Module 27: Management of market risk Flashcards
3 Key market risk management strategies
- holding a range of assets so as to limit losses within a portfolio (diversification)
- ensuring investment strategy is appropriate for the liabilities of the organisation
- using derivatives to manage (hedge) risk
5 Key market risk management activities
- setting and monitoring policies
- setting and monitoring limits (both overall and for each asset class, individual security and counterparty)
- reporting
- capital management
- implementing risk-portfolio strategies (eg matching, diversification, hedging)
Market risk policies should cover: (7)
- roles and responsibilities
- delegation of authority and limits
- risk measurement and reporting
- valuation and back-testing
- hedging policy
- liquidity policy
- exception management
3 main advantages of using derivatives to manage market risk:
- cost (compared to trading the underlying asset)
- flexibility (tailored)
- speed (of exposure changes)
7 main disadvantages of using derivatives to manage market risk:
risks stemming from the use of derivatives:
- counterparty risk
- aggregation risk
- concentration risk
- operational risk
- liquidity risk
- basis risk
- loss of upside
Counterparty risk (wrt derivatives) may be reduced by the presence of: (2)
- cash deposits (margin) - for most exchange-traded contracts
- financial securities acceptable to the counterparty (collateral) - for over-the-counter contracts and some exchange-traded contracts
Basis risk
The risk arising from differences in the movements of the price of a derivative and the price of the underlying asset, so that offsetting investments in a hedging strategy will not experience exactly offsetting movements of value.
Why might the futures price be below the expected value of the future spot price?
eg if there is a high demand for short positions by owners of the asset who want to protect value
Why might the futures price be above the expected value of the future spot price?
eg if there is strong demand for long positions due to the high costs of storage of the underlying asset
5 Techniques for managing foreign exchange (FX) risk
- currency forwards and futures
- currency swaps
- currency options
- netting revenues and amounts owing in same currency
- leading and lagging cashflows to benefit from anticipated FX movements
Why can it become impractical to maintain perfect gamma and vega neutrality for a portfolio linked to the value of many underlying indices or asset prices?
- the number of derivatives required can become large
- the significant cost of rebalancing limits the frequency at which the portfolio’s higher “Greeks” can be adjusted
- the lack of suitable traded derivatives or poor quality
- the responsibility for managing limits on individual asset delta, gamma and vega tends to be separated from the responsibility to managing overall portfolio delta, gamma and vega.
Direct exposure to interest rate risk may be managed using: (2)
- forward rate agreements (FRAs)
- caps and floors
Indirect exposure to interest rate risk may be managed using: (5)
- cashflow matching - removing all market risks, but pure matching is rarely possible
- interest rate swaps - removing only interest rate risk
- swaptions - providing one-sided protection
- immunisation - protecting present value, but only works for small parallel shifts in the interest rate curve, and requires regular rebalancing
- hedging using model points - choosing an optimum set of assets so as to minimise the difference between the asset and liability cashflows at each of the reference points in the future.
Market risk policy:
roles and responsibilities
Who is responsible within the company for: - developing - implementing - monitoring - reviewing policies.
Market risk policy:
Delegation of authority and limits
Who is permitted to execute market risk positions and to what extent.
Trading (front-office) and settlement (back-office) functions should be segregated.
Market risk policy:
Risk measurement and reporting
How risks are measured and reported, particularly critical issues, such as a limit violation.
Market risk policy:
Hedging policy
What risks are to be hedged,
the - products, - limits and - strategies for hedging
and how the effectiveness is measured.
Market risk policy:
Liquidity policy
How liquidity is to be measured and what the contingency plans are in times of distress.
Describe what is meant by a derivative
The gain or loss from a derivative
.. depends on (or derives from)
… changes in the market price of
… the underlying asset or index (the underlying).
A derivative redistributes risk from those who wish to hedge (or protect against) risk to those who are prepared to accept the risk in return for the possibility of a large reward, ie speculators.
The asset underlying a derivative may be: (4)
- an interest rate
- a foreign exchange rate
- a commodity (oil, gas, gold, copper, cocoa, etc)
- an equity (either a single stock or basket of stocks, eg an index)