As a corporate manager or executive, you probably have little contact with the actual day-to-day trading of derivatives contracts. Regardless, your oversight responsibilities place your career directly in the hands of aggressive derivatives traders. Do you really know what they're up to? DERIVATIVES is the first and only book written for the manager who is not a derivatives expert but is responsible for the experts. Concise, uncomplicated, and often entertaining, it gives you a basic understanding and appreciation for these complex yet powerful financial tools. DERIVATIVES isn't another "how to trade" book. Instead, it eschews technical jargon and mathematical formulae to show you "how to survive" when derivatives inevitably cross your professional path. Real life examples of derivatives disasters (Proctor & Gamble's 1994 loss of $102 million, Barings Bank's 1995 loss of $1.3 billion, and the Belgian government's 1997 loss of $1.2 billion) are accompanied by analyses of where they went wrong. Far from the daredevil, all-or-nothing reputation they are often given, derivatives are basically conservative hedging instruments designed to REDUCE risk. They allow organizations to pass the assumption of natural risks to speculators (who intend to profit from those risks). From simple agricultural futures to the latest versions of credit derivatives and swaps, DERIVATIVES will give you a basic appreciation of how derivatives operate and where the dangers lie. Look to this comprehensive yet easy-to-read overview for valuable information on: How to instinctively recognize different types of risk, and choose the instruments which best counteract each; Examination of the legal environment for derivatives, and how to protect your firm from potential liabilities; Strategies to structure your firm's checks and balances to keep pace with the changing structure of the derivatives business. While it may be the quants and traders who make the costly errors, it is the managers and executives who ultimately answer to the authoritiesÑnot to mention their stockholders. DERIVATIVES will help you safeguard your company from undue risk, provide you with a new level of comfort and understanding regarding these vibrant and valuable risk protection tools, and help ensure that your companyÑand careerÑwon't be the next cautionary tale splashed across financial pages worldwide. Derivatives can be both beneficial and devastating. DonÕt let yourself get burned! Derivatives will give you a step-by-step tour through the amazing benefits of derivativesÑas well as an overview of their hazardsÑand put you firmly in control of your corporation's risk control program.

This March 2011 issue of the Stanford Law Review contains studies of law, economics, and social policy by recognized scholars on such diverse topics as "preglimony," derivatives markets in a fiscal crisis, corporate reform in Brazil, land use and zoning under contract theory, and a student Note on college endowments at elite schools during a time of economic downturn. Contents for the March 2011 issue are: "Regulatory Dualism as a Development Strategy: Corporate Reform in Brazil, the U.S., and the E.U.," by Ronald J. Gilson, Henry Hansmann and Mariana Pargendler "The Derivatives Market's Payment Priorities as Financial Crisis Accelerator," by Mark J. Roe "The Contract Transformation in Land Use Regulation," by Daniel P. Selmi "Preglimony," by Shari Motro Note, "Scarcity Amidst Wealth: The Law, Finance, and Culture of Elite University Endowments in Financial Crisis" In the ebook editions, the footnotes, graphs, and tables of contents (including those for individual articles) are fully linked, properly scalable, and functional; the original note numbering is retained; URLs in notes are active; and the issue is properly formatted.

