The Wiley Finance Series

Introduction to Private Equity is a critical yet grounded guide to the private equity industry. Far more than just another introductory guide, the book blends academic rigour with practical experience to provide a critical perspective of the industry from a professional who has worked at many levels within the industry, including insurance, funds of funds, funds and portfolio companies. The book looks at private equity from the point of view of the individual or the business. How is a private business valued? How is the acquisition transaction processed? What are the due diligence issues that should be considered before moving ahead? A valuable insight to a rather opaque market. Introduction to Private Equity covers the private equity industry as a whole, highlighting its historical development in order to put its recent development into perspective. The book covers its organization, governance and function, then details the various segments within the industry, including LBO, Venture Capital, Mezzanine Financing, Growth Capital and beyond. Finally, it offers a framework to anticipate and understand its future developments. It provides a balanced perspective on the current corporate governance challenges which are affecting the industry and draws perspective to understand the evolution of the sector, following one of its major crises.

The LIBOR Market Model (LMM) is the first model of interest rates dynamics consistent with the market practice of pricing interest rate derivatives and therefore it is widely used by financial institution for valuation of interest rate derivatives. This book provides a full practitioner's approach to the LIBOR Market Model. It adopts the specific language of a quantitative analyst to the largest possible level and is one of first books on the subject written entirely by quants. The book is divided into three parts - theory, calibration and simulation. New and important issues are covered, such as various drift approximations, various parametric and nonparametric calibrations, and the uncertain volatility approach to smile modelling; a version of the HJM model based on market observables and the duality between BGM and HJM models. Co-authored by Dariusz Gatarek, the 'G' in the BGM model who is internationally known for his work on LIBOR market models, this book offers an essential perspective on the global benchmark for short-term interest rates.

In today's increasingly competitive financial world, successful risk management, portfolio management, and financial structuring demand more than up-to-date financial know-how. They also call for quantitative expertise, including the ability to effectively apply mathematical modeling tools and techniques, in this case credit. Credit Risk Modeling using Excel and VBA with DVD provides practitioners with a hands on introduction to credit risk modeling.  Instead of just presenting analytical methods it shows how to implement them using Excel and VBA, in addition to a detailed description in the text a DVD guides readers step by step through the implementation.  The authors begin by showing how to use option theoretic and statistical models to estimate a borrowers default risk.  The second half of the book is devoted to credit portfolio risk.  The authors guide readers through the implementation of a credit risk model, show how portfolio models can be validated or used to access structured credit products like CDO’s.  The final chapters address modeling issues associated with the new Basel Accord.

This new and unique book demonstrates that Excel and VBA can play an important role in the explanation and implementation of numerical methods across finance. Advanced Modelling in Finance provides a comprehensive look at equities, options on equities and options on bonds from the early 1950s to the late 1990s. The book adopts a step-by-step approach to understanding the more sophisticated aspects of Excel macros and VBA programming, showing how these programming techniques can be used to model and manipulate financial data, as applied to equities, bonds and options. The book is essential for financial practitioners who need to develop their financial modelling skill sets as there is an increase in the need to analyse and develop ever more complex 'what if' scenarios. Specifically applies Excel and VBA to the financial markets Packaged with a CD containing the software from the examples throughout the book Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

The pricing of derivative instruments has always been a highly complex and time-consuming activity. Advances in technology, however, have enabled much quicker and more accurate pricing through mathematical rather than analytical models. In this book, the author bridges the divide between finance and mathematics by applying this proven mathematical technique to the financial markets. Utilising practical examples, the author systematically describes the processes involved in a manner accessible to those without a deep understanding of mathematics. * Explains little understood techniques that will assist in the accurate more speedy pricing of options * Centres on the practical application of these useful techniques * Offers a detailed and comprehensive account of the methods involved and is the first to explore the application of these particular techniques to the financial markets

