A structured introduction to international money and capital markets, essential for all those requiring an up-to-date insight.

Course Instructor

Raising long-term debt: issuing, pricing and market comparisons

Money markets and syndicated loans

Day 1 

How do financial markets relate to the real economy? 

• The globalised nature of the world’s economy
•  National economies: internal and external factors
•  Key economic indicators
•  The Business Cycle
•  Financial intermediation: purpose and structure
•  The banking system: wholesale, retail and “universal” banks
•  The role of securities exchanges and market makers
•  Institutional investors: pension funds and insurance firms
•  Offshore markets: “Euro-” securities
•  The global financial markets in 2012

 Interest rates 

• Interest rates as the opportunity cost of capital
• The time value of money: present and future values

• How are interest rates determined?
• Overview of global interest rate markets
• Pivotal role of interest rates in money, bond, equity and FX markets

Exercise: Reinforcing understanding of key concepts

Risk and return in financial markets 

• Return generation factors
• Characterising risk in financial markets
• The risk / return trade off

Day 2

Overview of the main instruments  

• Money markets: short dated debt
• Bonds: longer dated Government debt and credit markets
• Equities: ownership stakes in commercial enterprises
• Foreign exchange markets
• Commodities
• Introduction to Derivatives

 - Futures

 - Options

 - Interest rate derivatives: FRAs, Caps and Floors

Introduction to money markets 

• What distinguishes “money” markets from “capital” markets?
• Discount versus interest bearing securities
• Key instrument types

 - Certificates of Deposits (CDs)

 - Bills and Notes

 - Commercial Paper

 - Repurchase Agreements (Repos)

Exercise : Reinforcing understanding of money markets and their associated financial arithmetic

Introduction to bond markets 

• What is a bond?
• How do bond markets work?
• The principal bond markets

 - Government bonds

 - The Credit market

 - The role of credit derivatives