How To Use This Guide
This guide is built around one question you should ask on every single trade: “the trader just booked this — what do I, as Product Control, actually need to check, today and every day after?” Every product chapter therefore opens with a practical action box — what to verify on Day 1, what to monitor daily, and what to revisit at period-end — before it goes into the pricing theory. The theory is there to support the checklist, not replace it: you check the reset date because you understand fixings (Chapter 16); you challenge a valuation because you understand the curve it was built from (Chapter 10). Every chapter follows the same rhythm:
- “When a trader books this” — the concrete Day 1 / Daily / Period-end actions a controller performs.
- A plain-English explanation of the concept — no jargon before it's defined.
- A boxed formula you can screenshot and pin to your monitor.
- A fully worked numerical example with real cash-flow style numbers.
- A "Controller's Tip" — the thing experienced controllers check that juniors miss.
- A "Common Break / Pitfall" — the exact FOBO or P&L break this topic causes in practice.
The guide closes with a full end-to-end worked daily P&L explain for a Rates swaps book, and a consolidated glossary and break-checklist you can use as a BAU reference.
Read Chapter 1 (what the Rates desk actually does) and Chapter 2 (the daily control cycle) before Chapters 3–6 (pricing mechanics) and Chapters 12–15 (P&L explain) if you are new to the desk — you cannot explain a break until you understand how the instrument is priced, and you cannot prioritise your day until you understand the control cycle.