Hedging
Opportunity knocks for smelters
Aluminium manufacturers have long used sophisticated hedging and risk management techniques to protect against fluctuating metal prices, yet they have only recently looked at transferring these skills to power risk management. David Wilson reports
US retreat hits European trading
The retreat of US energy firms from energy trading has reportedly hit European volumes hard. But volumes aside, James Ockenden finds that the withdrawal may bring a fundamental change in the market. With additional reporting by Eurof Thomas
Playing a waiting game
With energy – and particularly natural gas – costs on the rise, are end-users finally coming to terms with the importance of hedging or are they still waiting to get burned before they enter the hedging market? Kevin Foster reports
Copula vulnerability
Counterparty credit risk
Substitute hedging
Derivatives on assets that are difficult to trade are of growing importance. Pricing suchderivatives requires the use of utility theory and proxy assets for hedging. Here, VickyHenderson and David Hobson review the theory and discuss several topical…
Himalaya options
Nothing epitomises the challenges of complex equity derivatives better than the so-called ‘mountain range’ products. In the second article looking at the challenges of this market, Marcus Overhaus analyses a particular product, the Himalayan option,…
A major improvement
In May, David Rowe wrote that the Basel Committee ‘could do better’ with respect to the inclusion of operational risk in the capital Accord. Here, he says the working paper the committee published in late September outlines a major and valuable…
Asian banks face hedging threat
Hong Kong - The Basel II bank capital adequacy accord could stop Asia's banks from hedging risk, resulting in their being shut out of the global banking system entirely, says Paul Sheehan, Hong Kong-based co-head of Asian bank research at US investment…
Hedging electoral risk
New markets
Wake-up call for Basel’s insurance neighbours
With liquidity draining away from the credit markets, banks have turned to the insurance industry to underwrite credit risks. But how prepared are insurers and reinsurers to takethese risks?
Hedge your Monte Carlo
Option pricing
Going with the flow
Hedging
Stress tests and risk capital
For many financial institutions, "stress tests" are an important input into processes that set risk capital allocations. In the current regulatory environment, two distinct model-based approaches for setting regulatory capital requirements include stress…
Tailor-made for tails
Hedging strategies
Volatility swaps made simple
Volatility
On the edge of completeness
Credit derivatives
Regimes of volatility
Options markets