take notes on the important parts (don't sit on Facebook/instagram like everyone else!), study those notes, and you should do just fine. The midterms are always a few definitions at the beginning, and a series of short answers after that (he has a 'unique' testing style that some students hate, but isn't really unique at all because Wilkerson's COMM 3845 is modeled the exact same way, as with most COMM school classes that aren't the prereqs... taking that helped me). The final was cumulative, but he gives away pretty much everything that will be on it in class during the last week, and what he doesn't mention is usually something from one of the two midterms. I found his tests very easy, just learn from his lectures, repeat what his main points are and you'll get somewhere in the B+ to A range. Burton's grade distribution sounds daunting, but is fairer than you'd expect: about 25% of the class gets Cs, 40-45% gets Bs, and 30-35% gets As. One fourth of the class getting Cs sounds pretty darn annoying, because he promises to give those with the lowest 25-30% Cs regardless of the averages, but you'd be surprised by how many people blatantly do not try, do not pay attention, and get the Cs they deserve. If you don't act like them, you'll at the very worst get a B (Burton even broke his own rule this semester in 4370 and gave significantly more Bs than usual because he felt even the worst exams seemed competent... he's not an unreasonable man). The material itself, when it's actually being covered, isn't too difficult and is pretty interesting. All-in-all 7.5/10, would recommend.

Burton is obviously very knowledgeable, but not great at teaching. He spends the first hour of lecture rambling and tells you to forget whatever he just said then spends 10 minutes on lecture slides. An A is possible only if you know exactly what he is looking for in your answers. I got 10 percent taken off my first midterm because I forgot to divide a number by 2 and didn't get any extra credit. The TA's are also rude, stuck up, and useless.

The professor can be incredibly boring in class sometimes but his tests are pretty easy. I barely attended class as I just read his textbook and memorized the powerpoint slides. Pretty much everything you need to know can be culled from those 2 sources. Lectures can be a waste of time.

Very relevant course. Real life applications and no textbook. Attendance isn't mandatory, but he does put current event questions that he talks about in class on the midterms. Definitely a good 4000 level elective for ECON majors.

Halfway through the course and everything we've learned can be found with a quick Google search on investopedia.com, but more boring and harder to follow...

I had a very enjoyable experience with this class. Overall, the course involves very little material (which is great because the final is cumulative) but you are expected to know the material that is covered very very well. Grading is 30-30-40 with two midterms and a final. Homework is minimal, there were only four readings over the course of the semester, each about 30-40 pages long, weighted heavily towards the beginning of the semester. Over the summer you will be asked to read the book "A Random Walk down Wall Street" which was a pretty good read, but ended up being completely unnecessary for the class. Lectures are necessary and you will learn quickly that about 80% of what Burton talks about in class is unnecessary for the exams. Best advice would be to know the lecture material associated with each powerpoint slide, as he doesn't test about anything not referenced on the powerpoints (which he posts on collab).

Also important to note that the class is graded on a scale where 1/3 of students get As, 1/3 Bs, and 1/3 Cs, so all that matters is beating the mean by about 7 or 8 points if you want an A.

Overall, I would absolutely recommend the class if you are at all remotely interested in finance, as the material from this class is some of the most practical material I have learned in the econ department thus far.

There's absolutely no outside work for this class; that's the positive. On the other hand, the class is an absolute bore. The material itself is interesting and useful to know, but holy shit is Burton boring. He mostly just mumbles too, so you can barely even understand what he is trying to say. Though you pretty much need to go to lecture to actually be able to follow wtf is going on with the PowerPoints. The tests are very fair, but the grading isn't. He wants you to include several "buzz" words in your answers, but if the PowerPoints don't explain a concept you're left to your own devices to actually figure out what those buzz words are (there's no partial credit).

Overall, I do recommend this if you're interested in going the Finance route, but I definitely do not recommend it just for an easy ECON class. Also he divides grading into 1/3 As, Bs, and Cs, so if you're unsure of the material, curve will fuck you over. I ended up blowing the first exam as grading takes a bit of getting used to, and even though I got 90 on the second (and I think did well on the final), ended up with a B.

It's honestly embarrassing to the university of virginia that they employ a professor as shitty as Burton. He rambles on about nothing in lecture and there's no textbook, so you're left with vague PowerPoint slides to prepare for tests. The tests are fair, but the grading isn't. The grading in tests was actually ridiculous. You could explain a concept perfectly, but if you didn't include one specific buzz word, he took all full credit. Office hours were useless, and I'd go as far as to say that Burton is the most incompetent teacher I've ever encountered. An absolute embarrassment to the Econ department.

