<t>implied volatilities have been dropping over the past couple of years which means that convertible bond issuances are a less attractive prospect for the companies looking to raise cash - and hence new issuances have been down. As a result, CB bond arbitrage desks that rely mainly on high volume a...

<t>would add to the praise to RBS for FX Options - they are very much ahead of the curve. They've been quite well establised in FX vol for a while, right from 'back in the day' when they used to trade under NatWest Global Financial Markets, before the RBS takeover. Some of their senior traders have ...

1.5 - 2 vol

Yes - I agree that 'p' cannot be determined and hence the chooser's expected return is independant of whether he/she makes a swap.

<t>Phenomenologist - Unfortunately the solution to the original problem I posed is not that trivial - even if you attempt to put numbers to rationalise your decision. You are making an additional assumption and altering the problem by saying you already know what the contents of both envelopes are (...

unfortunately these types of organisations do not tend to list themselves in the yellow pages!! you could perhaps try subscribing to a website such as www.eurohedge.com .

<t>Singh - plenty of ISMA centre graduates end up in the financial markets. I knew one who went to Goldman Sachs, and several others who have gone to the Toronto-Dominion Bank, staright after graduation. Others have gone on to things like metals trading (for corporates) or tiny fixed income hedge fu...

<t>wrt Goldman - there are several relatively autonomous prop trading groups - with a most notable divide being between Fixed Income and Equities. They each have different mandates and operate under different risk constraints. So you have to be a bit more specific when talking about embedded prop gr...

<t>I think Jim has hit the nail on the head. The work environment within GS is extremely superficially driven - face time is very important. In addition, an "under promise, over deliver" type ethos is instilled into everyone, and there is large emphasis on team work, and detracting from solo-stars. ...

<t>Does anyone know of a paper outlining how to construct ADR stock volatility skew, based off the skews exhibited in the FX Options market and the local stock equity market? Especially useful in the absence of ADR option liquidity and implied vol information. I seem to recall coming across such a p...

<t>OK - let me rephrase the problem that I originally stated. As you are starting to guess - it does not have a trivial solution!You have 2 envelopes offered to you. You pick one, and then you DO NOT open the envelope. You are then told that one envelope contains twice the amount of money as the oth...

<t>Another problem I've come across in interviews is the 2 envelope one (similar ilk to that of Monty Hall)You are presented with 2 sealed envelopes and asked to choose one. Upon choosing one, you open it and find it contains 100 dollars. You are then told that one of the envelopes contains twice as...

<t>I have worked at both a HF and an IB in a trading capacity. General distinctions I have found are that IBs tend to be more structured in their environment (operationally, and also in terms of assigned roles to the traders). Unless you're working for a the prop desk in an IB (which can sometimes b...