This paper studies ’Stylised Facts’ and ’Determinants’ of short-and long-termCDS-spreads of banks. As short-term spreads we choose 6M-, as long-termspreads we choose 5Y-spreads. In the section ’Stylised Facts’ we found thatthe correlation between short- and long-term spreads for the...

The paper examines the key drivers of gold investment. Since 2000 the gold price has risendrastically, making gold an interesting add-on to a portfolio. As gold futures have negativeroll returns, gold pool accounts are characterized by high credit risk and physical possessionof gold means high...

The paper deals with the evaluation of Collateralized Debt Obligations forinvestment purposes. CDOs are classified in the asset backed environment. Itsspecific risks (market, timing, recovery, agency) are discussed. To understand theportfolio aspect, the concept of the diversity score is...

The main focus of this paper is a comprehensive overview of the US$ reference rate reform, with a particular focus on its implications for USD interest rate swaps (IRS). This paper aims to shed light on the current situation and future developments in a changing financial landscape. This paper...

This paper empirically investigates the risk and performance of three types of alternative betaproducts over the January 2002 to September 2009 time period: funds of hedge funds (FHFs),investable hedge fund indices (IHFIs), and hedge fund replication strategies (HFRS). Weshow that IHFIs are true...

Implied Base Correlations of Single-tranche CDOs on standardized Credit Indices such asthe iTraxx Europe have been used in the credit derivatives market for price communication.During the financial crisis, implied correlations have been quite volatile indicating thegrowing fraction of systematic...

Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) were established in Europe in 2000 and have grown to a sizeof over 200 bn US$. Some issuers use a full replication strategy while others prefer a swapbased approach. The ETF are dealt parallelly in the primary and in the secondary market, asnew ETFs can be created at...

After the onset of the subprime crisis and the European debt crisis, credit default swaps (CDS) have seen a strong increase in usage. Particularly sovereign CDS protection has been sought after, paralleling the rise in sovereign debt levels, slumps in GDP growth and political tensions in...

The investment in commodities is starting to be more important during the last years. The paper describes the characteristics of financially important commodities. In many cases a passive investment in an index is most suitable. As the GSCI is found to be the most important, its underlying...

The paper examines the key drivers of gold investment. Since 2000 the gold price has risen drastically, making gold an interesting add-on to a portfolio. As gold futures have negative roll returns, gold pool accounts are characterized by high credit risk and physical possession of gold means...