Topics Covered

Teaching materials cover the full range of both economics and financial instruments. The emphasis of the latter is on interest rate and credit products. The aim is always to integrate economic analysis with pricing and strategy.

On economics, the main topics covered include: 

1. Economic growth, inflation and unemployment
2. Fiscal policy and government debt
3. Monetary policy, asset prices and the transmission mechanism
4. Operation of the major central banks
5. 'Credit crunch' and the current economic crisis
6. Balance of payments and foreign exchange rates
7. Economic indicators

On financial instruments, the main topics covered include: 

1. Pricing of money market instruments
2. How to read what the market is discounting for central bank policy
3. Bond pricing, duration and convexity
4. Business cycle drivers of the yield curve
5. Forwards, futures and interest rate swaps
6. Default risk, corporate spreads, and credit derivatives
7. Structured credit, including ABS, MBS and CDOs

The teaching materials include copies of the presentations, further reading materials, spreadsheets, and links to useful websites