This comprehensive three days course will provide you with:

      ·         Better understanding of  your internal client’s requirements
      ·         Necessary insight into financial processes, products and asset classes
      ·         Overview of how all financial business functions fit together
      ·         Understanding of major risks associated with trading
      ·         Understanding of key issues of IT in the financial sector and how to solve them
      ·         Tools to overcome the gap between business and IT

Who should attend
IT professionals including:

• Project managers
• Team leaders
• Analysts
• Programmers
• Architects
• Testers
• Database administrators
• HR staff responsible for IT recruitment
• IT managers
• Heads of information security
• Trading application engineers
• Trading support specialists
• Software vendors
• Consultancies

Agenda
This course is designed for all IT professionals from any industry who have a desire to understand how financial trading works. Upon completion, participants will have a comprehensive view of the people, processes, asset classes and risks involved in investment banking. This will enable them to develop effective IT strategies and to work with financial clients in a more meaningful and productive manner.

Methodology
Use of a mixture of presentations. Practical examples and case studies to illustrate the concepts and processes behind financial trading. Especially designed for IT professionals.
Class participation to enhance learning with individual and group exercises and discussion.

 

 

Day 1

Introduction

• What is a trade?
• Why do people trade?
• Market participants
• Different types of trading
• Consequences of trading
• What is risk?
• How is risk connected to trading?
• How to deal with risk

The trade lifecycle

• Anatomy of a trade
• Pre-execution
• Execution and booking
• Confirmation
• Post-booking
• Settlement
• Overnight
• Accounting and reporting
• Corporate actions
• Changes during lifetime
• Maturity

Case study: Lifecycle of a swap trade

What does an IT professional need to know about peers in the industry

• Introduction – the three main divisions: revenue generation, support, control
• Traders
• Sales
• Research
• Middle office (product control)
• Back office
• Quants
• Model validation
• Finance
• Legal
• Market risk control
• Counterparty risk control
• Audit
• Regulators
• Management at various levels

Case study: IT in the middle

DAY 2

Asset Classes

• Differences and similarities
• Interest rates and money market
• Foreign exchange
• Equity
• Bonds and credit
• Commodities
• Case study: What should an IT professional look out for?

Products and how IT systems process them

• Spot
• Derivatives - linear
• Options - vanilla
• Exotics
• Structures and hybrids
• Credit derivatives
• Hedging and pricing instruments

Case study: Use of CDS to hedge bond holdings

DAY 3

Introduction to valuation and risk measurement

• Time value of money/yield curve/discount factors
• Fx and drift
• Bootstrapping
• Importance of dates
• Accrued interest
• Mark to market
• Liquid vs illiquid
• Market risk - sensitivity analysis and other measures including scenario-based analysis
• Brief look at counterparty risk
• Other types of risk

Case study: market risk and counterparty risk of one trade

The IT/Business Divide

• What is the IT/Business divide?
• How to overcome it?
• What do financial business managers want from IT?
• Particular challenges of the financial sector?
• Good and bad IT projects in finance

Case study: Good and bad relationships between IT and business

• Robert Baker

  Robert Baker has spent nearly 20 years of his career in the financial services industry. He has worked at major investment banks such as Barclays Capital, ABN Amro, UBS Warburg, NatWest Markets and Rabobank as well as the hedge fund Solent Capital. He has developed risk management and valuation systems across most asset classes and has held positions as programmer, project manager, business analyst and head of technology.

  Using his knowledge of software, financial products and experience of how investment banks operate, he has been able to successfully interface between all business functions.

  Robert holds an MA in mathematics from Oxford University and recently authored “The Trade Lifecycle: Behind the Scenes of the Trading Process” (Wiley Finance, June 2010).

Understanding the Trade Lifecycle

Interested in holding this course in-house? Please fill out your details and a member of our team will be in touch with more information.

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