Reference no: EM132371370

Assessment Task - Web-based Assignment

1. General Information

This assessment comprises a paper of about 2,000 - 2,500 words (i.e., 7 - 8 pages double- spaced, 12 pts Time New Roman font type). Students are asked to prepare a report setting out a basic analysis of the bond market in two selected countries. The focus of this assessment task is to test the students' understanding of CLOs 1, 2, 3, and 4. The due date for this assessment task is specified on the Canvas course site.

Task in Brief:

"You are a bond analyst working for a securities firm. Prepare a report which sets out an analysis of the bond market in two selected countries using the real-world, recent bond data you have collected from reliable sources and the forecasting techniques and concepts covered in the course to replicate realistic predictions for future inflation and interest rates. It is not sufficient to simply present typed or spreadsheet solutions. You are required to demonstrate and explain your assumptions and detailed workings to obtain your solutions, conclusions, arguments, and statements."

You are reminded that it is an individual assignment and the analysis for the assignment should be done separately.

Materials:

Bond market data and other relevant data from reliable sources, e.g., central banks, Bloomberg, Thomson-Reuter, IMF website, subscribed databases, etc.

Assessment:

The assignment will be marked out of 100 and will comprise 40% of the final ECON1239 grade. The allocation of marks will be divided among the following areas: (1) General and Presentation, (2) Range and accuracy of calculations and collected data, (3) Economic analysis and interpretation of results and findings, including original contribution.

Assignment Requirements

Please consult the appendix to this document for an example of how to analyse the bond data within the context of your course. The core elements of this assignment contain eight (8) parts, each carrying an equal weight. A discussion of the assignment will be held at the lecture in teaching week 5/6. Please read carefully the following.

Part 1:

You are required to collect the most recent bond market data, namely, yields to maturity, over the periods for which you have the data. Your data must be from reliable sources, e.g., you should not collect the data from personal blogs. Also, it should not be from too generic sources, i.e., you should not collect data from Wikipedia.

You are required to choose the US and TWO other country of your own choosing.

Part 1A:

Collect the yields to maturity and other relevant data, if any, for the maturities of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 30 years. Present your data clearly and neatly in a properly formatted table.

Part 1B:

Consult the appendix to this assignment to gain a basic understanding of the approximate method for predicting future interest rates. Use the approximate method to calculate the discount rate ("DR") that the bond market appears to consider appropriate over the following periods (see the Appendix):
- For 1-year
- Averaged over 1 - 2 years
- Averaged over 3 - 5 years
- Averaged over 6 - 10 years
- Averaged over 11 - 20 years
- Averaged over 21 - 30 years

Show all of your detailed workings for at least one country, i.e., either for the USA or for the country of your own choosing, or both. Present your calculations clearly and neatly.

Part 2:

Use the reliable internet sources to collect the predicted rates of inflation for all the periods for which you have forecasted the discount rates. Use your calculated discount rates and these inflation rates to predict the real rates of interests for those periods based on the following formula:

Real Rate of Interest = (1 + Nominal Rate)/(1 + Inflation Rate) - 1

For future periods in which there are no predicted inflation rates, you can assume either that the last predicted inflation rate will stay constant for such periods or that the last real rate of interest as calculated will stay constant. BUT you are required to JUSTIFY your assumptions.

Show all your detailed workings, for at least one country, in this part of your assignment. You can present these workings in an appendix if necessary.

Part 3:

Use your results to compare the predicted rates between the USA and your two selected country. Make sure that you use your own economic analysis of your results or findings. For example, stating that one rate is higher than the other without any further comment on the reasons for it does not constitute economic analysis. In addition, if you use any other expert opinions from such sources as financial newspapers or statements by some central bank, make sure to quote the source properly.

Part 4:

Use your forecasting results in previous parts to make comments on the USA and the rates on TIPS (Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities).

Part 5:

Comment on how the YTMs of Treasury bonds have changed since April 30th 2019 as below. How does the market appear to have changed its predictions?

Year-bond	US	US TIPS	Australia	Japan	Germany	UK
Cash	2.25%	-	1.50%	0.10%	0.00%	0.75%
3-month	2.31%	-	-	-	-	-
6-month	2.28%	-	-	-	-	-
12-month	2.10%	-	1.20%	-0.15%	-0.58%	0.62%
2-year	1.84%	-	1.11%	-0.19%	-0.67%	0.56%
5-year	1.85%	0.28%	1.17%	-0.21%	-0.57%	0.61%
10-year	2.08%	0.35%	1.48%	-0.10%	-0.20%	0.86%
20-year	2.61%	0.42%	1.95%	0.29%	0.21%	1.33%
30-year	2.55%	0.73%	3.15%	0.45%	0.41%	1.45%

Part 6:

Use the relevant theories of the term structure of interest rates to discuss how they affect your interpretation/results/findings.

Part 7:

In the light of your findings, comment on the excerpt below from The Economist:

Buttonwood 4-10 March 2017.

"If there is one aspect of the current era sure to obsess the financial historians of tomorrow, it is the unprecedented low level of interest rates. Never before have deposit rates or bond yields been so depressed in nominal terms, with some governments even able to borrow at negative rates. It is taking a long time for investors to adjust their assumptions accordingly. Real interest rates (i.e., allowing for inflation) are also low. As measured by inflation-linked bonds, they are around minus 1 % in big rich economies."

Part 8:

Discuss how you see the implications of your findings for the stock market.

Attachment:- Principles of Finance.rar