An Arbitrage Guide to Financial Markets is the first book to explicitly show the linkages of markets for equities, currencies, fixed income and commodities. Using a unique structural approach, it dissects all markets the same way: into spot, forward and contingent dimensions, bringing out the simplicity and the commonalities of all markets. The book shuns stochastic calculus in favor of cash flow details of arbitrage trades. All math is simple, but there is lots of it. The book reflects the relative value mentality of an institutional trader seeking profit from misalignments of various market segments. The book is aimed at entrants into investment banking and dealing businesses, existing personnel in non-trading jobs, and people outside of the financial services industry trying to gain a view into what drives dealers in today’s highly integrated marketplace. A committed reader is guaranteed to leave with a deep understanding of all current issues. "This is an excellent introduction to the financial markets by an author with a strong academic approach and practical insights from trading experience. At a time when the proliferation of financial instruments and the increased use of sophisticated mathematics in their analysis, makes an introduction to financial markets intimidating to most, this book is very useful. It provides an insight into the core concepts across markets and uses mathematics at an accessible level. It equips readers to understand the fundamentals of markets, valuation and trading. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to understand the essentials of successfully trading, structuring or using the entire range of financial instruments available today." —Varun Gosain, Principal, Constellation Capital Management, New York "Robert Dubil, drawing from his extensive prior trading experience, has made a significant contribution by writing an easy to understand book about the complex world of today’s financial markets, using basic mathematical concepts.  The book is filled with insights and real life examples about how traders approach the market and is required reading for anyone with an interest in understanding markets or a career in trading." —George Handjinicolaou, Partner, Etolian Capital, New York "This book provides an excellent guide to the current state of the financial markets. It combines academic rigour with the author’s practical experience of the financial sector, giving both students and practitioners an insight into the arbitrage pricing mechanism." —Zenji Nakamura, Managing Director, Europe Fixed Income Division, Nomura International plc, London

Equity Valuation: Models from the Leading Investment Banks is a clear and reader-friendly guide to how today’s leading investment banks analyze firms.  Editors Jan Viebig and Thorsten Poddig bring together expertise from UBS, Morgan Stanley, DWS Investment GmbH and Credit Suisse, providing a unique analysis of leading equity valuation models, from the very individuals who use them.  Filled with real world insights, practical examples and theoretical approaches, the book will examine the strengths and weaknesses of some of the leading valuation approaches, helping readers understand how analysts: ·    estimate cash flows ·    calculate discount rates ·    adjust for accounting distortions ·    take uncertainty into consideration Written for investment professionals, corporate managers and anyone interested in developing their understanding of this key area, Equity Valuation: Models from the Leading Investment Banks will arm readers with the latest thinking and depth of knowledge necessary to make the right decisions in their valuation methodologies.

This book offers an in-depth and up-to-date review of different statistical tools that can be used to analyze and forecast the dynamics of two crucial for every energy company processes—electricity prices and loads. It provides coverage of seasonal decomposition, mean reversion, heavy-tailed distributions, exponential smoothing, spike preprocessing, autoregressive time series including models with exogenous variables and heteroskedastic (GARCH) components, regime-switching models, interval forecasts, jump-diffusion models, derivatives pricing and the market price of risk. Modeling and Forecasting Electricity Loads and Prices is packaged with a CD containing both the data and detailed examples of implementation of different techniques in Matlab, with additional examples in SAS. A reader can retrace all the intermediate steps of a practical implementation of a model and test his understanding of the method and correctness of the computer code using the same input data. The book will be of particular interest to the quants employed by the utilities, independent power generators and marketers, energy trading desks of the hedge funds and financial institutions, and the executives attending courses designed to help them to brush up on their technical skills. The text will be also of use to graduate students in electrical engineering, econometrics and finance wanting to get a grip on advanced statistical tools applied in this hot area. In fact, there are sixteen Case Studies in the book making it a self-contained tutorial to electricity load and price modeling and forecasting.

Financial Applications using Excel Add-in Development in C/C++ is a must-buy book for any serious Excel developer.Excel is the industry standard for financial modelling, providing a number of ways for users to extend the functionality of their own add-ins, including VBA and C/C++. This is the only complete how-to guide and reference book for the creation of high performance add-ins for Excel in C and C++ for users in the finance industry. Steve Dalton explains how to apply Excel add-ins to financial applications with many examples given throughout the book. It also covers the relative strengths and weaknesses of developing add-ins for Excel in VBA versus C/C++, and provides comprehensive code, workbooks and example projects on the accompanying CD-ROM. The impact of Excel 2007’s multi-threaded workbook calculations and large grids on add-in development are fully explored. Financial Applications using Excel Add-in Development in C/C++ features:  Extensive example codes in VBA, C and C++, explaining all the ways in which a developer can achieve their objectives. Example projects that demonstrate, from start to finish, the potential of Excel when powerful add-ins can be easily developed. Develops the readers understanding of the relative strengths and weaknesses of developing add-ins for Excel in VBA versus C/C++. A CD-ROM with several thousand lines of example code, numerous workbooks, and a number of complete example projects.

