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EX-HEAD OF BANKERS TRUST DERIVATIVES RESEARCH OFFERS DERIVATIVES VALUATION MODELS NEVER BEFORE AVAILABLE Levels the Playing Field of Derivatives Valuation and Risk Control PRINCETON, New Jersey - - August 16, 1995 - - Former head of Bankers Trust Derivatives Research Rich Tanenbaum announced today the release of TOPS, Tanenbaum Option Pricing Software. This marks the first time an options modeler from a pre-eminent Wall Street firm has offered valuation tools used by major investment firms to everyone in the market. Over two years in the making, TOPS is capable of valuing thousands of exotic derivatives structures. "TOPS levels the playing field of derivatives valuation so that everyone has access to the same state of the art technology," says Tanenbaum, co-founder of Savvysoft. TOPS is already being used at nearly twenty companies, including: National Westminster Bank Union Carbide Ernst & Young LLP Deloitte & Touche LLP Societe Generale Schroder Capital Management Power Ranges Make TOPS Robust and Flexible One breakthrough feature of TOPS is Power Ranges. This exclusive TOPS feature allows a user to enter an infinite number of variations for each input parameter of the main derivative structure. Just one TOPS model is powerful and flexible enough to handle the thousands of structures embedded within one primary structure. Structures which did not have valuation models in the market until the release of TOPS include: Fixed/Floating Accrual Swaps Pay As You Go Pay As You Go Swaptions Roller Coaster Swaptions Live Outs Step Up Callable Notes Indexed Amortizing Swaps American Quantos Digital Quantos Lookbacks with a Strike American Spreads American Rainbows American Option on Options American Choosers CMS/CMT w/Caps and Floors TOPS also uses proprietary algorithms and enhancements which yield faster and more accurate derivatives valuations and risk measures. For example, TOPS can price American Barrier options 200 times faster than a "state of the art" algorithm published just a few months ago. "Not only can TOPS be used to value the wide variety of exotic structures currently on the market, but TOPS can also be used as a tool for anyone who wants to invent their own customized structures to better meet their needs," says Catherine Willis of Societe Generale, a TOPS user. Users can value structures based on a full yield curve, a full volatility curve and a full forward price curve with any valuation. In addition, TOPS provides an Interpolator which accepts data ranges and interpolates them via straight-line, log or cubic spline. Valuation and Hedging Tool for Derivatives Structures TOPS values thousands of variations of the following exotic structures: Barriers, Lookbacks, Better and Worse of two assets, Digitals, Quantos, Option on Options, Exchange Options, Swaptions, Asians/Average, Installment Options, Indexed Amortizing Swaps/Indexed Principal Swaps, Accrual Swaps/Range Notes, Commodity Swaps, Standard Strips, Digital Quantos, Standard Options, Caps and Floors, Choosers, Cash Flow Valuation, Spread Options, Interest Rate Swaps and more. All TOPS models handle American, European, and Hybrid/Bermuda options, as well as options on a cash instrument, a futures contract, or a forward contract. The models also value options on interest rates, FX, equities, and commodities, as well as assets with dividends or earned interest. In addition to option values, a full range of sensitivity measures including delta, gamma, theta, vega, foreign rho, rho, and implied volatility are provided. Fast and Easy Data Entry Users of TOPS applaud TOPS Dialog Boxes, which make data entry fast and easy. In particular, they have remarked on how simple it is to use TOPS Dialog Boxes for valuing instruments as complex and wide-ranging as roller coaster swaps, options with changing strikes, step-up coupon swaptions, barriers with changing barriers and thousands of other exotic derivatives structures. "I like the fact that I don't ever have to look anything up," says Scott Stoll, a partner at Ernst & Young LLP. "Whenever my cursor goes from one input field to another, TOPS' Context Sensitive Help changes automatically to provide information pertinent to the current input." System Requirements TOPS works as an Add-In to Excel for Windows 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, Lotus 123 3.x and Lotus for Windows 4.x and 5.x. It also integrates seamlessly into any In-House software, and can be hooked up to software from Renaissance, CATS and Infinity. TOPS also accepts real time data feeds from Reuters, Knight-Ridder and Telerate. Target Market "TOPS is used at large dealers to put together new structures," says LeeAnn Chen, Savvysoft Marketing Director. "Money managers and corporate treasurers use TOPS to make sure the prices they are being shown are reasonable and to control their risks properly. There has also been strong interest from internal and external auditors, who need to independently evaluate the mark to market system already in place at their firms." Pricing TOPS models are available individually with introductory prices of $1,125 to $2,250 per model, plus generous volume discounts. A maintenance contract is available for 15% annually. Savvysoft is a leading supplier of derivatives software and consulting. All product names referenced herein are trademarks of their respective companies. |
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