A critical review of techniques for Term Structure analysis

The simplest field theory description of the multivariate statistics of forward rate variations over time and maturities, involves a quadratic action containing a gradient squared rigidity term. However, this choice leads to a spurious kink (infinite curvature) of the normalized correlation function for coinciding maturities. Motivated by empirical results, we consider an extended action that contains a squared Laplacian term, which describes the bending stiffness of the FRC....

The paper uses functional auto-regression to predict the dynamics of interest rate curve. It estimates the auto-regressive operator by extending methods of the reduced-rank auto-regression to the functional data. Such an estimation technique is better suited for prediction purposes as opposed to the methods based either on principal components or canonical correlations. The consistency of the estimator is proved using methods of operator theory. The estimation method is used ...

We propose a unifying framework for the pricing of debt securities under general time-inhomogeneous short-rate diffusion processes. The pricing of bonds, bond options, callable/putable bonds, and convertible bonds (CBs) are covered. Using continuous-time Markov chain (CTMC) approximation, we obtain closed-form matrix expressions to approximate the price of bonds and bond options under general one-dimensional short-rate processes. A simple and efficient algorithm is also devel...

We introduce a first theory of price impact in presence of an interest-rates term structure. We explain how one can formulate instantaneous and transient price impact on bonds with different maturities, including a cross price impact that is endogenous to the term structure. We connect the introduced impact to classic no-arbitrage theory for interest rate markets, showing that impact can be embedded in the pricing measure and that no-arbitrage can be preserved. We present pri...

In the third part of this series we introduce consistent relative value measures for CDS-Bond basis trades using the bond-implied CDS term structure derived from fitted survival rate curves. We explain why this measure is better than the traditionally used Z-spread or Libor OAS and offer simplified hedging and trading strategies which take advantage of the relative value across the entire range of maturities of cash and synthetic credit markets.

This article presents an empirical study of thirteen derivative markets for commodity and financial assets. It compares the statistical properties of futures contracts's daily returns at different maturities, from 1998 to 2010 and for delivery dates up to 120 months. The analysis of the fourth first moments of the distribution shows that the mean and variance of the commodities follow a scaling behavior in the maturity dimension. The comparison of the tails of the probability...

The traditional way of building a yield curve is to choose an interpolation on discount factors, implied by the market tradable instruments. Since then, constructions based on specific interpolations of the forward rates have become the trend. We show here that some popular interpolation methods on the forward rates correspond exactly to classical interpolation methods on discount factors. This paper also aims at clarifying the differences between interpolations in terms of d...

The paper analyzes the mathematics of the relationship between the default risk and yield-to-maturity of a coupon bond. It is shown that the yield-to-maturity is driven not only by the default probability and recovery rate of the bond but also by other contractual characteristics of the bond that are not commonly associated with default risk, such as the maturity and coupon rate of the bond. In particular, for given default probability and recovery rate, both the level and sl...

US Yield curve has recently collapsed to its most flattened level since subprime crisis and is close to the inversion. This fact has gathered attention of investors around the world and revived the discussion of proper modeling and forecasting yield curve, since changes in interest rate structure are believed to represent investors expectations about the future state of economy and have foreshadowed recessions in the United States. While changes in term structure of interest ...

This study delves into the temporal dynamics within the equity market through the lens of bond traders. Recognizing that the riskless interest rate fluctuates over time, we leverage the Black-Derman-Toy model to trace its temporal evolution. To gain insights from a bond trader's perspective, we focus on a specific type of bond: the zero-coupon bond. This paper introduces a pricing algorithm for this bond and presents a formula that can be used to ascertain its real value. By ...