Do you use Bloomberg for Risk Measurement?

Bloomberg is holding a Market Risk Seminar this month. But before the details, here are my comments.

I've attended Bloomberg seminars before and there is usually a sales pitch somewhere. Looking at the event's lineup of speakers, 4 out of 5 speakers are from Bloomberg (an Algo risk solution is embedded in Bloomberg). Although the topics may sound relevant, they're just intro material to Bloomberg functionalities and add-on services. For those looking for risk management solutions for their organization and looking to comply with Basel II, Bloomberg will present itself as a viable option in this seminar. Bloomberg would more likely say: "Since you are already Bloomberg users, why not leverage on your subscription and use our built-in risk solutions (at an added cost of course)?"

Generally, practitioners I know would trust Bloomberg in a majority of the raw figures that they give out. But when it comes to calculations, some would take them with a grain of salt. Personally, I find the risk solutions of Bloomberg to be less than adequate for the following reasons:

• Limited instrument coverage
• Not flexible
• Lack of transparency (Black Box)

But of course, it would never hurt to sit in a Bloomberg seminar and learn best practice (if ever they are presented) and to discover some new things that our beloved system has to offer.

And now for the seminar details.

Topics:

• Importance of Market Risk Management
• Risk measures for fixed income securities and derivatives
• Reliable data for your risk management systems
• Market risk management in alignment with Basel Accord
• Algo Risk on Bloomberg - a pre-integrated, real time market risk solution

Speakers:

• Nestor A. Espenilla, Jr. - Deputy Governor, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas
• Seet Kok Leong - Head of Algo Risk (Asia Pacific), Algorithmics
• Jiten Bhanap - Product Specialist, Bloomberg L.P.
• Ivan Koh - Regional Data Solutions Manager, Bloomberg L.P.
• Neo Siang Noi - Trading Systems Sales Specialist, Bloomberg L.P.

Date:

15 August 2006

Venue:

Makati Shangri-la Manila, Ayala Avenue corner Makati Avenue, Makati City 1200, Philippines

Time:

9:30am - 2:00 pm

Registration:

BU on Bloomberg

email: awang@bloomberg.net

tel: +63 2 849 7100 loc. 4794

*Lunch will be served

Tags: finance derivatives market risk risk management bloomberg seminars courses

Modelling Financial Risk Seminar

Just got an invitation through email to participate in a class offered by Macquire University's Advanced Finance Centre and PRMIA. It is a course designed for Risk Management Professionals. It involves lectures by Dr. Elizabeth Sheedy and some computer workshops after each topic.

Topics for Discussion

• Introduction
• Measuring Risk Under the Normal Distribution
• Historical Simulations for Measuring Risk
• Monte Carlo Simulations for Measuring Risk
• Stress Testing
• VaR in the Absence of Normality
• Liquidity Risk
• Model Risk
• Maximum Likelihood Estimation

Course Schedule

• Thursday 17 August 2006 - 5:30pm to 8:30pm
• Friday 18 August 2006 - 5:30pm to 8:30pm
• Saturday 19 August 2006 - 9:00am to 5:00pm
• Sunday 20 August 2006 - 9:00am to 5:00pm

Fees

• SGD 1785 (includes GST) - per person
• SGD 1575 (includes GST) - per person from the same entity

Venue

School of Financial Services and Risk Management, Singapore Human Resources Institute, Singapore Conference Hall, 7 Shenton Way #01-02 Singapore 068810

Contacts

• 65 6438 0012
• shortcourses@mafc.mq.edu.au

An outline is available at this link.

I'm quite knowledgeable in risk measurement so the initial topics are just the same old stuff. The latter topics though are quite interesting. Too bad I'm not in Singapore.

Tags: finance risk risk management seminars courses