Problem formulation and solution; the efficient frontier; including the risk-free asset; the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM);implications of CAPM: α, β, security and capital market lines
Practical Issues in Implementing Mean Variance
Problems with mean-variance analysis; ETFs and leveraged ETFs; VaR and CVaR for asset allocation; survivorship bias, performance evaluation and other statistical pitfalls.
Equity Derivatives in Practice: Part I
Problems with mean-variance analysis; ETFs and leveraged ETFs; VaR and CVaR for asset allocation; survivorship bias, performance evaluation and other statistical pitfalls.
Equity Derivatives in Practice: Part II
More about Black-Scholes, the Greeks and delta-hedging; the volatility surface; pricing derivatives using the volatility surface; model calibration.
Credit Derivatives and Structured Products
Mechanics and pricing of CDOs; exotic structured credit securities including CDO-squared’s and CDO-cubed’s. Risk management of these products and their role in the financial crisis.
Other Applications of Financial Engineering
Real options; energy and commodities modeling; algorithmic trading.