Risk Management Flashcards
Define Market Risk
The risk that a sluggish economy will affect the value of a debt instrument
Define Sector Risk
The risk that an event in the investment’s business sector will harm the investment
For example- the banking sector is sluggish- so even stocks of healthy banks suffer
Define Credit/Default Risk
The risk that a debtor will be unable to make loan payments or pay back the principal
Define Interest Rate Risk
The risk that a change in interest rates will adversely affect the value of the note
Example: Bond is for 10% but prevailing market rate is now 12%. If bondholder wants to sell it- they will have to sell it at a discount.
What does Standard Deviation measure?
It measures the volatility of an investment.
What is Systematic Risk?
Risk that impacts the entire market and can’t be avoided or reduced through diversification
Example: Wars
What is Unsystematic Risk?
Relates to a particular industry or company
Example: You own stocks in ethanol plants and an untimely freeze kills all of the corn in the Midwest
What does Beta measure?
Beta measures how volatile the investment is relative to the rest of the market.
In other words- how quickly (and in what amount) does the value of the stock change when the market sways?
What is Variance?
It compares volatility of an investment to the market average.
Factors include both Systematic and Unsystematic Risk.
What is a Derivative?
An asset whose value is DERIVED from the value of another asset.
Derivatives are measured at Fair Value.
How is an Option used?
Gives the buyer the option to buy or sell a financial derivative at a certain price
Traders use them to speculate where they think the price will be at a certain point and make a profit
Hedgers use them to offset risk
What is a Future?
A Forward Contract with a future value.
They are sold and traded on the futures market.
What is an Interest Rate Swap?
Forward Contract to swap payment agreements
They are highly liquid and often valued using the Zero-Coupon method.
Example: Steve pays Sally a fixed payment with a fixed interest rate. Sally pays Steve a variable payment tied to a benchmark such as LIBOR
What is Legal Risk?
Risk that a law or regulation will void the derivative
What is a Fair Value Hedge?
Hedge that protects against the value of an asset or liability changing.
Changes in value are reported in earnings.
What is a Cash Flow Hedge?
A hedge that protects against a set of future cash flows changing.
Changes in value are reported in OCI.
What is a Foreign Currency Hedge?
A hedge that protects against the value of a foreign currency changing.
For example- a foreign currency hedge might be used to protect against the following: If you have receivables denominated in a foreign currency and that currency dips in value - your receivables are worth less than before.
The Treynor index is based on the premise that there are two components of risk
- Risk produced by fluctuations in the market
2. Risk produced by fluctuations of the individual stock
The drum-buffer-rope theory
- Assumes that within a manufacturing system there is at least one (or a limited number) of constraints created by scarce resources.
- States that in order to best protect the throughput of a manufacturing operation, the limiting factor of the manufacturing process must be protected.
- States that it is important to protect against inflationary inventory levels (inventory build ups) and the associated carrying costs which can occur at bottlenecks (constraints).
- Focuses on only the queuing area within a manufacturing firm that is in front of the constraint (bottleneck).
What is Kanban technique
is a technique for managing a just-in-time inventory system. The kanban is a tag attached to the storage container where component parts are kept. As a component is used, a kanban is placed in a box. Managers determine the number of kanbans needed to be in the box of the component part before a reorder of that part is necessary.
weak-form market efficiency
suggests that information about past prices would not be of use in predicting future performance
semi-strong market efficiency
suggest that all publicly available information is incorporated in market prices
strong-form efficient markets
suggest that all available information is incorporated in current market prices
What is a failed-soft protection?
It is an advantage of distributed systems.
Allows for the capability to continue processing at all sites except a nonfunctioning one
Poison put clause
It is a covenant that obliges the borrower to repay the bonds if a large quantity of common stock is held by a single investor and the bond rating is downgraded. This type of bond covenant is used as a defensive strategy to prevent hostile takeovers.
Certainty equivalent adjustments
is a risk analysis technique that is based upon utility theory. The “utility” is how much a certain sum of money is worth to the investor. It makes the decision maker stipulate at what point he or she is indifferent to the choice between a certain amount of money and the expected value of a risky amount.
