A futures contract is a derivative, but the futures exchange doesn't call them 'derivatives,' they call them 'futures.'

My career in academic research has not been involved with active management of securities. I've tried to understand risk-and-return relationships; also the pricing of derivative securities.

All models have faults - that doesn't mean you can't use them as tools for making decisions.

Most of the time, your risk management works. With a systemic event such as the recent shocks following the collapse of Lehman Brothers, obviously the risk-management system of any one bank appears, after the fact, to be incomplete. We ended up where banks couldn't liquidate their risk, and the system tended to freeze up.

My view is that one should diversify broadly across different fund investments. However, it's tough for investors to try to pick the appropriate risk level that they should manage their funds at. Having a personal adviser would be helpful.

Sometimes the early bird gets the worm, but sometimes the early bird gets frozen to death.