"Fletcher and Gardner have created a comprehensive resource that will be of interest not only to those working in the field of finance, but also to those using numerical methods in other fields such as engineering, physics, and actuarial mathematics. By showing how to combine the high-level elegance, accessibility, and flexibility of Python, with the low-level computational efficiency of C++, in the context of interesting financial modeling problems, they have provided an implementation template which will be useful to others seeking to jointly optimize the use of computational and human resources. They document all the necessary technical details required in order to make external numerical libraries available from within Python, and they contribute a useful library of their own, which will significantly reduce the start-up costs involved in building financial models. This book is a must read for all those with a need to apply numerical methods in the valuation of financial claims." –David Louton, Professor of Finance, Bryant University This book is directed at both industry practitioners and students interested in designing a pricing and risk management framework for financial derivatives using the Python programming language. It is a practical book complete with working, tested code that guides the reader through the process of building a flexible, extensible pricing framework in Python. The pricing frameworks' loosely coupled fundamental components have been designed to facilitate the quick development of new models. Concrete applications to real-world pricing problems are also provided. Topics are introduced gradually, each building on the last. They include basic mathematical algorithms, common algorithms from numerical analysis, trade, market and event data model representations, lattice and simulation based pricing, and model development. The mathematics presented is kept simple and to the point. The book also provides a host of information on practical technical topics such as C++/Python hybrid development (embedding and extending) and techniques for integrating Python based programs with Microsoft Excel.

This book offers a practical answer for the non-mathematician to all the questions any businessman always wanted to ask about risk quantification, and never dare to ask. Enterprise-wide risk management (ERM) is a key issue for board of directors worldwide. Its proper implementation ensures transparent governance with all stakeholders’ interests integrated into the strategic equation. Furthermore, Risk quantification is the cornerstone of effective risk management,at the strategic and tactical level, covering finance as well as ethics considerations. Both downside and upside risks (threats & opportunities) must be assessed to select the most efficient risk control measures and to set up efficient risk financing mechanisms. Only thus will an optimum return on capital and a reliable protection against bankruptcy be ensured, i.e. long term sustainable development. Within the ERM framework, each individual operational entity is called upon to control its own risks, within the guidelines set up by the board of directors, whereas the risk financing strategy is developed and implemented at the corporate level to optimise the balance between threats and opportunities, systematic and non systematic risks. This book is designed to equip each board member, each executives and each field manager, with the tool box enabling them to quantify the risks within his/her jurisdiction to all the extend possible and thus make sound, rational and justifiable decisions, while recognising the limits of the exercise. Beyond traditional probability analysis, used since the 18th Century by the insurance community, it offers insight into new developments like Bayesian expert networks, Monte-Carlo simulation, etc. with practical illustrations on how to implement them within the three steps of risk management, diagnostic, treatment and audit. With a foreword by Catherine Veret and an introduction by Kevin Knight.

While mainstream financial theories and applications assume that asset returns are normally distributed and individual preferences are quadratic, the overwhelming empirical evidence shows otherwise. Indeed, most of the asset returns exhibit “fat-tails” distributions and investors exhibit asymmetric preferences. These empirical findings lead to the development of a new area of research dedicated to the introduction of higher order moments in portfolio theory and asset pricing models. Multi-moment asset pricing is a revolutionary new way of modeling time series in finance which allows various degrees of long-term memory to be generated. It allows risk and prices of risk to vary through time enabling the accurate valuation of long-lived assets. This book presents the state-of-the art in multi-moment asset allocation and pricing models and provides many new developments in a single volume, collecting in a unified framework theoretical results and applications previously scattered throughout the financial literature. The topics covered in this comprehensive volume include: four-moment individual risk preferences, mathematics of the multi-moment efficient frontier, coherent asymmetric risks measures, hedge funds asset allocation under higher moments, time-varying specifications of (co)moments and multi-moment asset pricing models with homogeneous and heterogeneous agents. Written by leading academics, Multi-moment Asset Allocation and Pricing Models offers a unique opportunity to explore the latest findings in this new field of research.

On the trading floor, all action is based on news, therefore rumors in financial markets are an everyday phenomenon. Rumors are the oldest mass medium in the world and their nature is still difficult to grasp. Scientifically, not much is known about rumors, especially in the financial markets, where their consequences can have real money consequences. Rumors in Financial Markets provides a fresh insight to the topic, combining the theory of Behavioral Finance with that of Experimental Finance--a new and innovative scientific method which observes real decision makers in a controlled, clearly structured environment. Using the results from surveys and experiments, the author argues that rumors in the context of financial markets are built on three cornerstones: Finance, Psychology and Sociology. The book provides insights into how rumors evolve, spread and are traded on and provides explanations as to why volatility rockets, strong price movements, herding behavior for example, occur for apparently no good reason.

