Trading Vol in an IB - what are the good resources for Rates, Credit, FX, Equities? Market-makers' help greatly appreciated

Hi guys, I'm a junior market maker at a US bank working on a desk close to the vol desk in my asset class. I am very passionate about the Vol side and I have created this thread hoping that it will become a primer about the different resources people should use to learn about vol in different asset classes.

Therefore, I invite people here (especially current/former IB vol traders) to share their experiences about what resources (books, articles, banks' primers, etc.) people could use to learn about vol from a market maker's perspective.

From my knowledge so far:

General Vol: Options, Futures & Other Derivatives - Hull Volatility Trading - S. Natenberg Volatility Trading - E Sinclair Dynamic Hedging - Taleb (in the process of reading)

Equity Vol: All you need to know about Variance Swaps - piece by JPMorgan, found online

Rates Vol http://www.math.ku.dk/~rolf/SABR.pdf

Credit Vol ?

FX Vol FX Options and Structured Products - Uwe Wystup Any other pieces by Uwe Wystup

Commodities Vol ?

Thank you very much for your help guys! I hope this thread will be useful for everyone!

13 Comments
 

You have read a lot of books!!!

Would really appreciate if you have the time to create a post on required reading for different products. :)

"The markets are always changing , and they are always the same."
 
Most Helpful

Rates vol: All the general vol books you mentioned are quite good (esp dynamic hedging). More specifically, I'd try to pick out the relevant chapters of Brigo and Mercurio's book (it's a heavy read, so it will take some time). Don't skip the short-rate models (HW, etc). Also, Hagan's initial SABR paper is great - SABR (or various morphed prop versions of the initial model) are still quite popular on the street, I hear.

Overall, there's not a lot of difference b/w say FX/Equity vol and rates vol in terms of managing risk, apart from the added complications of the underlying becoming non-linear (in a swaption for instance) and added dimensional . Once you understand general vol trading ideas (like the greeks), thinking about how things change if you replace the underlying equity index with a swap would be useful (ie - how does duration effect the greeks, how does PCP change with a non-linear underlying, etc).

Another things I would bear in mind if actually joining a rates vol desk is getting used to the jargon. Thinking of puts and calls as payers and receivers, for instance, adds a couple of extra seconds to your reasoning and just slows you down initially.

 
"ridersonthestorm" Rates vol: All the general vol books you mentioned are quite good (esp dynamic hedging). More specifically, I'd try to pick out the relevant chapters of Brigo and Mercurio's book (it's a heavy read, so it will take some time). Don't skip the short-rate models (HW, etc). Also, Hagan's initial SABR paper is great - SABR (or various morphed prop versions of the initial model) are still quite popular on the street, I hear.

Overall, there's not a lot of difference b/w say FX/Equity vol and rates vol in terms of managing risk, apart from the added complications of the underlying becoming non-linear (in a swaption for instance) and added dimensional . Once you understand general vol trading ideas (like the greeks), thinking about how things change if you replace the underlying equity index with a swap would be useful (ie - how does duration effect the greeks, how does PCP change with a non-linear underlying, etc).

Another things I would bear in mind if actually joining a rates vol desk is getting used to the jargon. Thinking of puts and calls as payers and receivers, for instance, adds a couple of extra seconds to your reasoning and just slows you down initially.

Thanks a lot for the advice!

 

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