ECON 372Business Finance 2
- Units
- 0.50
- Faculty
- Arts
- Subject
- Economics
When it runs
- F24
- W25
- S25
- F25
- W26
- S26
- F26
- W27
- S27
Ran in 3 of the last 7 terms. Winter 2027: not on the schedule. Spring 2027: schedule not out yet.
This course examines a number of topics relevant to financial practitioners. The topics examined may include options, derivatives securities, futures markets, swaps and hedging. The course assumes prior familiarity with probability, expected values, and variance.
Prerequisites
- Complete 1 of the following
- Must have completed the following:
- ECON371 - Business Finance 1 (0.50)
- Complete all of the following
- Must have completed at least 1 of the following:
- ACTSC372 - Investment Science and Corporate Finance (0.50)
- AFM272 - Global Capital Markets and Financial Analytics (0.50)
- AFM273 - Financial Instruments and Capital Markets (0.50)
- AFM274 - Introduction to Corporate Finance (0.50)
- AFM275 - Corporate Finance (0.50)
- MSE261 - Engineering Economics: Financial Management for Engineers (0.50)
- Complete 1 of the following
- Must have completed at least 1 of the following:
- Must have completed the following:
Antirequisites
- Complete all of the following
- Not completed nor concurrently enrolled in any of the following:
- ACTSC446 - Mathematics of Financial Markets (0.50)
- Not open to students enrolled in H-Actuarial Science, JH-Actuarial Science, or Actuarial Science Minor
- Not completed nor concurrently enrolled in any of the following:
Leads to
No course lists it as a requisite.
Fall 2026 sections
| Section | Class | Enrolled | Meets |
|---|---|---|---|
| LEC 001 | 3701 | 64 / 66 | TTh 13:00–14:20 |
Reviewed on UW Flow
75% liked it54% easy86% useful
From 8 ratings and 2 comments on UW Flow. The most helpful comments, quoted as written, without names. Read them all on UW Flow.
Don't skip classes. This is a course that's very useful and helpful if you're interested in finance (I took it for the finance specialization) but it is deceptively difficult. The quizzes are by the book and very easy to ace since they're open book. The first midterm was also quite easy. Since I wasn't attending classes (was working part-time at the time), I thought that the rest of the course would follow this principle. But the REAL challenge starts from midterm 2 onwards right until the final exam. Make no mistake: studying from the textbook and even doing the exercises on MyLab Finance (I aced all of them trying to prepare for the exams) is NOT a substitute for spending time in class. A…
Apr 2022 · liked it · 1 found this helpfulOn UW FlowRemove this
Definitely a big up from ECON 371. The assignments really help to visualize how the 371+372 content would be applicable to real-world scenarios
Sep 2025 · liked itOn UW FlowRemove this
Discussed on r/uwaterloo
26 posts and comments in 23 threads mention ECON 372, November 2011 to December 2024. Quoted word for word, newest first; each reply sits under the post and the comment that started its branch. Search r/uwaterloo for newer posts.
Fall 2023
Most Useful Econ Courses 1 point, 3 comments
“I’m planning on doing an ECON minor, so 8 courses in total, 4 of which are 200+ level. Which courses are the most useful in terms of jobs (business field)/general knowledge/personal life. …”
u/M00bak: “Econ 371, Econ 372 are the Econ finance courses. Econ 424 is cool. Econ 423 I heard can be hard but interesting since it’s about finance stock data. https://www.reddit.com/r/uwaterloo/comments/9bcv0u/doseanyoneknowhowdifficultisecon423/.”
