Name: Derivatives Fundamentals
Rating: 4.846938775510204 (98 reviews)

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Overview

Derivatives Fundamentals course overview

This introductory course on the topic of derivatives covers the fundamental knowledge you need to know about derivatives. You will learn to differentiate between forward, futures, options, and swaps contracts. You will also work on practical examples in Excel to calculate the profits/losses for each type of contracts. By the end of this course, you will have the essential knowledge about derivative contracts required to proceed to more advanced topics, such as derivatives pricing and trading.

Why take this Introduction to Derivatives course

This course covers the definition, purpose, and components of each of the four main types of derivatives. You’ll look at real world examples of derivatives on Bloomberg terminal. Additionally, you’ll work on example calculations in Excel to determine the profits/ losses generated from various types of derivatives. Upon completing this course, you should be comfortable explaining the differences between the types of derivatives and how they can be used for hedging and speculating purposes.

Major topics covered in this course include:

Characteristics of derivative contracts
Over-the-counter vs. exchange-traded
Forward contracts
Futures contracts
Initial and maintenance margins
Call and put options
Moneyness (in-the-money, at-the-money, out-of-the-money)
Swap contracts

Who should take this course

This Introduction to Derivatives course is perfect for beginners or anyone who would like to build up their understanding about the capital markets. This course is designed to equip anyone who desire to begin a career in investment banking, sales and trading, treasury, or other areas of finance with the fundamental knowledge on derivatives.

Introduction to Derivatives is a required course of CFI’s CMSA® program

CFI’s Capital Markets & Securities Analyst (CMSA)® program covers all the basic, intermediate, and advanced topics about sales and trading, investment banking, and asset management. This program teaches you trading strategies used in the finance and capital markets industry. It is ideal for students who want to learn how to trade different asset classes. The program is completely online so you can take it at your own pace, from anywhere in the world.

Common career paths for students who take the CMSA® are Sales & Trading, Asset Management, Wealth Management, Treasury, Risk Management, and other capital markets careers.

Who should take this CMSA® course?

This Introduction to Derivatives course is perfect for anyone who would like to build up their understanding about capital markets. This course is designed to equip anyone who desires to begin a career in fixed income, equity, sales and trading, or other areas of finance with the fundamental knowledge of derivatives.

Derivatives Fundamentals

Get Started

Level 3

Approx 2.5h to complete

100% online and self-paced

Subscribe to get access to CMSA and other programs

From $497/year

Learn More

What you'll learn

Lesson

Multimedia

Exams

Files

Introduction

Course introduction Free Preview

Downloadable files

Derivative contracts Free Preview

Components of a derivative contract

Trading, uses and types of derivatives

Interactive Exercise 1

Forward Contracts

Purpose and components of a forward contract

Forward contract profit/loss diagrams

Forward contract Excel demonstration Free Preview

Interactive Exercise 2

Futures Contracts

Purpose and components of a futures contract Free Preview

Futures contract profit/loss and Refinitiv example

Futures contract margins example

Futures contract margins example continued

Futures contract Excel demonstration

How are futures prices calculated

Interactive Exercise 3

Learning Experience Survey

Midway check-in

Options Contracts

Purpose and examples of options

Components of an option contract

Refinitiv call option example

Refinitiv put option example

Call option profit/loss diagrams

Put option profit/loss diagrams

Interactive Exercise 4

Moneyness

Options calculation example

Options Excel demonstration

Interactive Exercise 5

Swap Contracts

Definition and components of a swap contract

Interest rate swap

Interest rate swap Excel demonstration

Interest rate swap benefits example

Interactive Exercise 6

Qualified Assessment

Become a certified All Capital Markets & Securities Analyst (CMSA)® Courses

Derivatives Fundamentals is part of the Capital Markets & Securities Analyst (CMSA)® certification, which includes 30 courses.

All Capital Markets & Securities Analyst (CMSA)® Courses

Skills Learned Trading strategies used in the finance and capital markets
Career Prep Work in capital markets, whether on the buy-side or the sell-side

Learn more

Path to certification

Prep courses

5 courses from beginner to intermediate level.

01 Optional

Core courses

8 courses from beginner to intermediate level.

02 Required

Elective courses

17 courses in advanced and intermediate levels.

03 Required

Get certified

Submit your CMSA® checklist and order your certificate.

04 Required

Join our community

Get access to the Global Corporate Finance Society.

05 Optional

How the certification works

Capital Markets & Securities Analyst (CMSA)® courses are offered 100% online, allowing you the flexibility to start the Capital Markets & Securities Analyst (CMSA)® program anytime and learn when it’s most convenient for you.

The program is a part of the All Access Subscription, which includes all programs and courses.

CFI courses are designed by instructors with over 21 years of financial analyst training experience.

Students must complete all core and 7 elective courses (13 in total) and demonstrate mastery of the topics through successful completion of course materials, quizzes, and assessments.

Within 48 hours of program completion, your Blockchain Verified (CMSA)® Certification will be emailed to you.

