As long as the graders understand what you’re saying, I’d imagine shorthand will be fine. Daren Miller at Wiley, who was an exam grader for a couple of years, says you can even draw arrows for things going up or down. https://youtu.be/eSHIjxAINqI?t=661 In this video you can see him writing a /w and “mngts” in the example too.
I would think that we’ll want to stick to the very obvious and well known shorthand though.
Of course I’d stick with conventional shorthand that can reasonably be understood. I just wanted to make sure whether or not the graders are forced to assume nothing more than what is written word for word or if they can act as human beings with common sense.
Your answer has given me much relief though, thank you!
My usage is when writing out the equation for asset allocation adjustments such as purchasing futures to increase portfolio duration. I don’t think the method of duration makes a difference here. Albeit, at the end of the day everyone should simply be using effective duration only