FIN 335 Financial Markets sample papers, module by module

Reviewed by Portia Lambrick, MBA

FIN 335 introduces business students to the markets and institutions that move money from savers to borrowers: interest rates, the Federal Reserve, money and bond markets, stock markets, derivatives and regulation. The samples below follow one composite Montana bank whose deposits, bonds and borrowing costs were all reshaped by the fastest rise in rates in four decades.

FIN 335 is SNHU’s Financial Markets course. It centers on financial markets and institutions: financial intermediation, interest rate determination and the yield curve, the Federal Reserve and monetary policy, money and bond markets, stock market efficiency, interest rate risk and derivatives, and financial regulation. Every module below opens a full sample paper or takes a free request for one; searches like "fin 335 module 3", "FIN335 sample paper" and "FIN 335 milestone example" land on this page.

What FIN 335 is really about

FIN 335 is SNHU's financial markets course, and it rewards work that connects market mechanics to what actually happens to an institution or investor: why a rate change moves bond prices, how the Federal Reserve's decisions reach a bank's deposits and loans, and what regulation is trying to prevent. Strong submissions use current market data with dates and explain cause and effect step by step rather than describing markets in general.

The samples on this shelf share one composite institution: a community bank headquartered in Billings, Montana, with $2.4 billion of assets, 31 branches across Montana and northern Wyoming, a loan book weighted toward agriculture, small business and commercial real estate, and a $620 million bond portfolio bought mostly in 2020 and 2021 at low yields. The bank and its figures are illustrative.

What FIN 335’s modules ask for

Across eight modules, FIN 335 typically asks for discussions on the role of financial markets, market efficiency and regulation, assignments on interest rates, monetary policy and money and bond markets, and two projects analyzing an institution's market exposure and proposing ways to manage its risk.

Where students lose points in FIN 335

The most common FIN 335 deduction comes from describing markets without connecting them to a cause and an effect, for example explaining what the federal funds rate is but not how a change in it reached a bank's deposit costs. Close behind are undated or out-of-date market figures and analyses that ignore the 2023 bank failures when discussing rate risk. Using dated data and tracing each mechanism through to a specific institution fixes most of these.

The FIN 335 drawers

Module 1

FIN 335 Module 1 Discussion example

An opening post that follows one dollar through a composite $2.4 billion Billings, Montana bank, from a rancher's checking account to a seed loan, a veterinary clinic's line of credit and a Treasury bond, to show what intermediaries do that savers and borrowers cannot do alone: pooling, maturity transformation, screening and liquidity, and the risk that comes with it, with Diamond and Dybvig, Drechsler, Savov and Schnabl and Mishkin and Eakins. Full sample paper, read it free.

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Module 2

FIN 335 Module 2 Interest Rates Assignment example

A Module Two assignment that explains why U.S. interest rates climbed from near zero in early 2022 to their highest levels since 2007, using the Fisher effect, the supply and demand for loanable funds and the Taylor rule, then explains why the yield curve stayed inverted from mid-2022 to late summer 2024 through the expectations and liquidity premium theories, and traces what that meant for a composite Billings, Montana bank whose deposits reprice faster than its loans, with Taylor, Estrella and Mishkin and Mishkin and Eakins. Full sample paper, read it free.

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Module 3

FIN 335 Module 3 Monetary Policy Assignment example

A Module Three assignment that explains the tools the Federal Reserve used from 2022, the policy rate set through interest on reserves and the overnight reverse repurchase facility, the shrinking of its balance sheet and its guidance, then traces four channels through which they reached a composite Billings, Montana bank: deposits moving to money market funds, slower loan demand from farms and builders, losses on bonds bought at low yields and, in March 2023, the emergency term lending program the bank tapped as a precaution, with Drechsler, Savov and Schnabl, Jiang and colleagues and the Fed's own review of Silicon Valley Bank. Full sample paper, read it free.