Learned more real-world knowledge in this class than in anything else I've taken at UVA. Lectures are boring and hard to follow/unorganized, but I found the content to be relevant and interesting.

Burton has no idea how to teach but if you memorize all the powerpoints, you should be okay. Minimal work. Reading is unnecessary, as is paying attention to what he says.

One of the easier econ electives. I actually found the class interesting--yes, Professor Burton does frequently go off topic and tell stories about his own time in the finance field but sometimes they are interesting and he does have a lot of expertise in this area. The lectures are definitely a little random but the tests are fair-isn. Just study the powerpoints and you'll be fine; also, he really emphasizes students going to lunch with him so definitely do that. I went a couple times and actually really enjoyed the conversation.

Really enjoyed the class.It's really interesting if you want to learn more about financial markets (and the crisis). I recommend going to lectures and paying attention because he doesn't always have readings and the slides aren't exactly what's on the exam. Nevertheless, it's a very easy and straight-froward class. Barely involves maths or stats, so don't worry about that.

Stay away from this class unless you like exams that remotely relate to lectures.

This class was not great. Burton is ok: not my favorite professor, but not the best either. Maybe only half of what he says in lecture is relevant, which means paying attention can be absolutely brutal because he rambles a lot.
That being said, this is one of those classes where there is very little outside work required. You just show up to lecture, take notes half-heartedly, and then study your ass off for the exams. The only outside work is reading, and it's just two books over the course of the semester.
Grading breakdown is 30/30/40 (two midterms and a final), and the grading itself was subjective. The graders are just looking for a specific word or phrase in each of the short answer questions, which sucks because it means that your grade doesn't accurately reflect what you know.
Overall, not a bad choice if you can't get in to any other ECON class, but by no means would it be my first choice.

The worst professor I've ever had at UVA. Disorganized at all and never made clear of his points. But he thinks highly of himself.

Not a difficult course. Tests you based on the powerpoint slides and terms. As long as you can memorize it, it isn't a hard course. His rants and lectures before the powerpoint in class are always very interesting, and worth going to hear. As long as you know the material, it isn't a hard or tricky class by any means. Don't let it deceive you though, if you don't attend class or pay attention during the lecture somewhat at least, you can easily fall behind and get confused with the material.

Burton is a pretty scattered lecturer. He doesn't even have TA's, which is unfortunate because he picks random ones to grade the exams. They're given a rubric and just look for specific words. I agree with most that say that the grading is arbitrary, because some will get points and lose points for putting the same exact thing down.

Vahid is the man though, he's a grader but he was fair.

Low time commitment for this class, though I put a good couple hours in each week.

Going to office hours helps you only if Burton likes you.

This was one of the worst classes I have taken at UVA. The design of the class as well as Prof. Burton's teaching style (disorganized, indirect, and unclear) make it difficult to learn than. Add to that the fact there is an awful curve and the TA's grade ridiculously (no partial credit), and I would not recommend this class to anyone. Not worth my time or money.

Burton thinks highly of himself, and is justified in many ways. Not a good lecturer but if you study hard for the midterm and final you're in the clear.

Had the worst TAs possible

Burton's textbook is supposedly in the process of being revised, but it was hands down the biggest joke I've ever read; full of typos and frequent mistakes in examples that made it hard to follow sometimes. Usually only read it when I missed lectures. Hard class to motivate yourself to get up for and trudge to at 9:30 twice a week, but the exams aren't that bad, especially the midterms. No idea what I got on the final since Burton hasn't sent out exam scores or a scale, but I got an A in the class with pretty minimal effort. I agree with other comments, Burton generally seems to know what he's talking about, but he seems arrogant about his past and can bore you to death with his long-winded stories. Shouldn't be a hard class if you have any prior knowledge of finance.

"The high yield market is a market of relatively high yields." - This is a quote straight from Burton's "textbook" he wrote himself and it pretty much exemplifies his text - useless and confusing.
If you don't have a finance background its pretty difficult to understand the concepts he teaches; but given that, if you have gone through 3rd year comm school this class is a piece of cake.

The TAs should learn how to grade exams.

Burton is an old man that likes to hear himself talk. He's very accomplished, but his arrogance really outweighs his accomplishments. But his classes are probably the easiest ECON electives so take them and suffer through his boring lectures. Two midterms and a final. Go to lecture and get summaries for the readings and you'll be fine.

Not a great class. Lectures and pointless, irrelevant, and boring. Class uses professor's own written text, which is laden with typos and contradictions. Midterms are primarily made up of trick questions with double negatives intended to confuse the student. Just another bad economics course to avoid-although it seems impossible to find those worth taking.

