Pages, Workflows and Playbooks

Users access and make use of Equinox through a number of “pages” that work similar to most web applications.

The current line-up features the following collections of page types:

• Portfolio (Data) Pages
• (Risk) Analysis Pages
• Reporting Pages
• Reference (Data) Pages

Portfolio Pages

Portfolio Pages are in general where the portfolio manager will work with concrete information.

Analysis Pages

Analysis Pages are the pages where the portfolio manager organizes and executes analyses that support sustainable portfolio management objectives.

• Workflow: Store generic workflows (with foreign keys to other objects)
• Limitflow: Workflow specialized for the applications of limit framework
• Playbook: Store generic playbook (with foreign key to workflow)
• Objective: Store generic objective (with foreign key to playbook)

You can use controller to

• fetch and store workflow data from a opencpm instance (TBD)
• Orchestrate creditNet runs (parametric etc.)
• Orchestrate other model runs (TBD)

TBD: integrate offline configurations with DB based configurations

• CLI ADMIN functions delete_workflows playbooks etc.

controller knows about Objectives and Playbooks. It does not know about workflows except indirectly (through playbooks)

A number of classes emulate opencpm objects (simplified)

Objectives

Objectives is a core organizational concept of Equinox. Under the Objectives approach, the credit portfolio management mission is decomposed into a number of distinct objectives (aims, targets) which in turn can be achieved by executing a sequence of tasks, denoted playbooks or workflows

In its simplest, the end result of fulfilling a portfolio management objective using Equinox is the production of a set of numbers (a Report) about various aspects of the portfolio. Working with visual data may also lead to graphical reports. More complex reports will involve composite workflows and storage of results (also for Audit purposes).

Objective Categories

Provide Portfolio Information

In this category of objectives the goal is to obtain insights about the current stat of the portfolio through views and summaries of portfolio data.

Manage Concentration Risk

In this category the focus is on identifying weaknesses in the current portfolio such as excessive concentrations to different risk factors

Guide Origination of new credit assets

This category ties up portfolio management with overall strategy for the portfolio. Actual or hypothetical proposals are analyzed in the context of the current portfolio

Manage Risk Appetite

This category links up portfolio management objectives with risk constraints (for example exposure limits) imposed by internal or external requirements and policies.

Manage Risk Capital and risk-adjusted returns

This category links the asset side (risky assets) with the liability side (equity and debt instruments or guarantees). It is the most complex objective class

Support for Objectives in Equinox

In Equinox achieving the objectives is via one of the following mechanisms:

• Using Built-in (standardized) functionality in the various Apps that directly fulfills an objective without further requirements from the user
• The more flexible Playbook/Workflow mechanism that enables full customization and extension of Equinox to incorporate arbitrarily complex sequences of calculations and report generation (but also requires deeper technical skills)

Examples

• A simple example of fulfilling a Portfolio Information objective is using a built-in method is to create a report on portfolio statistics using the Portfolio Explorer app
• An example of using a workflow-based method to fulfill a concentration management objective is to compute a concentration index via one of the linked models available for that purpose

Keeping Record (Audit Trail)

Equinox can assist with reaching Portfolio Management objectives but it does not know what those objectives are, cannot verify whether they are appropriate or whether they have been achieved! The functionality that is provided in this direction is a faithful audit trail (record of calculations) that have been performed (The Results Explorer App)

Playbooks

1. one or more Workflows along with a list of Workflow-Deltas. Each delta produces a new result
2. a selection of post-processing operations on the results of the workflow execution. Each post-processing operation selects a number of results and produces an new playbook result

Workflow Deltas

• A workflow-delta is a modification to a JSON object based Workflow
• It identifies the field to modify and the new value
• The list is an explicit enumeration (but can become a function)
• It must produce a workflow that validates the JSON schema

Post Processing Operations

• Take a set of existing results and create summaries / estimates / plots
• Eg. Compare two model results
• Compute rate of convergence
• Compare two portfolio outcomes

Reporting Pages

Reporting Pages are where portfolio managers generate information material to communicate to other stakeholders.

Reports are the primary means to disseminate results of analyses outside the Equinox environment

The Objectives and Results Explorer provides the functionality for extracting business information from the Equinox system. The type of analysis and reporting provided in this section is linked to the objectives set out in the Sustainable Portfolio Management mandate.

Reference Pages

Reference pages hold reference data that will be typically imported from external sources.