Foundations of Markets and AI

This unit introduces core stock market concepts and foundational artificial intelligence (AI) principles that create a predictive edge in financial services. Students will learn how markets function, how AI systems process data and generate predictions, and will begin mapping AI algorithms to real-world investment use cases in preparation for applied modeling in later units.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze stock market fundamentals including market participants, instruments, price formation, and basic risk-return tradeoffs to inform investment decision contexts
• Demonstrate understanding of artificial intelligence concepts, capabilities, and the typical steps in an AI process (data ingestion, feature engineering, model training, evaluation, and deployment)
• Apply knowledge of emerging AI algorithms and models to identify and outline predictive use cases in investment and financial planning, specifying likely data inputs and desired outputs
• Evaluate the strengths, limitations, and ethical implications of emerging AI models when used for investment decision support to guide responsible model selection in subsequent units