This class was not great. Burton is ok: not my favorite professor, but not the best either. Maybe only half of what he says in lecture is relevant, which means paying attention can be absolutely brutal because he rambles a lot.
That being said, this is one of those classes where there is very little outside work required. You just show up to lecture, take notes half-heartedly, and then study your ass off for the exams. The only outside work is reading, and it's just two books over the course of the semester.
Grading breakdown is 30/30/40 (two midterms and a final), and the grading itself was subjective. The graders are just looking for a specific word or phrase in each of the short answer questions, which sucks because it means that your grade doesn't accurately reflect what you know.
Overall, not a bad choice if you can't get in to any other ECON class, but by no means would it be my first choice.

The worst professor I've ever had at UVA. Disorganized at all and never made clear of his points. But he thinks highly of himself.

Not a difficult course. Tests you based on the powerpoint slides and terms. As long as you can memorize it, it isn't a hard course. His rants and lectures before the powerpoint in class are always very interesting, and worth going to hear. As long as you know the material, it isn't a hard or tricky class by any means. Don't let it deceive you though, if you don't attend class or pay attention during the lecture somewhat at least, you can easily fall behind and get confused with the material.

Burton is a pretty scattered lecturer. He doesn't even have TA's, which is unfortunate because he picks random ones to grade the exams. They're given a rubric and just look for specific words. I agree with most that say that the grading is arbitrary, because some will get points and lose points for putting the same exact thing down.

Vahid is the man though, he's a grader but he was fair.

Low time commitment for this class, though I put a good couple hours in each week.

Going to office hours helps you only if Burton likes you.

This was one of the worst classes I have taken at UVA. The design of the class as well as Prof. Burton's teaching style (disorganized, indirect, and unclear) make it difficult to learn than. Add to that the fact there is an awful curve and the TA's grade ridiculously (no partial credit), and I would not recommend this class to anyone. Not worth my time or money.

Burton thinks highly of himself, and is justified in many ways. Not a good lecturer but if you study hard for the midterm and final you're in the clear.

Had the worst TAs possible

Burton's textbook is supposedly in the process of being revised, but it was hands down the biggest joke I've ever read; full of typos and frequent mistakes in examples that made it hard to follow sometimes. Usually only read it when I missed lectures. Hard class to motivate yourself to get up for and trudge to at 9:30 twice a week, but the exams aren't that bad, especially the midterms. No idea what I got on the final since Burton hasn't sent out exam scores or a scale, but I got an A in the class with pretty minimal effort. I agree with other comments, Burton generally seems to know what he's talking about, but he seems arrogant about his past and can bore you to death with his long-winded stories. Shouldn't be a hard class if you have any prior knowledge of finance.

"The high yield market is a market of relatively high yields." - This is a quote straight from Burton's "textbook" he wrote himself and it pretty much exemplifies his text - useless and confusing.
If you don't have a finance background its pretty difficult to understand the concepts he teaches; but given that, if you have gone through 3rd year comm school this class is a piece of cake.

The TAs should learn how to grade exams.