What is Finance?

Financial Management	Financial Markets & Institutions	Investments
Financial management is the study and practice of making dollar-denominated decisions within a single firm, i.e., microfinance. Most job opportunities in finance are in financial management; every company needs a financial manager, even a one-person operation. Financial managers are concerned with the acquisition and allocation of financial resources for a company. They spend most of their time managing working capital (short-term assets and liabilities). Or yen or Euros, etc.	This includes money markets (short-term debt) and capital markets (long-term debt and equities). Money markets provide companies and governments with liquidity, and the capital markets provide the same entities with long-term capital. Typical financial institutions are commercial banks, investment banks, thrifts, insurance companies, and credit unions.	Employment is usually found in one of three areas: a) sales, b) security analysis and portfolio management, or c) financial planning. Typical firms are stock brokerages, commercial banks, investment companies (mutual funds), and insurance companies.
People employed in any one of the three main areas of finance must be familiar with the workings of the other two. All three areas strongly interact .
Courses in the Finance major at Dakota State University cover all three of the main areas of finance.