Fall 2021
Is it possible to request and override bypassing undergraduate advising 11 points, 7 comments
“So I want to take ACTSC 231. I have taken MATH 138 and 237 but I took MATH 127 instead of 137. For some odd reason they said they can't override my missing 137 pre-req. …”
u/onlyinsurance-ca: “Some random thoughts (I'm a student, not staff/faculty): \- actsci 231 may be full. It's a huge course, lecture halls are full, etc, and it's a requirement for a number of different majors. …”
u/floatingredditor: “… I made sure to inform them I wanted to take the course because I also had an interest in ACTSC 372, which I think is more mathematically rigorous than ECON 371/372 which is why ACTSC 372 entices me. …”
Winter 2021
Thoughts on ECON 372? 5 points, 3 comments
u/StrictOlive: “I tried searching on flow and past posts in the subreddit but there's not much information. Can anyone who's taking it right now/has taken it before comment on the relative difficulty? Is it interesting? Would you recommend?”
Spring 2020
Finance and investment courses 5 points, 1 comment
“Are there any courses in loo that teaches personal finances and investing that doesn’t require too many prereq(I’m studying statistics)?”
u/MATH137IsJustHSCalc: “ECON 371 cover basic fundamental analysis of stocks, its successor ECON 372 talks about futures and options and using them for hedging. If you want to instead use them to YOLO your life savings and get rich fast then /r/wallstreetbets is what you're looking for”
Finance Courses 3 points, 2 comments
u/yttropolis: “If you've taken STAT 231/241, I would recommend ACTSC 371/372, probably the most finance-y courses I took during undergrad. …”
u/gucciboss18: “Thanks! Actsc 371/372’s equivalent is econ 371/372 and I took them both.”
Fall 2019
AFM/ECON courses for Winter 2020 5 points, 7 comments
“does anyone know of any good/useful upper year business or finance related courses offered next term? I'm going into 3B and have basic first year afm courses (101, 131) and econ (101, 102) on my …”
u/UWGooseHunter: “Econ 372”
Spring 2019
Courses related to Stock Trading 12 points, 18 comments
“I'm a CS student and I was looking to learn more formally about stock trading, are there any good courses to take? AFM/FARM maybe?? …”
u/Level126: “ECON 371/372 CO 372”
Spring 2018
What are your favourite and least favourite classes you've taken? 10 points, 40 comments
u/irinachen: “FAV: ECON322/ECON372/ LEAS FAV: CS330 (teacher sucks)”
ECON 206 or ECON 371? 5 points, 5 comments
“I was wondering which course would be more engaging/better to take for someone with an interest in econ. Joseph De Juan teaches 206 and Predrag Rajsic teaches 371.”
u/irinachen: “I would say ECON371. More practical. (Especially ECON372, really useful, in my opinion)”
Which is better for finance: actsc 371 or Econ 371? 3 points, 5 comments
“Title.”
u/BeReviewing: “… ECON 372 also follows this so there's probably more finance content there. The first half of the course is interest rates, present value, future value, etc. The second half goes thru depreciation, securities' returns, risk, portfolio risk. …”
Need some advice on 300+ ECON electives 7 points, 4 comments
“Hi Everyone! I was wondering if you know anything about the following ECON courses: 344 Marketing 1: Principles of Marketing and Consumer Economics 351 Labour Economics 361 Cost-Benefit Analysis and …”
u/uwtastrophe: “… Econ 372 is completely Excel focused and very interesting. …”
u/irinachen: “344: useless unless you want GPA booster; 361: the combination of Econ371 and 372 372: financial technique; 392: useful either you go to Grad school or work. 351: sorry don't know 363: sounds meaningless...”
How is this Courseload?[Serious] 4 points, 16 comments
“ECON 371- alleged bird course STAT 331- Martin Lysy STAT 341 - Ryan Patrick Browne STAT 337 - alleged bird course STAT 442 - Wayne Oldford”
u/twofactorial: “371 is easy to pass but hard to get 80+”
u/PlsCynthia: “How was ECON 371 and ECON 372?”
Check it elsewhere for Fall 2026
- Undergraduate Calendar, 2026–27The official entry
- Requirements for Fall 2026Waterloo’s requisite checker
- Schedule of Classes, Fall 2026Instructors, rooms, live seats
- Quest Class SearchWhere you enrol
- Course outlinesSyllabi from past terms (UW login)
- UW FlowStudent ratings and reviews
- WClassesPast sections back to 2004, and who taught them