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Bionic Turtle’s Week in Risk – It’s Exam Week!

Welcome to our Week in Risk blog! It’s exam week and we hope that everyone feels prepared for Saturday. Remember that our forum provides a great deal of information on the FRM concepts so make sure to stop by with any last-minute questions that you may have. We want to wish everyone good luck on the exam and say thank you to all of our valued subscribers who have made it possible for Bionic Turtle to continue providing candidates with the highest quality study materials for the FRM exam. Have a great week!

FRM practice questions

1. Valuation & Risk Models: P1.T4.918. Internal versus external credit ratings (de Servigny Ch.2) https://trtl.bz/2vQQWE1 These questions complete our deServigny practice question series. They discuss the potential impact of ratings changes on bond and stock prices, compare external and internal ratings approaches, and explain the through-the-cycle and at-the-point internal ratings approaches.

2. Credit Risk Measurement & Management: P2.T6.909. Credit exposure metrics continued (expected positive exposure and effective exposure) (Gregory Ch.7) https://trtl.bz/2vZj4ER  This set of questions continues a fresh review of the Gregory reading in Topic 6 of the FRM curriculum. David reviews expected positive exposure and effective exposure. He also discusses the characterization of credit exposure to VaR methods.

 Credit exposure metrics

FRM videos

1. Valuation & Risk Models: Fixed income: Carry roll down (FRM T4-31) https://trtl.bz/2JAHWuP The Carry-Roll-Down is the price change in the bond due exclusively to the passage of time. It is only one component of a bond’s total profit and loss (P&L). The bond’s total P&L equals Price Appreciation plus Cash Carry (i.e., coupon). Price Appreciation equals Carry-Roll-Down plus Price Change due to Shift in Rates (market risk) plus Price Change due to spread narrowing/widening (credit risk).

2. Valuation & Risk Models: Fixed income: Bond DV01 (aka, price value of basis point, FRM T4-32) https://trtl.bz/2Viyy1g The DV01 stands for “dollar value of a .01% (one basis point).” It is also called the Price Value of a Basis Point (PVBP). It is the bond’s or fixed income portfolio’s dollar change given a one basis point decline in the yield.

FRM YouTube

FRM forum

1. Correlation versus dependence: A few of us had a good discussion about correlation and dependence here https://trtl.bz/2PZ0JRH. In the FRM, it’s important to know (per Dowd and Meissner) that correlation typically refers to linear (aka, Pearson’s) correlation, but dependence is a much broader set of associations. Make sure you know the test for statistical independence.

2. Potential future exposure is a long-dated value at risk (VaR) but for unrealized gains: RushilChulani asks a good question about potential future exposure (PFE) here https://trtl.bz/2PZ1pXf and I just want to remind you that PFE is only different from value at risk (VaR) in its application and context. Both PFE and VaR are merely statistical quantiles.

3. Instructive practice paper errors (subadditivity and implied volatility): As I mentioned last week, GARP’s prior practice papers have errors so we don’t recommend using them prior to the current 2019. They continue to be instructive only if you are willing to learn from mistakes. This week’s discussion includes an interesting fallacy with respect to VaR’s lack of subadditivity  https://trtl.bz/2Q2KkeX and a misinterpretation of the implied volatility skew for in/out of the money options https://trtl.bz/2Q13EZW.

FRM news

1. Cyber risk grows in prominence, but necessary skills are short and non-traditional: Cybersecurity Jobs Abound. No Experience Required (WSJ) https://trtl.bz/2PZp2PuIt’s really difficult to determine just by someone’s academic track record if they could be great at the kind of problem-solving we do, but it’s relatively easy in a simulation game,” [IBM’s head of offensive-security services] said.

2. Chief Risk Officer (CRO): An Increasingly Vital Role in Effective Risk Oversight (by Carol Williams)  https://www.erminsightsbycarol.com/chief-risk-officer-vital-role/ who points to the 2019 “The State of Risk Oversight: An Overview of Enterprise Risk Management Practices (10th Edition)” https://trtl.bz/2Q2t4q6.

3. Other (Risk literacy, Experts, and the Tidyverse): 3.1. Risk Literacy And Interpreting The Probabilistic Risks Of Investing And Retirement Planning https://trtl.bz/2Q9ycsV. 3.2. The Peculiar Blindness of Experts https://trtl.bz/2PZz7vL. 3.3. A Beginner’s Guide to Tidyverse (The Most Powerful Collection of R Packages for Data Science) https://trtl.bz/2Q1yjGw

FRM Facebook

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What Your Colleagues Are Saying

I took the exam in Sydney and had a similar feeling about the exam being more qualitative (but no less rigorous). However, I felt I was better prepared thanks to the BT's relentless focus on throwing real life examples and methods.

Jagan G.

I subscribed to BT for my Part 1 FRM exam and just wanted to say thanks for the depth and breadth of the study materials and practice questions. I found out that I scored in the top quartile of every topic and I absolutely could not have done this without using BT - I spent many, many hours going over the practice questions and answers! I wanted to express my appreciation and gratitude to your team for your hard work in creating these materials. Thanks!

Shu C.

The BT scripts, practice questions, global topic drills and mock exams were a great help in understanding the concepts (which I could already apply on the job!) and where structured in such a manner that the breadth and depth where optimal for exam preparation - clearly the exam would have been a catastrophe without BT!

Ivan J.

Passed first time. Happy all the hard work paid off. BT was the right choice. Thanks David and Nicole for your work and commitment.

John D.

Passed! 1,4,1,2,1,4! Thank you David and Nicole for your efforts! Thank you BT! Couldn't have done it otherwise. I'm a mechanical engineer who had a career in petroleum services, then I decided to switch career to financial risk management. Passed part 1 from the first time with top quartiles and passed part 2 from the first time as well. All with BT! BT is always the recommendation I give to people aiming at the FRM designation! Thank you again!

Feras S.

Passed Part I and Part II first time - absolutely could not have done it without BT. Like a few others I didn't even both buying the GARP books for Part II and went solely with BT materials. Just read, answered questions, watched videos, read, more questions, and... more questions! All the practice question taking looked to pay off. Thanks again Bionic Turtle for a great curriculum. Keep up the fantastic work!

John D.

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