Bond indexation, Financial Management

Assignment Help:

Bond indexation serves the purpose of replicating the performance of a predetermined benchmark as closely as possible. These benchmarks are generally very broader in terms of number of bonds encompassed. For example, in countries like US and Europe, the most common indices include several thousands bonds. Further, the turnover on indices is substantially quite large. This is because of substantial proportion of the bonds maturing each year and significant amounts being issued each year. Very frequently, large segments of bond market behave illiquid. Hence, futures on bond indices are currently a rare phenomenon. In general they are based on notional bonds.

Now, let us discuss about indexing technology. In this section, we will focus on stratified and optimization sampling techniques.

  • Stratified Sampling: Stratified sampling aims to limit the number of bonds included in the indexed portfolio and also avoid trading too small bond positions. In addition, it also tries to avoid being in the illiquid segment of the market. Under stratified sampling, an indexed portfolio is constructed through following below given steps:

-

Initially, the universe of bonds in the benchmark is divided into cells on the basis of certain characteristics of bonds. The characteristics include coupon, term to maturity duration, quality rating and sector etc. Subsequently, the weight of each cell is determined given the weights of bonds in the benchmark.

-

In the second step, for each cell with non-zero weight, a limited number of bonds belonging to the cell are selected and a price weighted portfolio is created. This portfolio matches as closely as possible some of the average characteristics of the cell such as its average duration, convexity etc., and holds appropriate weight in the indexed portfolio.

In case of bonds, the rationing in the number of bonds comes from the explicit limit the indexer imposes while building a bond portfolio for each cell.

  • Optimized Sampling: Optimized sampling overcomes the drawbacks of stratified sampling approach. It has the following advantages.

-

It provides an ex-ante measure of the tracking error of the indexed portfolio with regard to benchmark.

-

It gives access to an optimizer, which facilitates construction of a portfolio by considering the risk trade-off between factors and the transaction costs.

-

It allows the indexer to choose the level of tracking error to be achieved by limiting the number of bonds in the indexed portfolio.


Related Discussions:- Bond indexation

What is indirect method, What is Indirect method Indirect method is wha...

What is Indirect method Indirect method is what you would probably be familiar with. It requires a lot less information to produce it and hence can be argued to be easier metho

Analyze the corporate financial statements, You are currently an Analyst wo...

You are currently an Analyst working for a finance publication firm and as part of your responsibilities; you are required to provide a monthly forecast and analysis of certain com

Define believe an increased common stock cash dividend, Do you believe an i...

Do you believe an increased common stock cash dividend can send a signal to the common stockholders?  If so, what signal might it send? An increase in cash dividends is frequentl

Interpretations of profitability ratio''s, Interpretations of Profitability...

Interpretations of Profitability Ratio's - ROA:       ROA or the Return on Assets ratio is the ratio of net profit to total assets and this ratio indicates whether total assets

M.r, capital structure

capital structure

What, differentiate between pricing and allocative efficincy

differentiate between pricing and allocative efficincy

Investment decision and financing decision, The Investment Decision: - Inv...

The Investment Decision: - Investment decision as well known as 'Capital Budgeting' is related to the selection of long-term assets or else projects in which investments will be m

Show the accept-reject criteria, Q. Show the Accept-Reject Criteria? Ac...

Q. Show the Accept-Reject Criteria? Accept-Reject Criteria:- If the actual payback period is not more than the predetermined payback period...................... Project

How do risk-averse investors compensate, How do risk-averse investors compe...

How do risk-averse investors compensate for risk when they take on investment projects? For the reason of risk aversion, people demand elevated rates of return for taking on hi

How the export promotion trade strategy, Question 1: (i) How are educa...

Question 1: (i) How are education and economic growth connected? (ii) Explain how the export promotion trade strategy may be more growth promoting for developing economies,

Write Your Message!

Captcha
Free Assignment Quote

Assured A++ Grade

Get guaranteed satisfaction & time on delivery in every assignment order you paid with us! We ensure premium quality solution document along with free turntin report!

All rights reserved! Copyrights ©2019-2020 ExpertsMind IT Educational Pvt Ltd