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: demonstrate an understanding of the outcomes of portfolios including a variety of financial instruments; apply principles of arbitrage, hedging and risk management; demonstrate appreciation of the derivation of the Black-Scholes pricing theory, and perform calculations based on the Black-Scholes analysis.
Skills:
Written communication (T/F/A), Numeracy (T/F/A), Time management and Organisational skills (F), Data acquisition, handling and analysis (F), Problem solving (T/F/A), Working independently (F), Critical/analytical skills (F), Precise thinking (T/F/A), Accuracy and attention to detail (T/F/A).
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).
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