Using public television’s “Trillion Dollar Bet” as a primer on financial risk.

In this special topics classroom discussion/ project, the financial management issues of systemic and model risks are examined, the Efficient Markets Hypothesis is analyzed, and the emerging field of Behavioral Finance is introduced. This interactive approach of having students respond to a list of instructor-prepared discussion issues/questions during the showing of the video is a great break from courses that are straight-lecture in orientation. The potential to require a follow-up assignment where students act as market participants in a virtual financial market on www.pbs.org adds to the interactive nature of the project