Not sure if we're allowed to discuss the paper yet, but might as well get the thread started for when we do. Feel free to delete my comments if I shouldn't talk about it yet.
How did everyone find it? Questions were definitely not as hard as the questions on BT (most were a notch easier, if not two) so long as you knew what you were doing!
Exam wasn't bad, had a good mix of questions and topics, however it had too many questions involving trading strategies (straddle/butterfly/bull spread etc) for my liking. Hardly any duration/convexity questions.
Standard credit transition matrix, question was in regards to a 2 year default.
Expected loss and Unexpected loss were requried to be calculated
There was one poisson and binomial probability question, no exponential distribution.
A few questions regarding you to understand the basic layout of a futures exchange and how it is processed
One/two questions on limit orders (stop loss, market order, limit order etc)
Relationship between futures and spot price relationship (graph question)
2 binomial questions
Interest rate currency swaps
put call parity as always
BSM model, given N(d1) and N(d2). There was a change to these figures as dividends were paid out. Or something, I can't remember this question too well (was abit thrown off here).
Estimating future volatility using EWMA (the ones where you are given lamda and volatility, plus todays and yesterdays price in order to calculate the asset return)
VAR as usual
Duration hedge (I think!)
Cheapest to deliver
finding the intermediaries return in a swap rate (i.e. the banks basis point gain)
Minimum variance hedge ratio
CAPM wasn't really tested, just one theoretical question. And one instance in which the Sharpe ratio was tested in a qualitative sense
Role of a corporate trustee in corporate bonds
Day count conventions mixed in with a fixed/libor swap
Calculating TSS through R^2 and ESS (indirectly)
2 case study questions, one about metagesellchaft (I can't spell this lol) and one asking for a comparitive lesson learnt from Barings and Kibber Peabody.
Defining basis risk and credit default
There were obviously more, but this is what I can remember right now off the top of my head. All in all, there wasn't anything that threw me off (maybe a few, but a minority) and was all pretty standard as long as you had covered all the topics. I probably knew about 50% of the paper, 25% I got down between two choices and the other 25% I had to guess as I didn't have time to cover all the topics (such as strips/straddles/butterfly spreads etc). Not great stats but I'm just glad it's all over, for now!
Until Jan 2013!
How did everyone find it? Questions were definitely not as hard as the questions on BT (most were a notch easier, if not two) so long as you knew what you were doing!
Exam wasn't bad, had a good mix of questions and topics, however it had too many questions involving trading strategies (straddle/butterfly/bull spread etc) for my liking. Hardly any duration/convexity questions.
Standard credit transition matrix, question was in regards to a 2 year default.
Expected loss and Unexpected loss were requried to be calculated
There was one poisson and binomial probability question, no exponential distribution.
A few questions regarding you to understand the basic layout of a futures exchange and how it is processed
One/two questions on limit orders (stop loss, market order, limit order etc)
Relationship between futures and spot price relationship (graph question)
2 binomial questions
Interest rate currency swaps
put call parity as always
BSM model, given N(d1) and N(d2). There was a change to these figures as dividends were paid out. Or something, I can't remember this question too well (was abit thrown off here).
Estimating future volatility using EWMA (the ones where you are given lamda and volatility, plus todays and yesterdays price in order to calculate the asset return)
VAR as usual
Duration hedge (I think!)
Cheapest to deliver
finding the intermediaries return in a swap rate (i.e. the banks basis point gain)
Minimum variance hedge ratio
CAPM wasn't really tested, just one theoretical question. And one instance in which the Sharpe ratio was tested in a qualitative sense
Role of a corporate trustee in corporate bonds
Day count conventions mixed in with a fixed/libor swap
Calculating TSS through R^2 and ESS (indirectly)
2 case study questions, one about metagesellchaft (I can't spell this lol) and one asking for a comparitive lesson learnt from Barings and Kibber Peabody.
Defining basis risk and credit default
There were obviously more, but this is what I can remember right now off the top of my head. All in all, there wasn't anything that threw me off (maybe a few, but a minority) and was all pretty standard as long as you had covered all the topics. I probably knew about 50% of the paper, 25% I got down between two choices and the other 25% I had to guess as I didn't have time to cover all the topics (such as strips/straddles/butterfly spreads etc). Not great stats but I'm just glad it's all over, for now!
Until Jan 2013!
), for example
