Very relevant course. Real life applications and no textbook. Attendance isn't mandatory, but he does put current event questions that he talks about in class on the midterms. Definitely a good 4000 level elective for ECON majors.

Halfway through the course and everything we've learned can be found with a quick Google search on investopedia.com, but more boring and harder to follow...

I had a very enjoyable experience with this class. Overall, the course involves very little material (which is great because the final is cumulative) but you are expected to know the material that is covered very very well. Grading is 30-30-40 with two midterms and a final. Homework is minimal, there were only four readings over the course of the semester, each about 30-40 pages long, weighted heavily towards the beginning of the semester. Over the summer you will be asked to read the book "A Random Walk down Wall Street" which was a pretty good read, but ended up being completely unnecessary for the class. Lectures are necessary and you will learn quickly that about 80% of what Burton talks about in class is unnecessary for the exams. Best advice would be to know the lecture material associated with each powerpoint slide, as he doesn't test about anything not referenced on the powerpoints (which he posts on collab).

Also important to note that the class is graded on a scale where 1/3 of students get As, 1/3 Bs, and 1/3 Cs, so all that matters is beating the mean by about 7 or 8 points if you want an A.

Overall, I would absolutely recommend the class if you are at all remotely interested in finance, as the material from this class is some of the most practical material I have learned in the econ department thus far.

There's absolutely no outside work for this class; that's the positive. On the other hand, the class is an absolute bore. The material itself is interesting and useful to know, but holy shit is Burton boring. He mostly just mumbles too, so you can barely even understand what he is trying to say. Though you pretty much need to go to lecture to actually be able to follow wtf is going on with the PowerPoints. The tests are very fair, but the grading isn't. He wants you to include several "buzz" words in your answers, but if the PowerPoints don't explain a concept you're left to your own devices to actually figure out what those buzz words are (there's no partial credit).

Overall, I do recommend this if you're interested in going the Finance route, but I definitely do not recommend it just for an easy ECON class. Also he divides grading into 1/3 As, Bs, and Cs, so if you're unsure of the material, curve will fuck you over. I ended up blowing the first exam as grading takes a bit of getting used to, and even though I got 90 on the second (and I think did well on the final), ended up with a B.

It's honestly embarrassing to the university of virginia that they employ a professor as shitty as Burton. He rambles on about nothing in lecture and there's no textbook, so you're left with vague PowerPoint slides to prepare for tests. The tests are fair, but the grading isn't. The grading in tests was actually ridiculous. You could explain a concept perfectly, but if you didn't include one specific buzz word, he took all full credit. Office hours were useless, and I'd go as far as to say that Burton is the most incompetent teacher I've ever encountered. An absolute embarrassment to the Econ department.

Learned more real-world knowledge in this class than in anything else I've taken at UVA. Lectures are boring and hard to follow/unorganized, but I found the content to be relevant and interesting.

Burton has no idea how to teach but if you memorize all the powerpoints, you should be okay. Minimal work. Reading is unnecessary, as is paying attention to what he says.

One of the easier econ electives. I actually found the class interesting--yes, Professor Burton does frequently go off topic and tell stories about his own time in the finance field but sometimes they are interesting and he does have a lot of expertise in this area. The lectures are definitely a little random but the tests are fair-isn. Just study the powerpoints and you'll be fine; also, he really emphasizes students going to lunch with him so definitely do that. I went a couple times and actually really enjoyed the conversation.

Really enjoyed the class.It's really interesting if you want to learn more about financial markets (and the crisis). I recommend going to lectures and paying attention because he doesn't always have readings and the slides aren't exactly what's on the exam. Nevertheless, it's a very easy and straight-froward class. Barely involves maths or stats, so don't worry about that.

Stay away from this class unless you like exams that remotely relate to lectures.