Pricing and Trading Interest Rate Derivatives: A Practical Guide to Swaps

***There is a newer edition of this book available (3rd Edition: 7 August 2022) !! The newer edition is available in both Hardback and Paperback versions***

Written by a practicing derivatives portfolio manager with over fifteen years of fixed income trading experience, this book focuses on core trading concepts; pricing, curve building (single and multi-currency), risk, credit and CSAs, regulations, VaR and PCA, volatility, cross-gamma, trade strategy analysis and market moving influences.

The book’s focus is interest rate swaps and cross-currency swaps. Topics are presented from that perspective, outlining the importance of regulations in an IRD capacity, with volatility and swaptions taught from a practical point of view rather than an overly cumbersome academic one.

The treatment of risk is expansive and thorough. The author formally analyses modern market-maker techniques to accurately predict PnL, and successfully implement multiple, consistent perspectives to view all details of risks.

Almost everything included here is compulsory knowledge for a modern, successful, swaps trader or interest rate risk portfolio manager. Certainly this book sets the benchmark for the level of expertise that swaps traders should strive for, and the style is aimed at the novice and professional alike.

J H M Darbyshire first studied mathematics at the University of Nottingham, becoming valedictorian of his graduating class. He went on to join the fixed income trading team at Barclays Capital in London, quickly establishing his position as a sterling bond and IRD trader. There he honed his skills and was instrumental in shaping Barclays curve and risk model design, as well as successfully trading outright and basis markets throughout the years of the financial crisis and central bank quantitative easing. Within Barclays he expanded his role to become discretionary manager of a G7 bond, TRS and IRD portfolio. This gave him unique exposure to the financial instruments upon which his books are focused. Later he travelled to Stockholm to spend more time with his Swedish family. This period gave him the opportunity to complete his MSc in mathematics and to author his first publication "Pricing and Trading Interest Rate Derivatives." He has since returned to portfolio management in Scandinavia at Nordea Markets specialising in euro IRDs as part of a linear and non-linear product team.