Structured Finance: The Object Orientated Approach is aimed at both the finance and IT professionals involved in the structured finance business with the intention of sharing common concepts and language within the industry. The financial community (structurers, pricers and risk managers) view structured products as collections of objects under the so-called replicating portfolio paradigm. The IT community use object oriented programming (OOP) techniques to improve the software updating and maintenance process. For them structured products are collections of objects as well. Despite use of the same object concept, it looks like communication between these different professional functions has been problematic. Recently, construction of standard data structures known as FpML has begun to lay out a common definition of objects, at least for plain vanilla derivatives, both between IT and financial people and across different market players. Along this line, this book builds upon the concept of object to provide frontier treatment of structured finance issues relevant to both communities engaged in building, pricing and hedging products and people engaged in designing and up-dating the corresponding software.  Structured Finance: The Object Orientated Approach will enable you to:  decompose a structured product in elementary constituent financial objects and risk factors (replicating portfolio) understand the basics of object oriented programming (OOP) applied to the design of structured cash flows objects build your own objects and to understand FpML data structures available for standard products gauge risk exposures of the objects in structured products to: risk factors, their volatilities and the correlation among them (which factor are you long/short? Are you long/short volatility? Are you long/short correlation?) update your risk management system to accommodate structured products with non linear exposures and to design objects to represent, price and hedge, counterparty risk 

Property derivatives have the potential to revolutionize real estate - the last major asset class without a liquid derivatives market. The new instruments offer ease and flexibility in the management of property risk and return. Property funds, insurance companies, pension and life funds, speculators, hedge funds or any asset manager with a view on the real estate market can apply the new derivatives to hedge property risk, to invest synthetically in real estate, or for portfolio optimization. Moreover, developers, builders, home suppliers, occupiers, banks, mortgage lenders and governmental agencies can better cope with their real estate exposure using property derivatives. This book is a practical introduction to property derivatives and their numerous applications. Providing a comprehensive overview of the property derivatives market and indices, there is also in-depth coverage of pricing, hedging and risk management, which will deepen the readers understanding of the market's mechanisms. Covering both the theoretical and practical aspects of the property derivatives markets; this book is the definitive reference guide to a new and fast-growing market.

The world of banking is changing dramatically as a result of regulation, technology and society. New developments in the past three years include advances in regulatory change, the impact of China and India; from the latest technologies to impact bank services, to the latest experiments with a cashless society. The Future of Banking in a Globalised World provides an entertaining yet informative look at the world of banking and chronicles the radical changes that have occurred in the industry over the past three years.  Renowned analyst and international speaker, Chris Skinner assesses the trends that have occurred during the past three years and looks at predictions for the future of banking. Issues discussed include: • The impact of emerging markets such as China and India • Regulatory changes including Europe’s Financial Services Action Plan, MiFID, SEPA, as well as the impact of Basel II and Sarbanes-Oxley • The latest technologies to impact Bank services from algorithmic trading through Web 2.0 • The displacement of Cash and Cards through Contactless, Mobile and Biometric Payments

Claims reserving is central to the insurance industry. Insurance liabilities depend on a number of different risk factors which need to be predicted accurately. This prediction of risk factors and outstanding loss liabilities is the core for pricing insurance products, determining the profitability of an insurance company and for considering the financial strength (solvency) of the company. Following several high-profile company insolvencies, regulatory requirements have moved towards a risk-adjusted basis which has lead to the Solvency II developments. The key focus in the new regime is that financial companies need to analyze adverse developments in their portfolios. Reserving actuaries now have to not only estimate reserves for the outstanding loss liabilities but also to quantify possible shortfalls in these reserves that may lead to potential losses. Such an analysis requires stochastic modeling of loss liability cash flows and it can only be done within a stochastic framework. Therefore stochastic loss liability modeling and quantifying prediction uncertainties has become standard under the new legal framework for the financial industry. This book covers all the mathematical theory and practical guidance needed in order to adhere to these stochastic techniques. Starting with the basic mathematical methods, working right through to the latest developments relevant for practical applications; readers will find out how to estimate total claims reserves while at the same time predicting errors and uncertainty are quantified. Accompanying datasets demonstrate all the techniques, which are easily implemented in a spreadsheet. A practical and essential guide, this book is a must-read in the light of the new solvency requirements for the whole insurance industry.