What our students say

Excellent
Thanks a lot, very clear explanation of the subject

Veronica Nantege Njuba

Important Knowledge
Very elaborate but clearly presented course on derivatives!

Love Manigsaca

Concepts brilliantly explained
A must learn for all those who are interested to know the basics of Derivatives

Sridevi Mutcherla

Engaging and informative
The course really helped in gaining the basics pretty well.

Eisht Kain

Beautifully covered all the points. I can say a must take course!

Md Sadique Suleman

It is a good course to get the basic idea of all the concepts of Derivatives in brief.

Dolly Kumari Shaw

This course structure is really simple and easy to comprehend. Each and every topic covered is very well designed and taught. Really good to boost your knowledge.

Abhishek Singh

I realy learned in so much easy way the core concepts. I will recommend this course to every one....

Bakht Rawan khan

This course on Derivatives Introduction is very comprehensive and all the modules are explained with Examples, Thank You!

Kamalesh Baskar

The course was very insightful because the contents presented were pretty clear and straightforward to concept along with calculations in depth got awareness about forward, future option contract and swap

Adarsh V

This course will clear your fundamentals about Derivatives and strengthen your understanding about the subject.

Priya Mishra

very helpful for carreer start

Jaweria Afroz

Quite comprehensive course with a lot of value-additions. Strongly recommended for beginners.

Shrajan Tiwari

Great introduction, Helps build your confidence, which you need for the more advanced modules.

Jacob Matlaila

This is a very educational course. Can't believe it was free.

Sam Portera

Very Informative and Nice course

Roneet Jena

Clearly and quickly explains the working and basics of derivatives.

Pratyush Misra

upon completion of this course i have gained sound knowledge on calculations of derivatives and various other definitons , i recommend to take this course by every finance, risk and banking professional

Avinendra Gannavarapu

great course

Horacio Lazzari Mathieu

Good content and good presentation

venugopal rajamanuri

covered the basics of derivatives as expected

Sirisha R

The course materials were engaging, clear, and informative.

Shiv Vohra

Excellent course for beginners who like to enter into derivatives

Gajalakshmi M

This is good

Pooja Bhosale

The course was very cleary explained and understandable. In my opinion it gives a good basis of knolwedge in terms of derivatves (Forwards, Options, Futures, IRS).

Dimitrina Dinkova

Great course as a refresher on Derivatives. Everything was nicely broken down.

Valenton Wallace

good experience

DHARMESH JAYANTIBHAI MARU

It's helps the students to understand what is derivatives and its type. It's a great opportunity to get free certificate of business students from international standard Corporate Finance Institute

Muhammad Awais Ahmad

Good revision for those who have lost touch on derivatives. Clear illustrations provided.

Xanadu Samsudin

Well put explanations especially on calculations

Joan Kinya

Simple and easy to understand. Very useful for basic learning and an introduction to the subject.

Ishmeet Lamba

The course content is very informative for beginners and structured well.

Sai Teja Yalla

The course was explained in an extremely simplified manner.

Mohit Sankpal

The courses are very nice and also easy to understand

Mayank Jain

VERY GOOD COURSE FOR DERIVATIVE LEARNER

Adil Kamal

Marvelous course

Rohan Singh

This course is very helpful for me to understand what is Derivatives & it's type. Which will definitely help in Future.

Pramodkumar M Yadav

I thoroughly enjoyed this course as it gave me a refresher into derivatives. The explanations were clear and the examples easy to follow.

Priscilla Ogamba

The course covered the basics and gave an insight on derivative concepts as well as practical applications

Mehek rai

Very nicely explained

Md Mobashir Alam

very helpful course and of course, an add-on to the financial knowledge

Anisha Pawar

good

MITHUN .

nice

Prajakta Kerkar

This section involves so many basic yet difficult terms which was always very confusing for me, but trust me this course made everything so crystal clear! Thank you CFI.. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!

Akshata Mhalsekar

Good course

Santosh Vyavhare

Excellent to refresh your understanding . Good for beginners as well.

Girish Rajan (CRICP)

Even after passing the assessment, I retook the course again. It is very informative!

Kelvin Kamande Karanja

A decent brief about the derivatives

Gajendra Singh

A very good course for beginners to get a brief understanding about derivatives.

PAVAN KUMAR GADE

Materials are informative.good to learn it

sanjidah sutana

It is one of the best courses for finance

Simran Aggarwal

i highly recommend this course to our colleagues

Ahmed Nagah Ahmed

insightful course

taiwo michael oloyede

I recommend this course as it was very engaging with the multimedia, graphs and even examples used made the course more effective.

Biradar Sridhar

The course on introduction to derivative was very informative. I would recommend this short course to my colleagues.

Tamilarasan Govindarasan

The course was highly informative and educative.

Adedayo Awogbade

There was an in-depth explanation about the topic and I learnt maximum about the derivatives

Divya CS

This course was all i was hoping to get.