Learn lots about current events and financial theory. Lots of interesting stories from Burton who is knowledgeable yet fairly arrogant about his past. Exams aren't too bad

Awful course.
Burton's textbook, "Financial Market Theory", is the biggest joke of a text I have ever encountered. Seemingly written by an 8th grader and littered with typos, the book makes me want to commit suicide while reading. His lectures are painfully boring, and his soft, arrogant voice does little to keep your attention. I stopped attending because it was so bad. Avoid Burton in general - I don't know why he's so popular because he is pretty stupid.

Easy class. Do the readings, class isn't necessary to attend unless you like hearing about current events in the world of finance

Very interesting course. Really no work other than midterms and finals, but midterms and finals can be tricky. Highly recommend for anyone interested in finance.

Great professor with interesting lectures. Emphasizes what the tests are on in class, so attendance is important. Graders are horrible.

I would recommend this class to people looking to take a 4000 level econ that doesn't require much of a time commitment. It is one of the less time consuming classes as there are only two midterms and a final that encompass your grade. For exams, if you know what is taught in class really well and take good notes then you should do fine. It's not easy to get an A but it's pretty easy to get a B. I enjoyed the lectures and material overall.

I DONT WANT TO STUDY FOR THIS FINAL

Lectures are boring and exams are tough. But the curve is pretty nice.

Not that difficult, but lectures are somewhat mundane.

Great class! The readings are very useful and the midterms are easy if you read and go to lecture.

The book is not that well written. The most helpful lectures were when Sunit taught them since he actually had thought out lesson plans.

This class just goes by too slowly and isn't substantive enough. We spent four classes reviewing the same material, where finance study should encompass a lot more for students new to the material

One of the easier econs out there. It is however quite enjoyable and useful. The only bad thing about the class was the way the exams were graded. The TA's are lonely econ TA's who dont know much about finance and thus grade the exams with a strict answer key. Anyone from the comm school will find it frustrating to have to answer questions with little or no thought instead of with actuall analysis. Overall an easy A if you care about finane.

Not the funnest or most interesting class, but clearly the one that needs the least work. Notes basically say the same thing every day, so less things to study for. I like him overall. Lazy people, this is really the class to take.

Very knowledgeable but doesn't give anymore insight to the current financial markets than if you watch CNBC. His lectures are not organized and he repeats himself in a bad way each class. Poorly written textbook but good side readings. Tests are difficult if you don't read and skip exams otherwise they're are generally fair. While it's the best the ECON department has for finance, it was overall a disappointing class.

Tests are tricky, but class is interesting. Doesn't really leave you any better off in terms of knowing how to invest, as every theory he reviews he then refutes.

The exams were based mainly on material in his book that he barely went over in class, and on books that were never even mentioned during class. He was a little full of himself and tends to favor hot girls but was a decent lecturer. Not a terrible class if you are interested in i-banking

Overall a decent course.

Exams are textbook-based and cover some cases in the lecture. You may need to know everything on the book to handle the exams. Grader are not bad. It's just cuz the professor give them an answer key, and this makes the grading strict. Still recommend.

Not too bad, it helps if you already have some background in finance. The lectures are useful for finding out what is on the tests (two midterms and a final), but the material is straight from the book, which isn't very well-written. Common sense helps in this class, too.

The grading in this class is pretty bad. The graders are Econ grad students so they have very limited exposure to finance. Unfortunately that causes there to tons of inconsistencies and errors in the grading.

Overall a decent class. His book explains concepts in a confusing manner so I would recommend you also look to other sources when trying to figure out what duration, put-call parity, etc actually is.

This semester was especially fun due to the current financial crisis. Burton is amazing at applying the concepts to real life issues. We pretty much spent the first month talking about the crisis every lecture. Tests are tricky, read the book many times and go to class.

This class is relatively easy compared to other ECON classes. Class is optional if you keep up with the readings. There is always a pretty large curve for the midterms and finals.

not too hard. talks about real world examples in class which he uses on tests, so it is very helpful to go to class or get notes. keep up with the articles he sends out because they are on tests too

The thing that makes this class great is Burton's story-telling. He has been around the block in the world of finance and has some great stories to really ground what you are learning. Stay on top of tests though. Several people warned me beforehand that you have to get used to Burton's tests, and once you do you'll be fine. That is very true, but don't get burned on the first one like I did.

Professor Burton does a great job in this class of teaching applicable course material, unlike most econ classes. There is a lot more practical use for the material instead of broad theory. He does a good job of using real-life examples to explain the course material.