ECON 173A · Financial Markets
Four units. Stocks, bonds, options, no-arbitrage, and the risk-return trade-off. Prerequisites are ECON 100A, ECON 120B or MATH 181B, and MATH 18 or 31AH.
It clicked in class. Until the midterm.
Finance tutoring for UC San Diego students.
At UC San Diego these finance courses are offered by the Economics department. ECON 173A Financial Markets comes first, then ECON 173B Corporate Finance, which covers capital budgeting, capital structure, dividend policy, taxes, and mergers. Both sit behind a probability and calculus sequence, so they are not a light elective.
Private 1-on-1 on Zoom · $250 / hour
Book a session
The courses
What we work on.
Bring your slides, problem sets, and your last midterm. We work from your actual course.
ECON 173B · Corporate Finance
Four units. Needs ECON 173A. The catalog also lists ECON 4 or MGT 4; a department update lists ECON 4 or MGT 4 or MGT 45, plus ECON 100A and ECON 120B.
Topics
What we cover.
Bring your slides, problem sets, and your last midterm. We work from your actual course.
- Time value of money on a financial calculator
- Bond and stock valuation
- NPV, IRR, and payback
- Risk, return, and CAPM
- Cost of capital and WACC
- Capital structure
- Midterm and final exam prep
UC San Diego
Where students get stuck.
A quant heavy finance sequence
ECON 173A assumes econometrics and calculus, so questions lean on no-arbitrage reasoning more than plug-in formulas. We work the derivations and then the problem forms side by side.
Word problems with extra numbers
Finance questions hide the unknown in a paragraph. We practice finding what is being asked, drawing the timeline, and matching the rate to the payment period before any math.
Knowing which formula to reach for
Most lost points come from picking the wrong setup, not from arithmetic. We sort problems by type so the first move is obvious on exam day.
How a session works
Diagnosis first. Then the fix.
- 01
Before we meet
Send me what you're stuck on: a problem set, slides, your last midterm, a practice exam, last week's quiz.
- 02
On Zoom
You walk me through a problem out loud. It usually takes a few minutes to hear where the reasoning goes sideways. We fix that piece and rebuild from there, so you know why each step works.
- 03
Before we finish
The real test: a fresh problem with new numbers and different wording, the way a midterm would ask it, and you solve it yourself. I don't complete assignments or hand over answers. You leave able to do the work.
Your tutor
Studied it. Worked in it. Now I teach it.
I’m Chi Odogwu. I have a B.S. in Business with a finance specialization from Liberty University, earned summa cum laude in three years, and a Master’s in International Economics and Finance from Brandeis. I tutored IB students in grad school, did valuation and private equity consulting at PwC, taught MBA finance at Florida State, and spent three years as an adjunct professor teaching Business Finance.
Questions
Before you book.
My midterm didn't go well. Is it too late to fix it?
No. Send me the exam and I will mark where the points went. Most are lost on setups and wording, which are fixable before the next exam or the final. I can't promise a grade, but there is almost always a clear pattern.
Which calculator can I use in ECON 173A?
I could not find a published calculator policy for the course, so check your syllabus. Some finance courses require a financial calculator and others allow only a scientific one, and we practice on the model you will bring.
Is this course taken by students outside finance?
ECON 173A and 173B are Economics department courses with an economics, probability, and calculus prerequisite chain. Check your degree requirements for your own major, and bring the course to me either way.
Is tutoring allowed under my school's honor code?
Tutoring on concepts and practice problems is generally fine, but policies on graded work vary by course. I don't complete graded assignments. Check your syllabus's collaboration policy, and if you're unsure, ask your professor.
Get started
Bring the problem you’re stuck on.
Tell me your course and what isn’t clicking. I’ll tell you honestly whether I can help.
Book your first sessionOnline Finance Tutor is an independent tutoring service. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by UC San Diego, Department of Economics. Course names are used only to describe the material we cover.