Introduction Volatility is a key feature of financial markets. It is commonly used as a measure for risk and is a common an indicator of the investors’ fear and concern about the future. While higher volatility means bigger profits and losses in a directional strategy (one which bets on a Read more…
The Czech koruna, the currency of an economically relatively small country, recently has gained much attention by an increasing number of speculators. They have been positioning themselves to benefit from a possible appreciation of the Czech currency. For three years, the Czech National Bank (CNB) has kept the koruna above Read more…
United States The S&P 500 closed at $2,362.72, up 1.44% when compared with the beginning of the week, where opened at $2,329.11 following concerns about President Trump’s ability to secure the passage of the tax reform after failure of his healthcare reform. The other major U.S. equity indices, the Dow Read more…
The aim of this article is to give a quick taste of how it is possible to build practical codes in Python for financial application using the case of Value at Risk (VaR) calculation. The following paragraph will present a brief introduction to Python, then the article will continue with Read more…
United States The S&P 500 closed at $2,372.60, slightly depreciating when compared with the beginning of the week, where it was standing at $2,375.32, but still higher than the weeks’ low of $2,357.98. Similar was the fate of both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the NASDAQ, as they closed Read more…
On March 8, 2017 crude oil plummeted more than 5%, with WTI price falling through $50 a barrel for the first time since December. The sudden move was triggered by EIA reporting a massive build-up in American crude oil inventories, hitting record levels according to data going back to 1982. Read more…
In 1993 in the New York stock exchange the first Exchange Traded Fund was established. Since then, the number of ETFs has exponentially increased, and now accounts for about 4000 funds. This instrument tries to replicate an already existing benchmark with a typically small tracking error and lower cost than Read more…
Introduction The aim of this article is to analyse the current CDS spread of France with respect to Germany, and propose a profitable strategy for betting on the convergence of the spreads. The article is going to provide a brief introduction on the topic of CDS, followed by a short Read more…
Market Recap 05-03-2017 United States Despite experiencing a downward correction towards the closing of the week, US equity indices reached new record levels. The Dow Jones Industrial Average reached a new record level by breaching the 21.000 mark. On Wednesday, it peaked at 21.115, to close the week at 21.005, Read more…
United States Last week was a particular good one for American equities. Indeed, the Dow Jones Index scored four record high closures in a row, up 0.96% from last week’s close. Smaller gains were scored also by the S&P 500 (+0.69%) and the Nasdaq Composite (+0.12%). It is worth noting Read more…
Assicurazioni Generali: Business Snapshot Assicurazioni Generali SpA is an Italy-based insurance company. It is the largest Italian insurance company and the third in the world by revenues (net earned premiums of €68,507m for the most recent available FY 2015). It operates through two segments: Life (FY 2015 net earned premiums Read more…
The purpose of this article is to analyse the performance in the European markets – during the last five years – of two strategies that refer to two well-known market anomalies: the value and the size anomalies. Before looking at the results of our research, we will briefly discuss the Read more…
Introduction The aim of this article is to analyse the current price valuation of the biggest players in the gun manufacturing industry, trying to assess if they are correctly priced. We will begin with a brief overview of the recent past in the guns industry, followed by an extensive analysis Read more…
The concept of risk parity is not well-known among market participants. However, its resiliency to different market environment makes it a very interesting capital allocation strategy. It was first theorized in the sixties by Ray Dalio – founder of Bridgewater Associates – when he tried to find an answer to Read more…
United States On the week ended February 17, 2017, US stocks closed at record highs as investor sentiment remains positive given the possibility of changes to US corporate tax structure, as well as the likely loosening of regulations. The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased by 1.4% to 20,624, while the Read more…