T 5 Read the following extract from the talk while listening to the second part, and then match up the expressions in italics with the definitions or synonyms below.

If it's a hedge you manage it passively, you don't worry too much if rates move against you or in your favour. If it's not a hedge, if it's to take on, if a derivative is used to (1 ) take on risk, to increase returns, then it requires a more (2) hands-on management approach. You need (3) stop-loss limits, you need to conduct (4) scenario analysis to see how that transaction behaves under various conditions, you need to conduct (5) sensitivity analysis to see... what market conditions they're most sensitive to. And then you have to judge whether the P&L impact of that transaction can be (6) withstood in the firm. Or as in P&G's case whether cost savings generated are worth the (7) open-ended exposure. I think there's also a need for management to give the front line personnel relevant guidelines for all activities.

I think the industry realizes that it has to police itself. I think they realize that if they don't police themselves the regulators will come on, on them. I think that's why we've seen the framework for (8) voluntary oversight from the SEC-registered companies as well as ISDA's code of conduct, as well as the Bankers' Trust-Federal Reserve sales agreement. I think all these codes of conduct embody the principle that the major risks of a transaction have to be explained to customers, and that sensitivity and scenario analysis are offered (9) unsolicited to customers, and that these analyses should be done as objectively as possible.

 

A a study of all the potential consequences of a derivative contract

В a study of the particular market changes which could affect the outcome of a derivative contract

С active, interventionary

D even if nobody asks for it

E restrictions on the amount you can lose if the underlying price changes

F self-regulation by the financial industry

G speculate

H supported

I unlimited risk

T 6 Listen to the third part of the talk and answer these questions.

1. Lillian Chew says that the image of the derivatives industry has been tarnished damaged, but this is a good thing. Why?

2. Which of the following does Lillian Chew say?

A Front line financial managers and derivatives traders must explain derivative use to senior management.

В Senior management must explain derivative use to front line financial managers.

С Senior management alone must determine derivative policy.

D Senior management and front line managers together must determine derivative policy.

 

Discuss the questions.

1. What particular skills do you think financial managers, investment advisers, securities traders, and professional speculators need?

2. Do you think you possess them? Would you be successful in any of these careers?

3. Do you like taking risks or working under stress?

4. Would you be prepared to try to sell financial instruments which contained potential risks that customers may misunderstand or underestimate?

 

10. Read the following extract from Liar's Poker, Michael Lewis's book about his time as a bond salesman in a large American investment bank, which explains the attraction of options and futures to speculators. What is Lewis's view of European investors?

 

Several dozen phone lights flashed continually on our telephone boards. European investors (I shall refer to them as 'investors' or 'customers' even though most of them were pure speculators and the rest not-so-pure speculators) wanted to place their bets on the American bond market from eight in the morning until eight at night.

There was good reason for their eagerness. The American bond market was shooting through the roof. Imagine how crowds would overwhelm a casino in which everyone who plays wins big, and you'll have some idea of what our unit was like in those days. The attraction of options and futures, our speciality item, was that they offered both liquidity and fantastic leverage. They were a mechanism for gambling in the bond markets, like superchips in a casino that represent a thousand dollars but cost only three. In fact, there are no superchips in casinos; options and futures have no equivalent in the world of professional gambling because real casinos would consider the leverage they offer imprudent. For a tiny down-payment, a buyer of a futures contract takes the same risk as in owning a large number of bonds; in a heartbeat he can double or lose his money.

When it came to speculation, European investors didn't require a great deal of encouragement or instruction. They'd been doing crazy things with money for centuries. The French and English, in particular, shared a weakness for get-rich-quick schemes.

(Michael Lewis: Liar's Poker)

 

Answer the questions.

1. What do you think Lewis means when he says of his customers that 'most of them were pure speculators and the rest not-so-pure speculators'?

2. In transactions such as these, what is leverage?

3. Why is there no equivalent of futures or options in the gambling industry?

 

12. Speak on futures, options and swaps.