Options, Volatility and Risk Management, Delhi

IAIP organized an interesting presentation on Option, Volatility & Risk Management by Bud Haslett CFA, FRM, Executive Director Research Foundation of the CFA Institute, on 16^th May 2013 at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. The event was attended by about 20 odd candidates and charter holders.

Bud talked about the broad trends in the derivative market like how over the years futures is gaining popularity over options, volume trends in favor of the Asia pacific region, increased share of currency and commodity derivative etc. He talked about benefits & growing popularity of exchange traded products over OTC products.

After a quick recap on the basics of F&O and option pricing, Bud mentioned about some online tools available that simulate option values with changes in variables. These can be used as effective learning avenues (e.g. www.optionseduction.org).  He covered the option Greeks in detail and option strategies like covered calls, protective puts, collars, volatility etc. He discussed certain practical cases to quiz the audience on usage of such strategies. He explained how the negative correlation between VIX and an index is such a valuable characteristic to portfolio diversification. In the end he discussed when and how to select a particular option strategy.

Bud also shared 2 bookmarks with everyone who attended the event. The bookmark had codes to facilitate easy download of selected research foundation content for 2011 &2012. The content covered topics like equity risk premium, frontier market equity investing , investment trustees, currency investing, Emotional finance etc.

Contributed by: Gaurav Kaushik