Derivative Products - the Fundamentals

overview

This practical one-day workshop is designed to demystify derivatives by explaining their characteristics, features, pricing and applications.

Derivatives markets are large, diverse and sophisticated, and represent billions of dollars in trade worldwide. Increased turnover has resulted in the trading of derivatives products becoming a widely accepted and important risk management technique. This workshop first presents an overview of the structure and operations of derivatives markets, before outlining the key characteristics and pricing conventions for products such as forward rate agreements, interest rate swaps, futures, options, and caps, floors and collars. It includes realistic examples and case studies to illustrate how derivatives are used in professional practice to manage and profit from risk. 

Who is it for?

 This introductory-level workshop is for financial markets participants who are in a role that exposes them to derivatives products or who would like to achieve deeper understanding of how derivatives markets operate. After attending the workshop, you should be able to relate the information you have learned back to you own workplace, with greater understanding of how financial derivative instruments are used to achieve business objectives and to manage risk.

It is expected that attending delegates will already have a level of knowledge equivalent to that of the Financial Products - the Fundamentals.

What will you learn?

 By the end of this workshop, you should be able to:

•     describe the fundamentals of derivative products, including their characteristics, features and applications
•     explain how the various sectors of the derivatives markets work
•     identify the difference between exchange traded and OTC markets
•     identify the main participants in each derivative market sector
•     discuss how derivatives are traded to hedge risk or for speculation.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Dan McCarthy, Consultant

Dan has over 25 years experience in financial markets, mainly trading and investing, particularly around currencies. Having worked in a variety of different firms, he has traded a broad spectrum of products, including foreign exchange, interest rates and debt market products, equities and many of the derivatives of these underlying markets. In the last few years Dan has been managing private capital and most recently made the transition to becoming a trainer.