A comprehensive guide to the burgeoning hedge fund industry Intended as a comprehensive reference for investors and fund and portfolio managers, Handbook of Hedge Funds combines new material with updated information from Francois-Serge L’habitant’s two other successful hedge fund books. This book features up-to-date regulatory and historical information, new case studies and trade examples, detailed analyses of investment strategies, discussions of hedge fund indices and databases, and tips on portfolio construction. Francois-Serge L’habitant (Geneva, Switzerland) is the Head of Investment Research at Kedge Capital. He is Professor of Finance at the University of Lausanne and at EDHEC Business School, as well as the author of five books, including Hedge Funds: Quantitative Insights (0-470-85667-X) and Hedge Funds: Myths & Limits (0-470-84477-9), both from Wiley.

Plumbers and Visionaries: Securities Settlement and Europe’s Financial Market is a path-breaking account of the history and future of the securities settlement industry in Europe. Written by experienced journalist and author, Peter Norman, this book takes a look at the less visible, but nevertheless critical segment of the global capital markets, following the development of securities settlement across Europe’s frontiers. It encompasses the free-wheeling days of the Eurobond market in the 1960s, through the growing integration of the European Union, to the highly regulated and efficient multi-trillion euro business securities settlement it is today. This book is the story of a financial sector that has grown hugely in importance in the 40 years since Euroclear, now the world’s premier settlement system for domestic and international securities transactions, was created to deal with a settlement crisis that threatened to smother the international capital market in its infancy. Beginning with the settlement crisis in the Eurobond market, this book describes how Euroclear and later Cedel, its arch-rival, were founded to deal with the problem. It follows the challenges posed by cross-border settlement for a growing range of securities when most financial infrastructures operated only within national frontiers. The book demonstrates how securities settlement became an issue for public policy after the stock market crash of 1987 and how the problems of cross-border settlement moved rapidly up the European policy agenda after the euro’s launch. More than a mere history, this book engages with the people who created the modern European securities settlement industry and taps into the often entertaining memories of its founding fathers. This book also focuses on the difficulties and challenges of cross-border transactions which have been identified as hampering Europe’s economic growth. It looks at the present state of the industry seeking a way forward so that the securities settlement infrastructure will better serve a single European capital market.

The credit derivatives industry has come under close scrutiny over the past few years, with the recent financial crisis highlighting the instability of a number of credit structures and throwing the industry into turmoil. What has been made clear by recent events is the necessity for a thorough understanding of credit derivatives by all parties involved in a transaction, especially traders, structurers, quants and investors. Fully revised and updated to take in to account the new products, markets and risk requirements post financial crisis, Credit Derivatives: Trading, Investing and Risk Management, Second Edition, covers the subject from a real world perspective, tackling issues such as liquidity, poor data, and credit spreads, to the latest innovations in portfolio products, hedging and risk management techniques. The book concentrates on practical issues and develops an understanding of the products through applications and detailed analysis of the risks and alternative means of trading. It provides: a description of the key products, applications, and an analysis of typical trades including basis trading, hedging, and credit structuring; analysis of the industry standard 'default and recovery' and Copula models including many examples, and a description of the models' shortcomings; tools and techniques for the management of a portfolio or book of credit risks including appropriate and inappropriate methods of correlation risk management; a thorough analysis of counterparty risk; an intuitive understanding of credit correlation in reality and in the Copula model. The book is thoroughly updated to reflect the changes the industry has seen over the past 5 years, notably with an analysis of the lead up and causes of the credit crisis. It contains 50% new material, which includes copula valuation and hedging, portfolio optimisation, portfolio products and correlation risk management, pricing in illiquid environments, chapters on the evolution of credit management systems, the credit meltdown and new chapters on the implementation and testing of credit derivative models and systems. The book is accompanied by a website which contains tools for credit derivatives valuation and risk management, illustrating the models used in the book and also providing a valuation toolkit.

In Understanding Islamic Finance Muhammad Ayub introduces all the essential elements of this growing market by providing an in-depth background to the subject and clear descriptions of all the major products and processes associated with Islamic finance. Key features include: Discussion of the principles of Islamic finance; Introduction to the key products and procedures that International Financial Institutions are using or may adopt to fund a variety of clients ensuring Sharī´ah compliance; Discussion of the role Islamic finance can play in the development of the financial system and of economies; Practical and operational examples that cover deposit and fund management by banks involving financing of various sectors of the economy, risk management, accounting treatment, and working of Islamic financial markets and instruments. This book is not only an important text for all banks and financial institutions entering this particular market with a commitment to building Islamic financial solutions, but is also essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students of Islamic finance.

