PRMIA 8006 - Exam I: Finance Theory Financial Instruments Financial Markets - 2015 Edition

A traditional collateralized debt obligation (CDO) involves the complete transfer of securities to an SPV, which then issues notes or securities to investors. Therefore Choice 'd' is the correct answer.

A synthetic CDO achieves the same result as a traditional CDO, but uses credit derivatives to synthetically create the same economic effect as a traditional CDO.

A credit default swap is a derivative instrument that pays in the event of the occurrence of agreed credit events. The arrangement described in the question is not a credit default swap purchase. n-th to default swap arrangements are similar to CDSs, but on a portfolio with the first 'n' losses being covered by the swap.

To answer this question, we need to look at the put-call parity, which can be expressed as:

Value of call - Value of put = Spot price - Exercise price discounted to the present

or, Value of call - Value of put = Stock - Bond with a future value equal to exercise price

Therefore, a long call and a short put is equivalent to a long stock position and a short bond.

Choice 'a' is therefore the correct answer. (Alternatively, we could also have constructed a graph of the payoff profiles to arrive at the same answer).

The OTC market for foreign exchange is indeed much larger than the exchange traded futures market for FX. Therefore statement I is correct.

Delivery-versus-payment (DVP) arrangements make sure that title to a security passes only when payment has been made, and these arrangements, usually implemented through national clearing agencies such as the DTC in the US, help avoid the risk of counterparty defaults.

Electronic Clearing Networks (ECNs) offer cheaper trading costs than exchanges, in fact that is their primary attraction. Exchanges offer other advantages, but lower trading costs is not one of them.

ISDA master agreements provide templates that a large number of OTC market participants use to standardize their OTC trading activities. Therefore statement IV is correct.

Mortgage backed securities carry prepayment risk as borrowers tend to prepay mortgages when rates fall, and substitute it with newer cheaper mortgages. This creates the issue of 'negative convexity' for mortgages, ie, they lose value when rates rise, but do not gain in value when rates fall.

Prepayment risk can be offset by instruments that also carry negative convexity. A swaption is an option to borrow in the future at an agreed rate, which may be fixed or floating. An option to borrow in the future paying floating and receiving fixed guards against losses when rates fall, as the option can be exercised for a profit when rates are declining and the mortgage portfolio is being prepaid. A callable bond is very similar to an MBS in that the issuer can call it back when rates fall. Thus a long position in an MBS can be offset by a short position in a callable bond. Thus I and III are valid choices.

A cap allows exchanging fixed for floating when interest rates rise above an agreed rate. A long cap position allows borrowing at a fixed rate in exchange for floating, and a short cap implies receiving fixed and paying floating when rates go above the strike rate. Prepayment risk arises from falling interest rates, therefore a short cap will not protect against such a risk as falling interest rates would mean that no payments would be exchanged. Thus II does not help hedge against the risk in question.

A long position in a fixed for floating swap would require paying fixed and receiving floating when rates are falling. This would just make the problem from prepayments worse as the position would pay fixed and receive a falling rate. Thus IV is not an appropriate way to hedge prepayment risk.

The square root of time rule can be used to convert, say a 1-day volatility to a 10-day volatility, by multiplying the known volatility number by the square root of time to get the volatility over a different time horizon. However, there are key assumptions that underlie the application of this rule, and statements I to III correctly state those assumptions. If serial correlations (whether negative or positive) exist, then asset returns are not independent as they are affected by the prior day or prior period's returns, and we cannot use the square root of time rule. Therefore Choice 'd' is the correct answer.

In order to use the 'square root of time' rule, asset returns should be iid, volatility should stay constant (ie there should be no volatility clustering), and no serial correlations (ie the returns of one day should not be affected by the returns of the prior periods). Choice 'd' is the correct answer.

Since $100 is convertible into two shares, the price upon conversion per share is $50, which is the same as the current share price. Therefore there is no premium, and Choice 'c' is the correct answer.

Interest rate caps are effectively call options on an underlying interest rate that protect the buyer of the cap against a rise in interest rates over the agreed exercise rate. As with options, the premium on the cap depends upon the volatility of the underlying rates as one of its variables. A floor is the exact opposite of a cap, ie it is effectively a put option on an underlying interest rate that protects the buyer of the floor against a fall in interest rates below the agreed exercise rate.

A cap protects a borrower against a rise in interest rates beyond a point, and a floor protects a lender against a fall in interest rates below a point.

A collar is a combination of a long cap and a short floor, the idea being that the premium due on the cap is offset partly by the premium earned on the short floor position. Therefore a collar is less expensive than a cap or a floor.

Choice 'a' is the correct answer as the issue of the floating rate note will provide the utility with the funds it needs, and the interest rate swap would offset the floating rate payment and leave it with a net fixed payment.

Choice 'd' is incorrect as the swap is in the wrong direction.

Choice 'c' is incorrect as buying and selling a floating rate bond would mean the utility will not have any funds that it wants to issue the note for, and combining it with interest rate futures would be just absurd.

Choice 'b' is incorrect as buying a floating rate note would use funds while the utility is trying to raise funds.

The greater the rebalancing frequency, the more effective the hedge. But the higher the rebalancing frequency (ie the how often the hedge is true-ed up as a response to changes in the market), higher are the transaction costs. Higher transaction costs reduce hedge performance. Therefore transaction costs limit the ability of traders to continuously trade and keep delta at or close to zero. Transaction costs include a number of elements, including market impact costs, dollar costs per trade, and the bid-offer spread on the security.

Traders have to strike a balance between transaction costs and the rebalancing frequency when making decisions on hedging. Bid-offer spreads, cost per trade and the rebalancing frequency are therefore relevant considerations. The volatility of the underlying is not something the trader would consider when taking decisions to delta hedge (unless as part of an active bet on future volatility) and therefore Choice 'c' is irrelevant to the trader's decision, and is the correct answer.

Explanation:

If the spot rate is 1.1010 and the forward is 1.1040, the swap rate is 30 "points" (= 1.1040 - 1.1010). The annualized swap premium is the swap premium divided by the spot rate, and therefore =0.0030/1.1010 =0.27%, or 27 basis points.