Description: This is the abstract of the paper 'Pricing of Credit Derivatives'. This talk will give an overview of current pricing techniques. We first show how to build a credit curve. A credit curve gives the instantaneous default probability of a party at any time in the future. It is as important to credit derivative pricing as the yield curve is to fixed income derivative pricing.

Description: This session is from the 1995 SOA Spring Meeting. Panelists discuss practical uses of derivatives, including interest rate and equity options and swaps. Specific derivatives include constant maturity Treasury CMT caps, equity-linked notes - ELNs and OTC puts. From Record of Society of Actuaries Vol. 21, No. 1.

Description: Presented at May 1996 Spring Meeting. The investment environment has undergone significant change over the last several years through the introduction of many sophisticated investment vehicles. This session provides an update on current challenges encountered by life insurance companies in accounting for this new array of investments. Among the issues covered will be accounting for derivatives, mortgage-backed securities, and other hedging vehicles. The session also includes some of the system and projection modeling challenges encountered as a by-product of investment in these vehicles.

Description: This presentation discusses a technique to reduce the bias from using Monte Carlo simulation to value American options.

Description: As equity markets decline and become more volatile, the likelihood of significant guaranteed benefit claims increases, while increases from mortality and expense fees declines. The article illustrates how to use a derivative contract, a properly structured total return swap, to turn a company's uncertain M&E revenue patterns into predictable revenue.

Description: 1993 SOA Meeting, Quebec. This session discussion is an introduction to derivative products. Topics included: 1. Definition and basic description of instruments. 2. General pricing concepts. 3. Applications for life insurance company portfolios.

Description: Presented at May 1996 Spring Meeting. In this teaching session, various forms of asset-backed securities, e.g., credit cards, auto, home equity, commercial real estate, mobile homes, etc., are examined. Also discussed is basic structures and the risks and opportunities and critical parameters involved.

Description: Introduction to option pricing, with special attention to issues in applying these tools to price equity-linked insurance products. Clear, accessible explanation of key results of mathematical finance including risk-neutral valuation.

Description: What is the impact of aging populations on economic growth and interest rates?” “Are low interest rates and inflation a short-term phenomenon?” “How will returns from different asset classes be impacted by future demographic trends?” “What are the differences between different countries and regions around the world?”

Description: This note develops the optimality of the put option as a hedging strategy. For an investor who owns a stock, he can buy a put option to hedge against the downside risk of the stock price. In this short note, we ask two questions with the hedge strategy of the put option. First, whether the investor is better off with the hedging strategy? Second, if the investor is better off with the hedging strategy, whether it is the optimal hedging plan? Our result shows that in a risk averse world an investor will maximize his utility with buying the put option as a hedge strategy.