Mortgages / Structured Finance Research Analyst

[exotic]

I will be interviewing for a position in "Mortgages / Structured Finance Research Analyst" at an investment bank. Job Description includes "performing complex financial modeling & valuation work; writing regular industry and company reports" among others.

Is anyone familiar with this area of work? How much modeling (deep understanding of rates valuation models) does this involve really? I am curious especially because I was assuming modeling was more a part of risk management / model validation world rather than research.

 

[John]

I think you would probably need to know about the cash flow models inherent in the MBS/Agency/subprime ABS (the waterfall; the deterministic part of the model) structured securities. As to valuation, familiarity with prepayment models, market-consistent pricing is probably needed (the stochastic part of the modeling/valuation). Also would be good to know how the subprime ABX index works; Andy has a great writeup on this topic. Understanding of real estate (commercial if we are talking about CMBS) would probably be helpful (expect a question about how to value a commercial property in your interview).

References:
https://www.quantnet.com/threads/pricing-abx-index-for-newbies.9949/
https://www.quantnet.com/threads/credit-derivatives-research-papers.935/