Derivatives
The US Federal Reserve has offered conflicting messages on interest rates ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting next week. Ron Rimkus, CFA, tries to make sense of the noise and offers a wrap-up of other key issues affecting global markets for fundamental investors.
Because they do not regard ethical failings in the financial industry as the actions of a few bad apples but, rather, as inevitable consequences of an unhealthy culture, the authors seek to restore the environment that existed before the major investment banks transformed themselves from partnerships into publicly traded corporations. The problems addressed in this book affect every participant in the financial system.
Rumors of active management's demise are greatly exaggerated, AthenaInvest's C. Thomas Howard tells Jason Voss, CFA, and he has the evidence to make his case and the tools to help change active management for the better.
David-Michael Lincke, CFA, said that commodities continue to offer many investors meaningful benefits through diversification, inflation protection, and absolute returns.
Imagine for a moment an investment world without the accomplishments of Jack L. Treynor. In this imaginary Treynor-less world, mass casino psychology and fund manager guru-worship might rule, unchallenged by any metrics other than crude popularity and marketing spend.
Science demonstrates that meditation reduces stress, improves creativity, counteracts behavioral biases, and improves ethical decision making. It can be an incredibly useful tool for investment professionals.
The US Federal Reserve's next meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee will be on 15–16 December. Many expect Fed chair Janet Yellen to begin the process of reversing the extraordinary monetary measures adopted after the crisis by raising interest rates.
When Ignacio Ruiz and his associates, Piero Del Boca and Ricardo Pachón, looked at the current models for directional-way risk, they found that the models were impossible to calibrate. So, they set about creating their own model.
Sébastien Bossu reviews important concepts and recent developments in option pricing and modeling, including the latest generation of equity derivatives: volatility and correlation derivatives. Readers should have some familiarity with basic equity derivatives pricing and advanced mathematics because this book references the Black–Scholes model and other formulas for exotics.
Despite history's greatest investors — Benjamin Graham, Warren Buffett, Bruce Berkowitz, Seth Klarman — stressing the importance of the "margin of safety," it remains a lost art.