8008 Exam Dumps : PRM Certification - Exam III: Risk Management Frameworks, Operational Risk, Credit Risk, Counterparty Risk, Market Risk, ALM, FTP - 2015 Edition

Choice 'd' is correct because VaR is sub-additive in cases where correlation is less than one.

Specific VaR refers to the risk in the portfolio from security selection, ie the risk from holding the specific equities in the portfolio, while systematic risk refers to the market risk. Definitionally, specific risk and systematic risk are uncorrelated, ie their correlation is zero. Since their correlation is zero, combining them will produce a VaR number lower than their stand alone aggregate. Total risk includes both specific risk and systematic risk, and can be calculated taking into account the specific and systematic VaRs and their correlation.

All other answers are therefore incorrect.

The correct answer is Choice 'b'. The following is a brief description of the major approaches available to model credit risk, and the analysis that underlies them:

1. CreditMetrics: based on the credit migration framework. Considers the probability of migration to other credit ratings and the impact of such migrations on portfolio value.

2. CreditPortfolio View: similar to CreditMetrics, but adds the impact of the business cycle to the evaluation.

3. The contingent claims approach: uses option theory by considering a debt as a put option on the assets of the firm.

4. KMV's EDF (expected default frequency) based approach: relies on EDFs and distance to default as a measure of credit risk.

5. CreditRisk+: Also called the 'actuarial approach', considers default as a binary event that either happens or does not happen. This approach does not consider the loss of value from deterioration in credit quality (unless the deterioration implies default).

Delta is non-linear with respect to prices for a number of securities such as bonds, options and other derivatives. It changes with changes in prices, and any hedge initially undertaken becomes quickly mismatched. Therefore delta hedges need to be managed quite actively and kept up-to-date. Therefore I is true.Primary risks comprise most of the risk in a position, and therefore portfolio managers are right to focus on them over secondary risks. Therefore II is true.The greater the hedge rebalance frequency, the lower is the hedge mismatch at any point in time, and therefore residual risks would be lower. However, rebalancing hedges requires rebalance trades to be done, and these involve transaction costs. Generally, a reasonable balance needs to be struck between the frequency of rebalances (a lower frequency increases residual risk, but this residual risk is not directionally biased) and the costs of rebalancing. III is correct.Vega risk is the risk arising due to changes in prices due to changes in volatility.  Options carry vega risk. Therefore any hedges against vega risks can only be obtained using other options positions.  (Vega risk may also be hedged using other volatility based products, eg an OTC volatility swap, or a VIX futures type product.)