An in-depth look at the best ways to navigate the post-reform world of derivatives and futures The derivatives market is one of the largest, and most important financial markets in the world. It's also one of the least understood. Today we are witnessing the unprecedented reform and reshaping of this market, and along with these events, the entire life cycle of a derivatives transaction has been affected. Accordingly, nearly all market participants in the modern economy need to view the handling of risk by derivatives in a very different way. Many aspects of financial services reform are based on a belief that derivatives caused the Great Recession of 2008. While the difficulties we now face cannot be blamed solely on derivatives, the need to understand this market, and the financial products that trade within it, has never been greater. The Post-Reform Guide to Derivatives and Futures provides straightforward descriptions of these important investment products, the market in which they trade, and the law that now, after July 16, 2011, governs their use in America and creates challenges for investors throughout the world. Author Gordon Peery is an attorney who works exclusively in the derivatives markets and specializes in derivatives and futures reform and market structure. Since representing clients in Congressional hearings involving Enron Corp., he has developed extensive experience in this field. With this guide, he reveals how derivatives law, and market practice throughout the world, began to change in historic ways beginning in 2011, and what you must do to keep up with these changes. Explains what derivatives and futures are, who trades them, and what must be done to manage risk in the post reform world Accurately reflects the futures and derivatives markets as they exist today and how they will be transformed by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act Highlights the risks and common disputes regarding derivatives and futures, and offers recommendations for best practices in light of the evolving law governing derivatives The financial crisis has changed the rules of Wall Street, especially when it comes to derivatives and futures. The Post-Reform Guide to Derivatives and Futures will help you navigate this evolving field and put you in a better position to make the most informed decisions within it.

Portfolio management is an ongoing process of constructing portfolios that balances an investor's objectives with the portfolio manager's expectations about the future. This dynamic process provides the payoff for investors. Portfolio management evaluates individual assets or investments by their contribution to the risk and return of an investor's portfolio rather than in isolation. This is called the portfolio perspective. Thus, by constructing a diversified portfolio, a portfolio manager can reduce risk for a given level of expected return, compared to investing in an individual asset or security. According to modern portfolio theory (MPT), investors who do not follow a portfolio perspective bear risk that is not rewarded with greater expected return. Portfolio diversification works best when financial markets are operating normally compared to periods of market turmoil such as the 2007-2008 financial crisis. During periods of turmoil, correlations tend to increase thus reducing the benefits of diversification. Portfolio management today emerges as a dynamic process, which continues to evolve at a rapid pace. The purpose of Portfolio Theory and Management is to take readers from the foundations of portfolio management with the contributions of financial pioneers up to the latest trends emerging within the context of special topics. The book includes discussions of portfolio theory and management both before and after the 2007-2008 financial crisis. This volume provides a critical reflection of what worked and what did not work viewed from the perspective of the recent financial crisis. Further, the book is not restricted to the U.S. market but takes a more global focus by highlighting cross-country differences and practices. This 30-chapter book consists of seven sections. These chapters are: (1) portfolio theory and asset pricing, (2) the investment policy statement and fiduciary duties, (3) asset allocation and portfolio construction, (4) risk management, (V) portfolio execution, monitoring, and rebalancing, (6) evaluating and reporting portfolio performance, and (7) special topics.

This book provides detailed but flexible coverage of options, futures, forwards, swaps, and risk management - as well as a solid introduction to pricing, trading, and strategy - allows instructors to selectively tailor inclusion of topics/chapters to fit the length of the course.

This book explores the future of the financial services industry, giving readers an idea of the kinds of institutions and services that will survive in the early twenty-first century. An informative and provocative exploration of the future of the financial services industry. Focuses on likely changes in the near future, such as greater use of the Internet for banking transactions and the increasing globalization of financial services. Points to the probable disappearance of the insurance sector as a separate industry. Describes changing conditions in key financial centres, especially the US, the UK, Germany, Japan and Switzerland.

This is a lively textbook providing a solid introduction to financial option valuation for undergraduate students armed with a working knowledge of a first year calculus. Written in a series of short chapters, its self-contained treatment gives equal weight to applied mathematics, stochastics and computational algorithms. No prior background in probability, statistics or numerical analysis is required. Detailed derivations of both the basic asset price model and the Black–Scholes equation are provided along with a presentation of appropriate computational techniques including binomial, finite differences and in particular, variance reduction techniques for the Monte Carlo method. Each chapter comes complete with accompanying stand-alone MATLAB code listing to illustrate a key idea. Furthermore, the author has made heavy use of figures and examples, and has included computations based on real stock market data.