Credit derivatives have been instrumental in the recent increase in securitization activity. The complex nature and the size of the market have given rise to very complex counterparty credit risks.  The Lehman failure has shown that these issues can paralyse the financial markets, and the need for detailed understanding has never been greater.   The Art of Credit Derivatives shows practitioners how to put a framework in place which will support the securitization activity.  By showing the models that support this activity and linking them with very practical examples, the authors show why a mind-shift within the quant community is needed - a move from simple modeling to a more hands on mindset where the modeler understands the trading implicitly.   The book has been written in five parts, covering the modeling framework; single name corporate credit derivatives; multi name corporate credit derivatives; asset backed securities and dynamic credit portfolio management.   Coverage includes: groundbreaking solutions to the inherent risks associated with investing in securitization instruments how to use the standardized credit indices as the most appropriate instruments in price discovery processes and why these indices are the essential tools for short term credit portfolio management why the dynamics of systemic correlation and the standardised credit indices are linked with leverage, and consequently the implications for liquidity and solvability of financial institutions how Lévy processes and long term memory processes are related to the understanding of economic activity why regulatory capital should be portfolio dependant and how to use stress tests and scenario analysis to model this how to put structured products in a mark-to market-environment, increasing transparency for accounting and compliance.   This book will be invaluable reading for Credit Analysts, Quantitative Analysts, Credit Portfolio Managers, Academics and anyone interested in these complex yet important markets.  

The lifecycle of a trade is the fundamental activity of investment banks, hedge funds, pension funds and many other financial companies. There is no better way to understand the working s of a financial institution than to follow the progress of a trade through all of its various stages and all the activities performed upon it. The Trade Lifecycle: Behind the Scenes of the Trading Process is a guide to the trade lifecycle and it inherent risks and weaknesses. The book dissects a trade into its component parts, tracking it from pre-conception to maturity, and examines how the trade affects each business function of a financial institution. As well as illustrating each part of the trade process it highlights the legal, operational, liquidity, credit and market risks to which the trade is exposed. Readers will benefit from a full understanding of all parts of the trade process, including derivative and credit derivative trades and will also see, with examples where appropriate, how the mismanagement of these risks led to the recent financial crisis. The book is divided in to 4 parts. Part 1 covers products and the background to trading including: trading risk; asset classes; derivatives, structures and hybrids; credit derivatives; liquidity, price and leverage. Part 2 covers the trade lifecycle including: the anatomy of a trade; the lifecycle of a trade; cashflows and asset holdings; risk management; market risk control; counterparty risk control; accounting and P&L attribution. Part 3 covers systems and procedures including;: the people; developing processes for new products; new products; systems; testing; data; reports; calculation; mathematical model and systems validation; regulatory, legal and compliance issues and business continuity planning. Finally Part 4 covers what can go wrong, discussing credit derivatives and the financial crisis. In the aftermath of the financial crisis emphasis had moved to transparency and due diligence involving closer scrutiny of all forms of risk. In this new world order, there is a much greater analysis of every trade and all market participants will need to have a better understanding of the impact of their work on the whole trade cycle – this book provides a one stop comprehensive guide to the lifecycle of a trade.

Macrofinancial risk analysis Dale Gray and Samuel Malone Macrofinancial Risk Analysis provides a new and powerful framework with which policymakers and investors can analyze risk and vulnerability in economies, both emerging market and industrial. Using modern risk management and financial engineering techniques applied to the macroeconomy, an economic value can be placed on the risks posed by inter-linkages between sectors, the risk of default of different sectors on their outstanding debt obligations quantified, and the value ex-ante of guarantees to private sector entities by the government calculated. This book guides the reader through the basic macroeconomic and financial models necessary to understand the framework, the core analytical tools, and more advanced contributions that will be of interest to researchers. This unique synthesis of ideas from finance and macroeconomics offers several original contributions to the theory of financial crises, as well as a range of new policy options for governments interested in achieving a better tradeoff between economic growth and macro risk.

