Webcast: Calculated Risk: Inside the Billion-Dollar 'Gut' of Goldman Sachs

Overview:

While competitors were still betting big on mortgage-backed securities, Goldman Sachs began betting against such derivatives at the start of 2007, even though this was still the fastest-growing business on Wall Street. While it didn't escape the credit crisis without recording a loss in the last quarter of 2008 and changing itself into a bank holding company, the 139-year-old investment firm knew to pull back because of the thousands of stress tests it put on its holdings through an in-house pricing and risk database it created on its own, called SecDB. It even managed to pull off a billion-dollar profit on its exit, while others began to lose their shirts.

View this On-Demand ZDNet Undercover Webcast that brings together a panel of experts to talk about how Goldman Sachs married human, technical and political capital to foresee and then move faster than rivals when economic conditions changed. Learn how your company can take protect its financial assets through proper application of risk analysis systems -- and listening to what the data and your golden 'gut' says.

Panelists include:

Charles D. Ellis, Author, "The Partnership: The Making of Goldman Sachs," Penguin, 2008.
Charles Ellis is a consultant to large institutional investors in America and Asia. For 30 years he was managing partner of Greenwich Associates, an international business strategy consulting firm he founded that serves virtually all the leading financial service organizations around the world. Ellis has served on the boards of Harvard Business School, Stern Schools of Business at New York University and Phillips Exeter Academy.

Robert Arvanitis, Principal, Risk Finance Advisors.
Robert Arvanitis leads a partnership of professionals in a corporate finance advisory practice. He is an expert in parsing, pricing and securitizing risk and a former managing director at Merrill Lynch, where he was head of its Global New Derivatives practice. His previous experience includes service with Moody's Investors Service, where he introduced solvency ratings for insurers and related firms, and strategic advisor to two of the big four public accounting firms.

Ron Papanek Head, RiskMetrics Labs, RiskMetrics Group.
RiskMetrics Group was born out of an internal function at JP Morgan which delivered a daily measure of portfolio risk, known as the "4:15 report." Papanek heads RiskMetrics' lab unit, which identifies and develops new methods of understanding financial risks. He previously oversaw hedge funds and "funds of funds" for the company's Alternative Investments Business and served on RiskMetrics Group's risk advisory group, a team that helps clients execute active risk management strategies.

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