Market risk
High-frequency trading: how great is the need for speed?
Just how important is speed? Risk managers and traders are weighing the value of high-frequency market data and trading technologies against their costs. Gallagher Polyn examines the debate over using high-frequency data in risk models, and profiles one…
Economist questions banks’ approach to VAR analysis
Bank risk managers must use more intra-day price data – also referred to as high-frequency data – to improve their value-at-risk analyses, according to Richard Olsen, an economist and founder of Zurich-based hedge fund and risk services company Olsen.
Under fire
Are hedge funds the cause of volatility in investment markets?
Risk Committee meets to raise reporting standards
Managers, insurers and institutional investors reach a consesus agreement on information requirements
VAR you can rely on
Analytical and simulation-based methods often appear as rivals, but many real world problems are best served by judicious combinations of both approaches. In a first of a pair of computationally themed papers, Rabi De and Tanya Tamarchenko present a…
Strategic shortcomings
A survey of 13 private banks’ risk management practices reveals some dangerous shortcomings. Lisa Kastigar of Sherwood Alliance, a Switzerland-based financial consulting firm, examines the challenges for risk managers at these institutions
Sharpe practice
Schroders' emerging markets Astra fund is aiming to achieve good returns with a Sharpe ratio of about one and two-thirds the volatility of its benchmark
Risk and probability measures
Although its drawbacks are well known, VAR has become institutionalised as the market risk measure of choice among trading firms and regulators. Now there is a growing feeling that a reappraisal is overdue, exemplified here by Phelim Boyle, Tak Kuen Siu…
The maturity effect on credit risk capital
In a mark-to-market approach to credit risk capital, ratings or spread volatility has the effect of making longer-maturity loans more capital-intensive. This is incorporated in the current Basel II proposals via a maturity adjustment factor. Arguing that…
Insurers embrace risk systems
Insurance companies have been slower than banks to adopt advanced risk modelling techniques and technologies. But regulatory changes and business exigencies are spurring them to adopt a new generation of risk and capital management systems.
Insurers embrace risk systems
Insurance companies have been slower than banks to adopt advanced risk modelling techniques and technologies. But regulatory changes and business exigencies are spurring them to adopt a new generation of risk and capital management systems
Risk 2002 USA: Convertible arb funds could face liquidity risk concerns, says Soros Fund risk head
The rash of new convertible arbitrage funds in the market has created concerns about liquidity risk problems, according to Peruvemba Satish, director of risk management and reporting at Soros Fund Management in New York.
Weaving an integrated solution
A treacherous credit environment and growing awareness of the danger of credit and market risk correlation have convinced financial institutions that they need to evaluate these exposures together. To get a unified view, will they need to adopt unified…
Weaving an integrated solution
A treacherous credit environment and growing awareness of the danger of credit and market risk correlation have convinced financial institutions that they need to evaluate these exposures together. To get a unified view, will they need to adopt unified…
Standard Chartered's New Risk Architecture
An enterprise-wide risk engine will better integrate risk measurement with business decisions.
A model companion
Derivatives and Internal Models by Hans-Peter Deutsch Palgrave 621 pages, $120 ISBN 0-333-97706-8
Nine billion ways to be snowed
Emanuel Derman separates real tools from passing trends in the risk management vocabulary. This article is adapted from his talk on Future Innovations in Risk Management, presented at the April Risk 2002 Conference in Paris
Structured vehicle link to fund of funds to widen client base
CDOs have been restructured for the fund of hedge fund market
Testing assumptions
In calculating value-at-risk forecasts for trading portfolios, distributional assumptions are asimportant as the choice of risk factors, but it is not easy to determine the source of errorwhen rejected forecasts occur. Here, Jeremy Berkowitz develops a…
Structured products
Despite hedge funds promising absolute returns, plenty of buyers want guarantees on top
Safety first
After a turbulent 1998, Swiss-based Signet Research & Advisory has undergone a radical risk assessment of its fund of hedge funds
Honour your contribution
What is the best method for determining the risk contribution of a component in a portfolio? An exploration of the pros and cons of three important methods, showing that none dominates the others.