With summertime in full swing, many of us are spending our free time lounging with a good read. Forget turning to the New York Times best sellers list for recommendations, our very own FINCAD blog has some fresh and informative reading material for you to check out this season.
So far in 2017, we’ve addressed issues such as how to master negative interest rates, how to improve the accuracy and speed of risk calculations and how get yourself better set up for trading mortgage-backed securities (MBS)—among other topics. Below are summaries of seven of our most popular blog posts so far this year according to our analytics, and links to the full text. Happy summer reading!
1. How to Speed Up Risk Calculations 1000x
Over the last several years, leading quant teams have been working to modernize and optimize risk management practices. This blog post reveals a powerful mathematical technique that has enabled teams to radically speed up the calculation of Greeks and sensitivities. In fact, for typical portfolios many have been able to achieve a 1000x improvement in calculation speed when compared against finite difference methods. Read more.
2. Adding Mortgage-Backed Securities to Multi-Asset Portfolios
In an effort to improve investment returns, many financial institutions are implementing more sophisticated trading strategies involving diverse asset classes, like MBS. But because the calculations involved in MBS analysis are complex, they create modeling challenges for many firms. This blog explains how you can overcome these challenges using a flexible framework design that enables fast and accurate MBS modeling. Read more.
3. MBS Modeling 101
In this follow up MBS post, guest blogger, Eknath Belbase, PhD, of Andrew Davidson & Co., Inc., gives a history lesson on the evolution of MBS modeling, including how practices have changed from its beginnings in the early 90’s until today. Eknath then reviews his top recommendations for how best to model MBS prepayments and defaults in the current market climate. Read more.
4. Why Working at FINCAD is Pretty Great
Are you interested in working for an innovative industry leader in one of the fastest-growing areas of finance? Then read this blog post! In it, HR Business Partner, Allan Lau, announces FINCAD’s recognition as one of BC’s Top Employers of 2017, which marks the eighth time (in the last 9 years) that FINCAD has received this distinction. Allan also reviews some other perks of working for FINCAD, including a close-knit and collaborative culture, generous time-off policy and a big focus on giving back to the local and global communities. Read more.
5. Learn the Best Practices for Better Curves
Today, many curve building frameworks have been updated to correctly handle OIS discounting, however many inaccuracies still arise. In this post, we look at some of the historical challenges posed by older curve building frameworks, and describe the benefits of 3rd Generation Frameworks, which are future-proof to modeling changes and can help you move to market more quickly. Read more.
6. 5 Case Studies on Solving Valuation and Risk Challenges
This blog post features five very different FINCAD clients that are using our solutions to overcome a variety of valuation and risk challenges. Highlighted companies range from a big four audit firm using our solutions to reduce valuation computation time, and reliance on internal development resources; to a large bank that was able to simplify Basel III CVA reporting using FINCAD. Read more.
7. Encouraging Women in Finance to Be Bold
Careers in Finance and the Capital Markets have traditionally been dominated by men. However, at FINCAD, we believe the industry could benefit tremendously from greater gender diversity. This blog post discusses FINCAD’s 2017 Women in Finance Scholarship, which awards one woman $10k towards pursuing a graduate-level degree in Finance. Read more.
We have an extensive editorial calendar full of exciting topics for the remainder of 2017. Be sure to check back here regularly to access our updated blog content.