F71FE Financial Engineering

Dr Timothy C Johnson

Course co-ordinator(s): Dr Timothy C Johnson (Edinburgh).

Aims:

The aims of this module are:

  • To provide a thorough grounding in financial engineering (the including non-vanilla derivatives, securitisation and structuring)
  • To introduce mathematical concepts hedging and pricing derivatives
  • To provide students with a good understanding of developing the BSM model to different asset classes,
  • To provide students with an understanding of pricing American options
  • To provide students with a good understanding of exotic options
  • To provide students with a good understanding of modelling interest rates, including Libor Market Models and valuing swaptions
  • To introduce the student to securitisation
  • To provide students with an understanding of managing a complex portfolio of assets

Detailed Information

Pre-requisites: none.

Location: Edinburgh.

Semester: 2.

Syllabus:

1. Stochastic Calculus applied to financial markets

  • The Martingale Approach to asset pricing, including Cameron-Martin-Girsanov Theorem, the concept of the Radon-Nikodym derivative, the Martingale Representation Theorem
  • Self-financing portfolios in continuous time and the construction of replicating strategies using the martingale approach
  • OU and Feller processes and derivation of a BSM like PDE
  • The role of the market price of risk in the transfer between the real-world and the risk-neutral probability measures
  • Hedging derivatives and the Greeks in continuous time models and to structures

2. Volatility

  • The role of the volatility parameter in the valuation of options
  • Estimation of volatility from market data
  • The “smile” effect and volatility surfaces

3. Exotic options, derivative portfolios and securitisation

  • Description of exotic options (including Quanto, Chooser, Barrier, Binary, Lookback Asian, Exchange, Basket options)
  • Swaps and swaptions
  • Securitisation, Structured Derivatives and Synthetic Securities
  • Risk Management of portfolios/securitised assets.

4. Modelling the Term Structure of Interest Rates

  • The Black, Hull & White Vasicek and Cox-Ingersoll-Ross models (Ho & Lee, Black, Derman & Toy, Black & Karasinski)
  • HJM framework.
  • Libor Market Models
  • Implementation and calibration of models

5. Financial Engineering Project

  • Extended project synthesising knowledge in a practical setting.

Reading list:

Hull (2011). Options, Futures and Other Derivatives, 8th edition. Prentice Hall.
Baxter and Rennie (1996). Financial calculus. Cambridge University Press.
Duhon, T. (2013). How the trading floor really works. Wiley/Bloomberg.
Jarrow and Chaterjea (2013). An Introduction to Derivative Securities, Financial Markets and Risk Management. W. W. Norton & Co.
Langtangen, H. P. (2009). A Primer on Scientific Programming with Python. Springer.

Assessment Methods:

40% through coursework, 60% through end of semester exam.

SCQF Level: 11.

Credits: 15.

Other Information

Help: If you have any problems or questions regarding the course, you are encouraged to contact the lecturer

VISION: further information and course materials are available on VISION