Future Topics — Finance Learning Path

Areas to add to the vault, roughly grouped by theme. Items marked with (→ main) would extend the finance-main-path track; items marked (→ defi) extend the defi-learning-path; unmarked items are standalone or belong to new tracks.

Fixed Income & Yield Curves

• Yield curve construction — bootstrapping, interpolation (Nelson-Siegel, Svensson), par curves vs zero curves vs forward curves. (→ main)
• Duration and convexity — modified duration, effective duration, key rate duration, DV01. The fixed-income analogues of delta and gamma. (→ main)
• Interest rate models — Vasicek, CIR, Hull-White. Short rate models vs HJM framework. Why these matter for bond option pricing.
• Yield curve fitting at Gottex — connecting theory to practical experience: curve construction for portfolio valuation, yield curve optimization under constraints.

Derivatives Pricing (extending the main path)

• Black-Scholes full derivation — complete the stub at step 10. Risk-neutral pricing, the replicating portfolio argument, Itô’s lemma, assumptions and their failures. (→ main)
• Volatility smile/skew — why implied vol varies by strike, the leverage effect, jump risk, local vol vs stochastic vol. (→ main)
• Exotic options — barriers, Asians, lookbacks. Path-dependent payoffs and why they can’t be hedged with Black-Scholes alone.
• Gamma hedging and the P&L of delta-hedging — making the “delta-hedging cost = realized variance” argument rigorous. Connects Black-Scholes to practical options trading.

Credit Risk

• Credit risk fundamentals — PD, LGD, EAD. Structural models (Merton) vs reduced-form (Jarrow-Turnbull). CDS pricing.
• Credit scoring and underwriting — connecting to Credimi and Capital One experience. Scorecards, logistic regression, gradient boosted models, reject inference.
• Securitization and structured credit — MBS, ABS, CDOs, tranching. The 2008 mechanics.

Market Microstructure (extending the main path)

• Kyle’s lambda — the price impact model. Strategic informed trading. Already referenced by trading-fundamentals. (→ main)
• Ho-Stoll inventory model — the inventory model of the spread. Already referenced by trading-fundamentals. (→ main)
• Spread decomposition — Huang-Stoll (1997). Empirically separating adverse selection, inventory, and order-processing components.
• Market impact models — Almgren-Chriss, square-root law. How execution algorithms minimize cost.

Macro & Monetary Economics

• Central banking and monetary policy — interest rate targeting, QE, the transmission mechanism. Why the Fed matters for every asset class.
• FX markets — covered/uncovered interest rate parity, carry trades, the impossible trinity.

Case Studies

• GameStop (2021) — short squeeze mechanics, gamma squeeze via options market makers, Robinhood/NSCC margin crisis, T+2 amplification.
• AIG and the CDS crisis (2008) — already referenced by settlement-and-clearing. CDS mechanics, the AIG bailout, systemic risk.
• LTCM (1998) — convergence trades, leverage, liquidity risk.

Stochastic Calculus (supporting the math track)

• Brownian motion — definition, properties, construction.
• Itô’s lemma — the chain rule for stochastic processes. Prerequisite for Black-Scholes derivation.
• Martingales — formal definition, optional stopping theorem, connection to fair pricing.