In recent years, Fourier transform methods have emerged as one of the major methodologies for the evaluation of derivative contracts, largely due to the need to strike a balance between the extension of existing pricing models beyond the traditional Black-Scholes setting and a need to evaluate prices consistently with the market quotes. Fourier Transform Methods in Finance is a practical and accessible guide to pricing financial instruments using Fourier transform. Written by an experienced team of practitioners and academics, it covers Fourier pricing methods; the dynamics of asset prices; non stationary market dynamics; arbitrage free pricing; generalized functions and the Fourier transform method. Readers will learn how to: compute the Hilbert transform of the pricing kernel under a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) technique characterise the price dynamics on a market in terms of the characteristic function, allowing for both diffusive processes and jumps apply the concept of characteristic function to non-stationary processes, in particular in the presence of stochastic volatility and more generally time change techniques perform a change of measure on the characteristic function in order to make the price process a martingale recover a general representation of the pricing kernel of the economy in terms of Hilbert transform using the theory of generalised functions apply the pricing formula to the most famous pricing models, with stochastic volatility and jumps. Junior and senior practitioners alike will benefit from this quick reference guide to state of the art models and market calibration techniques. Not only will it enable them to write an algorithm for option pricing using the most advanced models, calibrate a pricing model on options data, and extract the implied probability distribution in market data, they will also understand the most advanced models and techniques and discover how these techniques have been adjusted for applications in finance. ISBN 978-0-470-99400-9

"Luca Albertini and Pauline Barrieu are to be congratulated on this volume. Written in a period where structured projects in finance are having a difficult time, it is worthwhile to return to the cradle of securitisation: insurance. Spread out over three parts (life, non- life, and tax and regulatory issues) the 26 chapters, written mainly by practitioners, give an excellent overview of this challenging field of modern insurance. Methodology and examples nicely go hand in hand. The overall slant being towards actual analyses of concrete products. No doubt this book will become a milestone going forward for actuarial students, researchers, regulators and practitioners alike." —Paul Embrechts, Professor of Mathematics and Director of RiskLab, ETH Zurich The convergence of insurance with the capital markets has opened up an alternative channel for insurers to transfer risk, raise capital and optimize their regulatory reserves as well as offering institutions a source of relatively liquid investment with limited correlation with other exposures. One of the financial instruments allowing for the cession of insurance-related risks to the capital markets is Insurance-Linked Securities (ILS). This book provides hands-on information essential for market participants, drawing on the insights and expertise of an impressive team of international market players, representing the various aspects and perspectives of this growing sector. The book presents the state of the art in Insurance-Linked Securitization, by exploring the various roles for the different parties involved in the transactions, the motivation for the transaction sponsors, the potential inherent pitfalls, the latest developments and transaction structures and the key challenges faced by the market. The book is organized into parts, each covering a specific topic or sector of the market. After a general overview of the ILS market, the Insurance-Linked Securitization process is studied in detail. A distinction is made between non-life and life securitization, due to the specificities of each sector. The process and all the actors involved are identified and considered in a comprehensive and systematic way. The concepts are first looked at in a general way, before the analysis of relevant case studies where the ILS technology is applied. Particular focus is given to: the key stages in both non-life and life securitizations, including the general features of the transactions, the cedant's perspectives, the legal issues, the rating methodologies, the choice of an appropriate trigger and the risk modeling, the particular challenges related to longevity securitization, the investor's perspective and the question of the management of a portfolio of ILS, the general issues related to insurance-linked securitization, such as accounting and tax issues, regulatory issues and solvency capital requirements. The book is accompanied by a website www.wiley.com/go/albertini_barrieu_ILS which will feature updates and additions to the various contributions to follow market developments.

Commodities represent today the fastest growing markets worldwide. Historically misunderstood, generally under- studied and under- valued, certainly under- represented in the literature, commodities are suddenly receiving the attention they deserve. Bringing together some of the best authors in the field, this book focuses on the risk management issues associated with both soft and hard commodities: energy, weather, agriculturals, metals and shipping.  Taking the reader through every part of the commodities markets, the authors discuss the intricacies of modelling spot and forward prices, as well as the design of new Futures markets. The book also looks at the use of options and other derivative contract forms for hedging purposes, as well as supply management in commodity markets.  It looks at the implications for climate policy and climate research and analyzes the various freight derivatives markets and products used to manage shipping and freight risk in a global commodity world. It is required reading for energy and mining companies, utilities’ practitioners, commodity and cash derivatives traders in investment banks, CTA’s and hedge funds