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Module 4

FIN 335 Module 4 Project One example

Project One is a memo to a composite Billings, Montana bank's asset-liability committee on its $620 million bond portfolio, still $54 million underwater three years after rates peaked: what the losses mean for capital under accounting and regulatory rules, how the bank compares with Silicon Valley Bank on uninsured deposits and losses, and three choices, holding, selling all available-for-sale bonds or a partial restructuring of $120 million with a 3.4-year earn-back, with a recommendation and liquidity steps, citing Jiang and colleagues, the Fed's SVB review and Diamond and Dybvig. Full sample paper, read it free.

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Module 5

FIN 335 Module 5 Money Markets Assignment example

A Module Five assignment that plans how a composite Billings, Montana bank would replace $90 million of deposits expected to leave next spring, a county treasurer's move to the state investment pool and ranchers' seasonal draws, by comparing the money market sources open to it: Treasury bills it holds, federal funds lines with correspondent banks, Federal Home Loan Bank advances, brokered and reciprocal deposits, repurchase agreements and the Fed's discount window, on cost, speed, collateral and stigma, with Ashcraft, Bech and Frame, Gorton and Metrick and Mishkin and Eakins. Full sample paper, read it free.

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Module 6

FIN 335 Module 6 Discussion example

A Module Six post on market efficiency, set in the trust department of a composite Billings, Montana bank that manages $780 million for ranch families and retirees by picking about forty large U.S. stocks for a 1 percent fee: the post explains the weak, semi-strong and strong forms of the efficient market hypothesis, what the evidence says about professional stock pickers after costs, and argues the department should move the core of its stock portfolios to low-cost index funds while keeping its advice on taxes, estates and land, with Fama, Malkiel and French. Full sample paper, read it free.

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Module 7

FIN 335 Module 7 Project Two example

Project Two builds an interest rate risk plan for a composite Billings, Montana bank: a duration gap of about 1.1 years once deposit behavior is modeled, which would cut the economic value of equity by about $50 million, 23 percent, if rates rose two points, against a board limit of 15 percent, and four actions, a partial bond restructuring, $150 million of pay-fixed interest rate swaps, $75 million of three-year advances and shorter fixed periods on new loans, that bring the loss to about $18 million, with the costs, the falling-rate side and the governance, citing Drechsler, Savov and Schnabl, English and colleagues and Mishkin and Eakins. Full sample paper, read it free.

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Module 8

FIN 335 Module 8 Discussion example

A closing post on what changed after Silicon Valley, Signature and First Republic failed in the spring of 2023, seen from a composite Billings, Montana bank: the Fed's own review of its supervision, a special FDIC assessment that fell on the largest banks, regulators' push for banks to be ready to borrow at the discount window, the FDIC's options for deposit insurance reform and larger-bank proposals still being debated, with the post arguing that liquidity readiness was the most useful change for a community bank, citing the Fed, the FDIC and Diamond and Dybvig. Full sample paper, read it free.

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Southern New Hampshire University revises courses; module counts and deliverables shift between terms. Send what your classroom shows and the desk matches it exactly.

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Using a FIN 335 sample the right way

Read a FIN 335 sample by following one rate, such as the federal funds rate or the 10-year Treasury yield, from its source to its effect on the bank's balance sheet. When each step is dated and explained, the analysis can be trusted. For FIN 335, send your case, the guidelines and the rubric, and the first custom sample is written free within 24-48h.

FIN 335 questions, answered

What does FIN 335 cover?

Financial markets and institutions: intermediation, interest rates and the yield curve, the Federal Reserve, money and bond markets, stock markets and efficiency, derivatives, interest rate risk and regulation.

Is FIN 335 heavy on math?

It uses some calculations, such as bond prices, yields and duration, but most of the work asks you to explain how markets and policy affect institutions and investors.

Is the Billings bank in the FIN 335 samples real?

No. The bank and its numbers were invented so that all eight modules can follow one institution through a rate cycle; your course may assign real institutions or other cases.