GFIA is delighted to welcome back Paul Meadows to Gibraltar to deliver a full day of in-depth training on 17 October 2023 hosted on the Sunborn.

The day will be split into two sessions – morning and afternoon – which can be booked as a full day (with cost-savings!) or separate sessions to cater to your individual and firm training and CPD requirements.

Session 1 – Understanding the Bond and Equity Markets

09:30 to 13:00 with 15 minutes coffee break

Following the Financial Market collapse over a decade ago, Banks sharply cut back on the availability of credit lines as Regulators forced them to hold more capital. Simultaneously, Governments increased their borrowing to shore up the surviving Banks. This was the opportunity for the Bond Markets to step in and become the provider of choice going forward to meet the Debt funding requirements of both Corporates, Supranationals & Sovereigns alike. Therefore, it is imperative that these markets are properly understood by Issuers, Investors, Intermediaries, Regulators & Fund Administrators

• Understanding What Drives Bond Pricing – Interest Rates & Inflation

• The Bond universe – Sovereigns, Corporates, Eurobonds, Convertibles, Floating Rate Notes, Asset Backed

• When does Risk Free Investing not look Risk Free? Interest Rate sensitivity - Duration

• Credit Risk – From Investment Grade to Junk. From Rising Stars to Fallen Angels

• Understanding Yield Curves & what they tell you

The Equity Markets provide a venue for Corporates to list their shares, raise money & also offer Investors the opportunity to trade &/or Invest in already listed Companies. The function of these Markets is price discovery which is more readily achieved by high levels of participation, ranging from professional Institutional Investors all the way down to Retail Investors.

• Equities in context – comparisons with Bonds as an Asset Class

• What does the Equity Risk Premium look like?

• Corporate Actions – Dividends, Buybacks, Share Splits

• Rise of the machines – Average Holding Periods, Algorithmic Trading & Dark Pools

• Securities Lending – By whom & why exactly?

• Case Study - Share Turnover Velocities across the world’s Exchanges

Buffet Lunch @ Barbary Restaurant, Sunborn (included in Full Day ticket price)

Session 2 – Exchange Traded Funds and Wealth Management

14:00 to 17:30 with 15 minutes coffee break

Exchange Traded Funds are now firmly established in the investment world. But how do they actually work? Originally designed as simple, user friendly, passive, Equity Index tracking vehicles, their evolution has created several different types of product, across the Asset Classes, with each one requiring different approaches in due diligence. While the external ‘packaging’ might look similar, the risks underneath vary considerably.

• The Active vs Passive investing debate – a look at the evidence.

• Understanding ETFs, the replication mechanism. Physical vs Synthetic?

• Primary (Redemption, Creation process) & Secondary Markets, Authorised Participants

• Real time pricing & Arbitrage opportunities, Tracking error causes

• Deciding on which ETFs to employ – structure, transparency, cost, liquidity

• ETF Variations on a theme - Inverse, Leveraged

The industry quietly looks after vast amounts of High Net Worth Private Client wealth, shirking the headlines & aiming for confidentiality & discretion. While fees earned from managing Client funds are clearly the predominant revenue generator, there are other services which can be offered to make the account ‘stickier’. Underpinning all of this however is the critical objective of managing the Clients themselves. Managing relationships is a very different proposition to managing their money.

• Where is the revenue growth to come from? What are the implications of this?

• How many providers is a Client going to use & why?

• How to differential a Bank from the competition

• Just how important is the Relationship Manager?

• Generations Y & Z - The impact of Technology & inter-generational wealth transfers

Paul Meadows

Paul has years of experience as a trader, research analyst and portfolio manager in the UK. He has been designing and delivering financial markets training worldwide since 2000 and is a guest lecturer at the UCL School of Management.

Full Day including lunch - £100 (non-members £150)

Individual Morning or Afternoon Session - £60 (non-members £75)

To secure your spot today, please send an email to info@gfia.gi.