Richmond Botchey

all content was informative and useful

lavi sharma

I used to find this topic very difficult to understand. So I wanted a course which can make me understand the basics so that I can proceed further. This course covers all the four derivatives types and their basics. And I am highly satisfied.

Soumya Kapoor

This course is very interesting and worth for increasing skills, Thank you so much !

Romaric Christian Tuwindpulongo Yougbaré

Excellent course. Love it.

Eduardo Rodriguez del Paso

I love Derivatives. This course has broadened my understanding on how the derivatives work in the real world scenario. The excel examples were a bit tricky to understand but anyways the instructor handled it very efficiently.

Roopashree D

Course was good, there was lot of numericals to back the theory. It gives a good introductory understanding of derivatives instruments

Rachit Singh Martolia

The chapters were really helpful and instructive for one want a way ahead in Financial Markets

MUKUL KUMAR KESHRI

The course was very adaptable, understanding & also is in compliance with current market conditions. I would like to do more if opportunities are available in future.

Harshali Narkhede

nice content

anurag pandey

I don't believe I will complete this course but finally I have completed course under CFI. Thank you CFI for a great opportunity to me n my all friends. What a great lecture for my future. Wht a magical days in lockdown. Thanks a lot 🙏

Mahesh Dalavi

This is an excellent course.

Mellisa Maweni

If you're looking to gain insight on Derivatives, it's functions and usage, then this is a great option. Great for beginners, easy step-by-step worked examples with Bloomberg navigation tricks and shortcuts

Aeisha Searles

A must watch to understand Introduction to Derivatives in simplest way.

Madhushree Shettigar

Great work for beginners.

KALLEDA SANJAY SATHVIK REDDY

This course is extremely helpful in understanding basic concepts with the bloomberg examples.

Akash Singhal

an excellent well articulated course which helps clear out many things in derivatives.

Furqan Hanif

I recommend this course. It's a very useful tool for learning.

António Jorge Martins

It is very knowledgeable exam which sharpen our mind by knowing about derivatives and its components.

Divya kumawat

good to study from you

Nayna Sakpal

Extremely Informative

Tuviksh Narula

Wonderful platform to learn both in terms of theory and practical . I am enjoying learning the various financial courses. Thank you.

Kshitija Surve

The teaching was really good and well understood.

Kavish Kadakia

it cover almost all aspects and it is more informative than basic

Aditya Goyal

The course teaches the each and every terms very clearly and simple manner.

Saurav Baidehi

It is indeed a very good course to understand the basics of derivates and very helpful for students as well as from whom who want to start learnig about derivatives. everything was very concise and clear.

Mohammad Kashif

Clear and complete explanation of derivatives compared to other references.

Adolf Josef Yao

This provides a really good introduction to derivatives and the various instruments often used.

Gabriel Tan

this course was very informative.

shatakshi kulkarni

Amazing content

Arya kumari

A must study for anyone willing to understand contracts and or with clients dealing with them.

Nathan Kimani

As its an introduction you should make it more simpler and explain all the terms like strike price, spot price, LIBOR, MIBOR and then go to concepts.

BHAWNA BANSAL

Nice introduction to derivatives.

Kishore Srinivasan

superb delivery, i would suggest to improve the swap portion calculation a little bit

Anant Sureka

Such a wonderful way to learn and improve my concepts which is described by you its effective and very effective.

ANOOP SINGH

the question is about futures and forward and the answers are about options.

Marta Raimundi

This is a wonderful course to begin understanding of Derivatives and analogies used. Simple to the point and easy to understand. Thanks, I enjoyed the course and developed basic understanding.

Siddharth Jain

this is lovely, derivatives made easy

Bilkis Lawal-Ndalolo. (CNA)

It was exciting and encouraging to follow the lecturer and apply the formulas in the relevant excel sheet. Such interactive sessions should be more often.

Mohammad Ali Rashid

Fantastic module. I would like to see a clearer example of valuing a future in MS Excel rather than the margin. Still, this is useful because you rarely get examples for margins.

Hardeep Singh Dugh

Its a good course designed for students to get an introduction on stock market basics of derivatives and futures trading. Wishing all the best to CFI Team. - Sreeraj G Pai

SREERAJ G PAI

Frequently asked questions

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Based on hundreds of reviews from thousands of students we know how CFI courses have helped so many people advance their finance careers. Our courses are designed to be extremely practical and simulate the experience of being trained as a professional financial analyst…the ultimate way to advance your career. For real-world examples and help delve even deeper into the course concepts, please look into our free career resources library.

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All Access Subscription is priced for $497 per year as Self-Study plan or $897 per year as Full Immersion plan.

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All Access Subscription includes all courses from Financial Modeling & Valuation Analyst (FMVA)® Certification, Commercial Banking & Credit Analyst (CBCA)™ Certification, Capital Markets & Securities Analyst (CMSA)® Certification, Business Intelligence & Data Analyst (BIDA)™ Certification, Commercial Real Estate Finance Specialization and Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) Specialization.