GARP BCN @ Casa Fuster
GARP’s Barcelona Chapter met on Tuesday December 9th at 19.30 at Casa Fuster for its first GARP-only meeting. Twenty five “garpians” gave support to the project of having a risk management group that meets periodically, every 3-4 months.
At the art nouveau house “Casa Fuster”, alumni of the two FRM courses that take place in Barcelona and a few that managed to study on their own met for a drink. The champagne and designer nibbles helped to cook a formula for future events. The preferred time for meetings amongst the attendees is 19.30 and the format chosen would be a presentation or round table that is conducted for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
The proposed themes were quite diverse and flexible, and generally they proved that the risk management world is willing to go “back to basics” and be able to develop a global vision within a complex financial environment. Among the ideas proposed, I would point to the theme “rethinking risk management”, a humility cure in respect to the events of the past 18 months, and a useful tool for redefining risk policies within financial institutions. In any case, it would be a good reason to meet again.
GARP BCN @ Casa Fuster: Català
Per primer cop el Chapter de GARP a Barcelona es va trobar, el passat dimarts 9 de desembre a les 19.30 a la Casa Fuster. Vint-i-cinc “garpians” varen donar suport al projecte d’un grup de riscos que es trobi periòdicament, cada 3-4 mesos.
A l’entorn modernista de la Casa Fuster es van conèixer exalumnes dels dos cursos del FRM que es fan a Barcelona, i més d’un que s’ho ha fet tot sol. Entre copa de cava i pintxo de luxe es va cuinar una fórmula per al futur, siguent l’hora preferida cap a l’escollida aquest cop, les 19.30, i una combinació de presentació o round table de 45 minuts a 1 hora l’acte més demanat.
Les temàtiques comentades eren bastant flexibles, potser conscients tots plegats que el món dels riscos ha de fer un “back to basics” i que la situació financera actual mereix comptar amb una visió global. Entre les propostes que hi hagueren destaca el tema “rethinking risk management” o una cura d’humilitat respecte l’esdevingut els darrers 18 mesos, que pot ser útil en els processos actuals de les entitats per redefinir les polítiques de risc. En qualsevol cas, és una bona raó per veure’ns.
Posted in Català, GARP, UncategorizedLa Kylie Minogue ens estalvia la crisi
O això diu el Financial Times que, a diferència d’altres mitjans, quan parla de Catalunya parla d’economia micro. A casa, en canvi, molt fardar que l’economia la fan les Pimes però només es parla d’infraestructures, com si pel fet de repetir-nos se n’hagués fet alguna. Gràcies FT, tant de bo n’hi haguessin més com tu, capaços de parlar de l’economia real sense dir que es parla de l’economia real (que pesats amb el terme, com si hi hagués una economia falsa, en tot cas el que hi ha és una valoració falsa perquè les cases bé que hi són). Sort que alguns mitjans no practiquen el dol i s’atreveixen a esbossar un somriure quan el cel s’enfosqueix, curiosament els mateixos que dibuixaven núvols en temps d’èxtasi.
Anant al gra, el dimecres 26, l’únic diari europeu d’economia que parla més d’economia que de política (és a dir, anant al gra però amb algun parèntesi), dedicava mitja plana al dinamisme d’empreses com Tous o Mango, que preveuen unes vendes correctes malgrat els temps que corren (deu ni do amb l’expressió, com si hi hagués temps que no correguessin). Des de Manresa, Tous ha fitxat a la Kylie per a ser la seva imatge al món. Potser no caldrà que canti el “I should be so lucky, lucky lucky lucky” per a treure’ns del pou, perquè els joiers de l’osset ja facturen més de 1.000 milions d’euros. Tots patint per la SEAT i la Nissan quan tenim la solució al davant, només cal aportar-hi un disseny preadult i posar-hi l’etiqueta del regne animal o vegetal.
Posted in Català, Reviews, UncategorizedGlobal trends: who knows
The report “Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World” is good at sumarizing a number of views that are usually heard. Europe is easily discarded based on its ageing population. Maybe too easily, as a healthy, educated and experienced elder population might contribute more than expected. Also, the US is seen as a declining power, able to keep most of its predominance during the next 25 years. Maybe creations such as Facebook or the Iphone should have given more credit to the US, despite its deficit. Next, it is still to be seen what will happen when the West finds out that in order to get out of the current crisis, it has to rebuild its industry….and it starts doing so by injecting public money. That will have an impact on the newly industrialised countries, and we still haven’t seen if the Chinese regime is capable of navigating through an economic storm. Finally, Turkey might be closer to join the EU than expected, and that would bring new neighbours such as Georgia, Armenia and … Iran! A Middle East that has Europe at the tip of their fingers might be more willing to take the secular route, particularly when young people push to migrate.
Posted in English, Reviews, UncategorizedTaleb’s black swan
The last book of the “enfant terrible” of finance is a must read, and I am saying that without having any links to amazon. However, while his tone works in getting his message across, it is not the best way of gaining friends among decision makers, which is a pity as many of his views are useful for managing risk.
Posted in English, Reviews, UncategorizedPraising past criticism
While current criticism for the credit crunch is focused on a few Wall Street executives, it is interesting to read again what some economists pointed out during the expansion years. Below is an article by Paul A. Volcker published in The Washington Post on April 2005 with a title that couldn’t be more clear:
An Economy on Thin Ice
While it may seem obvious at this stage that bankers and regulators should have considered Volcker’s remarks when managing financial institutions or setting monetary policies, his 2005 views are still useful for clarifying the reasons that brought us to such a difficult situation.
Here is a link to the article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38725-2005Apr8.html
Posted in English, Reviews, UncategorizedCircumstantial accounting joke
A colleague told me that this appeared in the FT:
There are two sides of the balance sheet of a bank, the left side and the right side.
On the left side, there is nothing right, on the right side there is nothing left
Nota respecto al valor temporal de la opción y la Theta
Entendemos el valor temporal como la diferencia entre el valor de la opción y su valor
intrínseco. El valor intrínseco es la diferencia entre el precio de ejercicio de la opción y
el valor actual del activo subyacente (si el valor intrínseco es positivo estamos in-the-
money y si es negativo out-of-the-money).