We hope you have enjoyed our well received video series this year, by Edmund Parker, our Global Head of Derivatives & Structured Products, on the new 2014 ISDA Credit Derivatives Definitions. If you have not had the chance to view these they can be viewed below.
A number of you have fed back to us, that many viewers would enjoy a talk on the history of derivatives generally, combined with a contextually clear explanation of what derivatives are. As a Seasonal Special, Ed therefore asked his father, historian Professor Geoffrey Parker, to join him to look at, and present, ”The history of derivatives – From Ancient Mesopotamia to Trading Places”.
The attached video is an insightful look at this history, stretching from the times of Babylonian King Hammurabi, 4000 years ago, through the Ancient Middle East, Greece and Rome; then London and Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, and the American, European and Asian markets of the 19th and 20th centuries, ending at the start of the modern era in the 1980s.
This entertaining piece will be of interest not just to derivatives specialists, but also to all those who have an interest in the history of the financial markets. (running time 52.25)