LO1: Critically analyse the behaviour of financial markets and institutions during periods of crisis

This presentation isn’t “just talk about a crisis for 10 minutes”.

For 7FNCE011W, you’re basically being asked to act like a junior analyst putting something in front of senior management who actually use markets, data and Bloomberg every day.

Here’s what that really means in practice, based on the brief you’ve shared.

1. What this assignment is really testing

The learning outcomes tell you exactly what you’re being marked on:

• LO1 – behaviour in a crisis:
  Can you explain, in a clear story, how markets and institutions actually behaved when things went wrong – not in theory, but in a real crisis?

• LO2 – valuation under stress:
  Can you use bond and equity ideas (yields, spreads, prices, volatility, index moves) to show how disruption showed up in numbers?

• LO4 – Bloomberg and data:
  Can you pull relevant charts from Bloomberg, read them properly, and build your argument around them instead of copying headlines from Google?

If your slides and explanation do those three things well, you’re already in “good/distinction” territory. Everything else (layout, references, structure) supports this.

2. Choosing your crisis and angle (don’t stay vague)

You only need one crisis from the list:

• 2008 Global Financial Crisis

• European Debt Crisis (2010–2012)

• COVID-19 market crash (March 2020)

• 2023 banking crisis (SVB / Credit Suisse)

Don’t try to cover everything that happened. That’s how presentations become generic.

Pick a crisis and then decide on:

• Two markets you will focus on (for Section 1), e.g.:

  • Bonds + equities

  • Equities + FX

  • Bonds + FX

• One type of institution for Section 3:

  • Banks

  • Investment funds

  • Insurance / pension funds

Then ask yourself a very simple question:

“In this crisis, what changed in these markets, how did the central bank react, and what did it mean for my chosen type of institution?”

Everything you do should help you answer that question.

3. Making the market analysis (Section 1) actually useful

This is 40% of your mark, so it’s the heart of the assignment.

Instead of saying “bond yields rose” or “equity indices fell sharply”, you are expected to show this with Bloomberg and then explain it.

A simple way to build this section:

1. Set your time windows clearly
   For each market, decide:

   • pre-crisis period (e.g. 6–12 months before), and

   • crisis window (the key weeks/months when things blew up).

2. Choose 3–4 Bloomberg charts that really tell the story
   For example:

   • Bond market: government yield curve before vs during the crisis; credit spreads for financial vs non-financials

   • Equity market: main index level, sector index (e.g. banks), historical volatility (e.g. VIX or HVG)

   • FX: currency pairs showing safe-haven flows (USD, CHF, JPY), or a stressed currency

3. For each chart, answer three questions aloud/on the slide:

   • What exactly am I showing? (index, yield, spread, period)

   • What changed when the crisis hit? (direction, size, speed)

   • What does that tell us about behaviour? (flight to quality, panic, loss of liquidity, risk repricing)

You are not expected to use every Bloomberg code the brief lists. You are expected to choose a small number of functions that are clearly relevant and then interpret them properly.

4. Central banks and regulators: more than a list of measures

Section 2 (30%) is where a lot of students drift into “policy shopping list mode”:

• “The central bank cut rates, did QE, provided liquidity… The end.”

That’s not enough for higher marks.

Try to structure this part around cause → response → effect:

1. What was the central bank worried about in your crisis?
   Example: “Interbank markets froze”, “sovereign spreads exploded”, “currency collapsed”, “equity markets were in freefall”.

2. What did they actually do?
   Rate cuts, emergency lending, swap lines, QE, guarantee schemes, regulatory relief, etc.
   Don’t just name them – link each action to a specific problem.

3. Did it work? Use your market charts.
   This is where you connect back to Section 1:

   • Did spreads narrow after announcements?

   • Did volatility calm down?

   • Did key indices stabilise or recover?

4. Where were the limits or side effects?
   That’s where the “critical” part comes in:

   • Did policy help large banks but leave smaller ones exposed?

   • Did QE support bond markets but fuel later asset bubbles?

   • Did “moral hazard” questions appear?

If you can show even one or two thoughtful critiques like this, grounded in the data you’ve shown, you’re doing what the top bands in the rubric describe.

5. Institutional impact and risk lessons: pick one story and go deep

Section 3 (20%) wants you to zoom into one type of institution and tell a focused risk story.

For example, if you pick banks in 2008:

• How did capital and liquidity positions look before the crisis?

• What specific stresses appeared (funding runs, write-downs, margin calls)?

• How did risk management fail or succeed?

• What changed afterwards (higher capital ratios, new liquidity rules, stress testing, resolution regimes)?

The same logic works for investment funds or pension funds:

• What were they holding before the crisis?

• How did market moves hit those holdings?

• Did they face redemptions / margin calls / solvency concerns?

• What risk lessons were taken on board later?

Don’t try to cover every institution type. One well-developed example is much more convincing and aligns perfectly with the marking criteria.

6. Using Bloomberg like an analyst, not a tourist

Because LO4 and the rubric highlight Bloomberg, it’s worth treating it as part of your “voice”:

• Avoid dumping screenshots you haven’t really read.

• Label charts clearly: series name, dates, key points circled or highlighted.

• In your spoken explanation, say things like:

  “Here, on the GC function, you can see the curve flattening sharply between X and Y – that’s the market pricing in…”

If someone senior was watching, they should feel you actually spent time with the terminal, not that you just clicked around until you found something colourful.

7. Turning the suggested structure into a real plan

The suggested 10–15 slides already do most of the planning for you. You can think of it like this:

• Slides 1–3 – Set up your crisis and timeline so the audience isn’t lost.

• Slides 4–7 – The main evidence: your two markets with Bloomberg charts.

• Slides 8–10 – Connect the policy response to what you’ve just shown.

• Slides 11–13 – Go inside one type of institution and draw out risk lessons.

• Slide 14 – One page of key messages, not a long summary.

• Slide 15 – References and data sources (keep tidy, Harvard style).

If every slide earns its place and links back to LO1, LO2 and LO4, your presentation will feel tight and purposeful, not like a slide dump.