6 days to go!

I didn't realize you missed my finance lessons so much. Since you wanted to know, I am studying the Greeks. No, not Greek mythology, architecture or even Alexander the Great. These are the Greek letters used to measure dimensions of risk in a option position.

First there is Delta, defined as the rate of change of the option price with respect to the price of the underlying asset. He is the head honcho of the Greeks because he represents the number of shares you must buy or sell to offset the risk of selling an option contract. He gives large investment banks the ability to make risk free profits off of option buyers (also known as doctors, lawyers and suckers).

We also have Delta's beautiful wife Vega. Vega is the rate of change of the value of the portfolio with respect to the volatility of the underlying asset. If you partner with Vega, be prepared for unpredictable fluctuations.

Delta's first born son is Gamma, the rate of change of a portfolio's delta with respect to the price of the underlying asset. Thus, he is the second partial derivative of the portfolio value with respect to the asset price.

A not so important cousin is Theta, the rate of change of the portfolio value with respect to the passage of time. Theta isn't important because the passage of time is perfectly predictable, meaning it should not need to be hedged. However, if you have a delta-neutral portfolio and don't know the value of Gamma, Theta is a close approximation.

Last, but not least, is Rho. Rho was the clear favorite of Jon's housing group, who like him so much they named themselves the tri-Rho's (Rho Rho Rho) and made "Rho Your Boat" their housing group theme song. What they probably did not know is that Rho measures the sensitivity of a portfolio value to interest rates.

If you don't understand what I'm talking about, don't worry about it. Very few people that take this test (myself included) do. We just memorize the formulas and move on, knowing there is no chance we will ever use this in real life.