Study objectives：

　　To appreciate the nature of interest rate risk.

　　To describe internal methods of hedging interest rate exposure.

　　To implement and evaluate external hedging strategies.

　　Nature of interest rate risk

　　Companies have exposure to interest rates risks：

　　Rising interest rates

　　Falling interest rates

　　Management of interest rate risk：

　　Smoothing-maintaining a balance between fixed rate and floating rate borrowing.

　　Matching-attempting to have a common interest rate for both assets and liabilities.This is more practical for financial institutions than for trading companies.

　　External hedging techniques：

　　Forward Rate Agreements(FRAs);

　　OTC options-caps，floors and collars;

　　Interest rate futures contracts;

　　Options on interest rate futures;

　　Interest rate swaps and swaptions.