Guidelines for the Master Thesis

[Purpose of Masters thesis] [Nature of Masters thesis] [Role of supervisor] [Choice of topics] [Finding supervisor and topic] [Length and form] [Masters thesis in groups] [Registration] [Deadline] [Evaluation]

This page is intended to answer some questions you may have about the Master Thesis for the Master of Science in Quantitative Finance.
This site is solely for information purposes and has no legal validity. Please check the Study regulations / Studienordnung for further information.


Purpose of the Master Thesis

We want to be able to appraise your ability

  1. to identify and analyse a problem on your own and
  2. to apply for that purpose the tools, techniques and concepts you have learned in the courses with little or even no guidance.

Nature of the Master Thesis

You have a lot of flexibility in your choice of project. One possible choice is to write a 'clinical paper' such as those published regularly in the Journal of Financial Economics. A clinical paper is an extended case study, which uses rather more empirical finance techniques than do the more classical, Harvard-type case studies. Another possible choice is to conduct an empirical study on a sample of companies, rather than the single company that is the focus of a clinical paper. Yet another choice is to write a theory paper like those published in Mathematical Finance or Finance and Stochastics. Whatever the choice you make, you should guard against writing a simple survey of the literature. Such surveys do not fulfil the requirements for the Masters thesis.

Experience shows that a Master Thesis is in general not ready for publication, because it is (and should be) more detailed than a published paper, on the other hand it needs careful editing and reviewing. Therefore, if you aim for a publication, plan on investing substantial time after handing in your Masters thesis.


Role of the supervisor

The Master Thesis supervisor has an important, but limited role. He or she is to ensure that the topic you have agreed on is both acceptable and feasible in the limited time, and that the method of analysis you have chosen is appropriate and correct. Once this is done, you are essentially on your own until you hand in the Master Thesis for grading. The thesis supervisor is not expected to read a first draft of the report. However, arrange for meetings with your supervisor to report briefly about your progress so that he/she can give you some suggestions and bring you on the right track again if necessary.


Choice of topics

Any field of (mathematical) finance is acceptable, insurance related topics included. Examples of possible topics are mergers and acquisitions, distribution policy, financing policy, investment policy, restructuring activity, real options valuation, derivatives pricing, hedging, fixed-income valuation, interest rate contingent claims valuation, credit-sensitive contingent claims valuation, operational risk modelling, model risk issues, securitization, numerical methods for option valuation, time series modelling, capital allocation, performance measurement, risk measurement, and many more.


Finding a supervisor and a topic

Any professor from the Faculty of Economics, Business Adminstration and Information Technology at the University of Zurich and any professor from the Department of Mathematics of ETH Zurich can be your thesis supervisor. If you want to choose any other supervisor (e.g., a professor from another university, a practitioner from the local financial industry, etc.), the supervisor and the topic need the approval of the director of the MScQF program. Since we encourage a strong cooperation with the financial industry, consider also the following thoughts:

  • Your thesis is officially supervised by a local professor, but a practitioner comes up with the precise topic and gives you the needed guidance.
  • You already have contacts to the financial industry (because you received a tuition fee grant, for example) and you use these contacts to negotiate for an interesting project and guidance.
  • You are eager to work on a practical project, but you currently lack the industry contacts. In this case, ask one of the lecturers or the director of the MScQF program for contact persons.
  • You might want to combine the Masters thesis with a part-time internship in the financial industry. While this earns you some money to cover your living expenses, it makes it harder to find an arrangement.

In any case, make sure your thesis supervisor is really interested in the topic you plan to work on.


Suggested length and form

The Master Thesis should be about 20 pages long, although you should be aware that it is in fact quality and not quantity that matters. In essence, you should tell us as much as - and no more than - we need to understand what the problem is and what we can learn from it or how you have solved it.

Your Master Thesis should be typed and printed in reasonable quality. You should familiarise yourself with the necessary text processing or typesetting software you plan to use before you start to work on your Masters thesis. If you plan on writing a mathematically-orientated thesis (i.e., lots of formulas), the free TeX/LaTeX typesetting software is a good option, but requires a substantial initial time investment. We expect you to write your thesis in English. Exact proofreading is required and use of a spelling checker recommended.


Master Thesis in groups

Group work is not permitted.


Registration of Master Thesis

The formal issuance of the subject for the written thesis will be made by the Dean's Office of the WWF. You can register for the thesis after your supervisor has submitted the exact topic (title) of your thesis to the Dean's office of the WWF. Please use this form to register and bring it (together with the additional documents required) to the Dean's office ot the WWF.


Deadline

The period allowed for completion of the Master Thesis is six months and commences with the formal issuance of the topic. If the Master Thesis is the last module before the completion of studies, this must be handed in to the Dean's Office of the WWF at least 60 days prior to the date set for graduation.

Two copies of the thesis are to be handed to the Dean's Office of the WWF or sent by registered post to the Dean's Office of the WWF. Additionally, a PDF of the thesis hast to be sent to the director of the MScQF program.


Evaluation

The Master Thesis is graded. The supervising professor will assess the work submitted including the public presentation and will inform the student in writing of the grade awarded.







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