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ES50154: Financial derivatives

[Page last updated: 12 August 2021]

Academic Year: 2021/2
Owning Department/School: Department of Economics
Credits: 5 [equivalent to 10 CATS credits]
Notional Study Hours: 100
Level: Masters UG & PG (FHEQ level 7)
Period:
Semester 2
Assessment Summary: CW 100%
Assessment Detail:
  • Coursework 1 (CW 50%)
  • Coursework 2 (CW 50%)
Supplementary Assessment:
ES50154 - Reassessment Paper (where allowed by programme regulations)
Requisites:
Aims: To provide an introduction to derivative securities including futures and options, their valuation and management.

Learning Outcomes: At the end of this course, students should be able to: structure and construct portfolios including a variety of financial instruments; apply principles of arbitrage, hedging and risk management; apply and evaluate the Black-Scholes pricing theory, and construct valuations based on the Black-Scholes analysis.

Skills: Written communication, Numeracy, Time management and Organisational skills, Data acquisition, handling and analysis, Problem solving, Working independently, Critical/analytical skills, Precise thinking, Accuracy and attention to detail.

Content: Introduction to derivatives, including futures and forward contracts, call and put options. Valuation of futures and forwards contracts. Time value of money, interest rates, bonds. Option pricing; put-call parity, trading strategies, arbitrage. Random asset price modelling. Introduction to stochastic calculus. The Black-Scholes analysis for pricing derivatives, including options. Other topics to be chosen from: interest rate swaps and their valuation, assets paying dividends, the binomial pricing model, risk management of options (delta, theta and gamma).

Programme availability:

ES50154 is a Designated Essential Unit on the following programmes:

Department of Economics
  • THES-AFM30 : MSc Economics for Business Intelligence and Systems

Notes:

  • This unit catalogue is applicable for the 2021/22 academic year only. Students continuing their studies into 2022/23 and beyond should not assume that this unit will be available in future years in the format displayed here for 2021/22.
  • Programmes and units are subject to change in accordance with normal University procedures.
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