Demystifying Exotic Products

CHIA CHIANG TAN is currently a quantitative analyst in Global Markets at Deutsche Bank. Prior to this he has held positions at CIBC, Barclays Capital and Dresdner Kleinwort. His work has spanned a multitude of asset classes, including interest rates, equities and foreign exchange. In his various roles, he has seen first-hand how a myriad of derivatives solutions have emerged to satisfy client demands resulting from the prevailing economic environment, as well as how some of these purported solutions have at times gone badly wrong. Chia has an undergraduate degree in Mathematics from University College London and a Master of Mathematical Finance from the University of Toronto.

Foreword. Preface. Acknowledgements. Notes. 1 Derivatives in their Golden Days (1994 to 2007). 1.1 Uses of Derivatives. 1.2 Structured Notes. 2 Themes in Constructing Exotic Products. 2.1 Principal Protection. 2.2 Upside-Only Participation. 2.3 Protected Selling of Optionality for Yield. 2.4 Betting Against the Forward Curve. 2.5 Diversification. 2.6 Some Considerations in Hedging. 3 Basics of Derivatives. 3.1 The Forward Contract. 3.2 The Plain Vanilla Option. 3.3 No-Arbitrage Pricing. 3.4 The Black Scholes Model. 3.5 The Volatility Surface. 3.6 Correlation. 3.7 Modelling Considerations. 4 Barriers. 4.1 Digitals. 4.2 Knockouts and Reverse Knockouts. 4.3 One-Touches and No-Touches. 4.4 Double Barriers and More. 5 Quantoes. 5.1 Some Motivation. 5.2 Multi-Currency Products. 5.3 Non-Deliverable Products. 5.4 Self-Quantoes (Auto-Quantoes). 5.5 Quantoes. 6 Swaps, Constant Maturity Swaps and Spreads. 6.1 The Swap. 6.2 Natural Payment Time and the Libor-in-Arrears. 6.3 The Swaption. 6.4 The Constant Maturity Swap. 6.5 Spread between Two CMS Rates. 6.6 Callable CMS. 7 Range Accruals. 7.1 Motivation. 7.2 Single Reference Accruals. 7.3 Multiple Reference Accruals. 8 Early Termination. 8.1 The Mindset of a Benchmark Investor. 8.2 Callables. 8.3 Triggers (Autocalls). 8.4 The Target Redemption Note. 8.5 Puttables. 8.6 Early Termination and Contingent Cashflows. 9 Pathwise Accumulators. 9.1 The One-Way Floater. 9.2 Skylines. 9.3 Snowballs. 10 Power Reverse Dual Currencies. 10.1 The Carry Trade. 10.2 Long-Dated Foreign Exchange. 10.3 Normal PRDCs. 10.4 The Redemption Strike. 10.5 Chooser PRDCs. 11 Baskets and Hybrids. 11.1 Baskets and the Benign Effect of Averaging. 11.2 Hybrid Baskets. 11.3 Best of Products and Hybrids. 11.4 Hybrids and Conditional Coupons. 11.5 Multiplying Assets. 12 Some Exotic Equity Products. 12.1 A Historical Perspective. 12.2 The Cliquet. 12.3 The Himalaya. 12.4 The Altiplano. 12.5 The Atlas. 12.6 The Everest. 12.7 Principal Protection or Lack Thereof. 13 Volatility and Correlation Products. 13.1 Variance and Volatility Swaps. 13.2 Options on Variance Swaps. 13.3 Correlation Swaps. 14 Fund Derivatives. 14.1 Fund Derivatives Products. 14.2 Constant Proportion Portfolio Insurance. 14.3 The Ideal Underlying Fund. 15 The Products Post-2008. 15.1 The Products Likely to Survive the Credit Crunch. 15.2 Incorporating Some Lessons Learned. 15.3 Credit Considerations. Some Final Thoughts. Glossary. Appendices. Bibliography. Index.