A primer on how collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs) work, looking at both their advantages and disadvantages and explaining how some seasoned market participants got into trouble by investing in these interest-rate-sensitive financial instruments.

An overview of modern and historical interest rate model theory is given with thespecific aim of derivative pricing. A variety of stochastic interest rate models arediscussed within a South African market context. The various models arecompared with respect to characteristics such as mean...

The use of options on various stock markets over the world has introduced a unique opportunity for investors to hedge, speculate, create synthetic financial instruments and reduce funding and other costs in their trading strategies.The power of options lies in their versatility. They enable an...

This study set out to draw a pricing comparison between two similar contracts in the South African derivatives market. These contracts, a normal option and a warrant on the same underlying stock are considered. The research shows that although the two derivatives are the same in all respects,...

When a stock is added into the S&P 500 Index, it is automatically "cross-listed" in the index derivative markets (i.e., S&P 500 Index futures and Index options). I examined the effects of such cross-listing on the trading volume and return volatility of the underlying component stocks....

This study attempts to resolve two important issues. First, it investigates the diversification benefit of crude oil for equities. Second, it examines whether or not crude oil derivatives transactions by oil and gas producers can change shareholders' wealth. With these two major goals in mind, I...

A Synthetic Repurchase is an open market share repurchase program enhanced with sales of put derivatives on the firm’s own stock. Microsoft, in 1999, using a synthetic repurchase program sold put derivatives on its own stock and received $766 million in premiums and, at the same time, signaled...

This paper develops a model in which information losses may be an important part of the cost of an OTC derivatives dealer's failure. A dealer failure forces solvent counterparties of a failed dealer to seek replacement hedges with other dealers. However, by forcing good firms into the...

This paper develops a discrete-time two-factor model of interest rates with analytical solutions for bonds and many interest rate derivatives when the volatility of the short rate follows a GARCH process that can be correlated with the level of the short rate itself. Besides bond and bond...

Proposals to introduce derivatives whose payouts are explicitly linked to the volatility of an underlying asset have been around for some time. In response to these proposals, a few papers have tried to develop valuation formulae for volatility derivatives—derivatives that essentially help...