FM413 Half Unit
Fixed Income Markets
This information is for the 2023/24 session.
Teacher responsible
Dr Christian Julliard
Availability
This course is compulsory on the MSc in Financial Mathematics. This course is available on the Global MSc in Management, MSc in Accounting and Finance, MSc in Risk and Finance, MSc in Statistics (Financial Statistics) and MSc in Statistics (Financial Statistics) (Research). This course is not available as an outside option.
Global MSc in Management ('Accounting and Finance' and 'Finance' concentrations only).
This course is available with permission on the Diploma in Accounting and Finance with the approval of the Programme Director.
This course is available to other students from the Departments of Economics, Mathematics, and Statistics where regulations permit.
This course is not capped, any eligible student that requests a place will be given one.
Pre-requisites
Students taking this course are expected to be familiar with the theory of asset evaluation at the level of FM429 Asset Markets A.
Course content
This advanced course is designed for students seeking an understanding of fixed income valuation and hedging methods, and a basic familiarity with the major fixed income markets and instruments.
By the end of the course, the students will be familiar with a variety of topics, including (i) the basic concepts of fixed-income instruments, such as yield, duration, convexity; (ii) the basic techniques to analyse and hedge fixed income products, such as "curve fitting", "bootstrapping", duration-based hedging and asset-liability management; (iii) the forces, or "factors", driving the variation in the entire spectrum of interest rates at different maturities; (iv) the main evaluation tools, which can be applied to evaluate a wide range of products (trees, no arbitrage trees, calibration and some continuous time models) ; (v) the main fixed income products such as government bonds, corporate bonds (convertible, callable, puttable), and their evaluation; (vi) plain vanilla interest derivatives (caps, floors and collars, swaps, swaptions, etc.) and their evaluation; (vii) mortgage backed securities and credit risk transfers; (viii) the analysis of the "destabilizing" effects related to the use of certain derivatives written on fixed income instruments.
Teaching
20 hours of lectures and 10 hours of seminars in the WT.
Formative coursework
Students will be expected to produce 10 problem sets in the WT.
Indicative reading
The primary source for this course is a comprehensive set of Lecture Notes, tutorials and case studies, and a reading pack containing chapters from the following books: Sundaresan, S. (2001), Fixed Income Markets and Their Derivatives, South Western College Publishing. Duffie, D and Singleton, K (2003), Credit Risk: Pricing, Management, and Measurement, Princeton: Princeton University Press (Princeton Series in Finance). Tuckman B. and A. Serrat (2011), Fixed Income Securities: Tools for Today's Markets, 3rd Edition, John Wiley & Sons. Veronesi, P. (2010), Fixed Income Securities: Valuation, Risk, and Risk Management, John Wiley & Sons.
Assessment
Exam (100%, duration: 2 hours) in the spring exam period.
Key facts
Department: Finance
Total students 2022/23: 101
Average class size 2022/23: 20
Controlled access 2022/23: Yes
Lecture capture used 2022/23: Yes (LT)
Value: Half Unit
Course selection videos
Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.
Personal development skills
- Problem solving
- Communication
- Application of numeracy skills
- Commercial awareness
- Specialist skills