The recent financial crisis brought to light many of the misunderstandings and misuses of exotic derivatives. With market participants on both the buy and sell-side having been found guilty of not understanding the products they were dealing with, never before has there been a greater need for clarification and explanation. Exotic Options and Hybrids is a practical guide to structuring, pricing and hedging complex exotic options and hybrid derivatives that will serve readers through the recent crisis, the road to recovery, the next bull market and beyond. Written by experienced practitioners, it focuses on the three main parts of a derivative’s life: the structuring of a product, its pricing and its hedging. Divided into four parts, the book covers a multitude of structures, encompassing many of the most up-to-date and promising products from exotic equity derivatives and structured notes to hybrid derivatives and dynamic strategies. Based on a realistic setting from the heart of the business, inside a derivatives operation, the practical and intuitive discussions of these aspects make these exotic concepts truly accessible. Adoptions of real trades are examined in detail, and all of the numerous examples are carefully selected so as to highlight interesting and significant aspects of the business. The introduction of payoff structures is accompanied by scenario analysis, diagrams and lifelike sample term sheets. Readers learn how to spot where the risks lie to pave the way for sound valuation and hedging of such products. There are also questions and accompanying discussions dispersed in the text, each exploited to illustrate one or more concepts from the context in which they are set. The applications, the strengths and the limitations of various models are highlighted, in relevance to the products and their risks, rather than the model implementations. Models are de-mystified in separately dedicated sections, but their implications are alluded to throughout the book in an intuitive and non-mathematical manner. By discussing exotic options and hybrids in a practical, non-mathematical and highly intuitive setting, this book will blast through the misunderstanding of exotic derivatives, enabling practitioners to fully understand and correctly structure, price and hedge theses products effectively, and stand strong as the only book in its class to make these “exotic” concepts truly accessible.

Performance measurement and attribution are key tools in informing investment decisions and strategies. Performance measurement is the quality control of the investment decision process, enabling money managers to calculate return, understand the behaviour of a portfolio of assets, communicate with clients and determine how performance can be improved. Focusing on the practical use and calculation of performance returns rather than the academic background, Practical Portfolio Performance Measurement and Attribution provides a clear guide to the role and implications of these methods in today's financial environment, enabling readers to apply their knowledge with immediate effect. Fully updated from the first edition, this book covers key new developments such as fixed income attribution, attribution of derivative instruments and alternative investment strategies, leverage and short positions, risk-adjusted performance measures for hedge funds plus updates on presentation standards.  The book covers the mathematical aspects of the topic in an accessible and practical way, making this book an essential reference for anyone involved in asset management.

Written by an experienced trader and consultant, Frans de Weert’s Exotic Options Trading offers a risk-focused approach to the pricing of exotic options. By giving readers the necessary tools to understand exotic options, this book serves as a manual to equip the reader with the skills to price and risk manage the most common and the most complex exotic options. De Weert begins by explaining the risks associated with trading an exotic option before dissecting these risks through a detailed analysis of the actual economics and Greeks rather than solely stating the mathematical formulae. The book limits the use of mathematics to explain exotic options from an economic and risk perspective by means of real life examples leading to a practical interpretation of the mathematical pricing formulae. The book covers conventional options, digital options, barrier options, cliquets, quanto options, outperformance options and variance swaps, and explains difficult concepts in simple terms, with a practical approach that gives the reader a full understanding of every aspect of each exotic option. The book also discusses structured notes with exotic options embedded in them, such as reverse convertibles, callable and puttable reverse convertibles and autocallables and shows the rationale behind these structures and their associated risks. For each exotic option, the author makes clear why there is an investor demand; explains where the risks lie and how this affects the actual pricing; shows how best to hedge any vega or gamma exposure embedded in the exotic option and discusses the skew exposure. By explaining the practical implications for every exotic option and how it affects the price, in addition to the necessary mathematical derivations and tools for pricing exotic options, Exotic Options Trading removes the mystique surrounding exotic options in order to give the reader a full understanding of every aspect of each exotic option, creating a useable tool for dealing with exotic options in practice. “Although exotic options are not a new subject in finance, the coverage traditionally afforded by many texts is either too high level or overly mathematical. De Weert's exceptional text fills this gap superbly. It is a rigorous treatment of a number of exotic structures and includes numerous examples to clearly illustrate the principles. What makes this book unique is that it manages to strike a fantastic balance between the theory and actual trading practice. Although it may be something of an overused phrase to describe this book as compulsory reading, I can assure any reader they will not be disappointed.” —Neil Schofield, Training Consultant and author of Commodity Derivatives: Markets and Applications “Exotic Options Trading does an excellent job in providing a succinct and exhaustive overview of exotic options. The real edge of this book is that it explains exotic options from a risk and economical perspective and provides a clear link to the actual profit and pricing formulae. In short, a must read for anyone who wants to get deep insights into exotic options and start trading them profitably.” —Arturo Bignardi