Fixed-Income Securities
Fixed-Income Securities
Pricing of Bonds
The price of any financial security is equal to the total
present value of the expected cash flows from the
security. Therefore, determining the price requires:
● an estimate of the expected cash flows
● an estimate of the appropriate required yield or
rate of return
The required yield reflects the yield for financial
instruments with comparable risk or alternative
substitute investment.
The term comparable indicates option-free bonds with
the same credit quality and maturity.
Pricing of Bonds
The cash flows of an option-free straight bond consist
of all the periodic coupon payments till maturity and par
or face (or maturity) value at maturity.
The bond pricing process is based on the following
three assumptions:
● the coupon payments are made every six
months
● the coupon rate is fixed for the entire term of
the bond
● one rate is used to discount all cash flows
Pricing Zero-Coupon Bond
Pricing process of deep discount or zero-coupon bond.
Pricing of Bonds
Price-Yield Relationship: There exists inverse
relationship between price of bond and the required
yield or market interest rate. The graphical presentation
of the price-yield relationship of an option-free bond
shows a convex shape curve. The point at which the
curve intersects the vertical axis indicates the
maximum price of a bond.
Relationship Among Coupon Rate, Required
Yield or Market Interest Rate and Price:
When CR = YTM, price = par value.
When CR > YTM, price > par value (premium bond)
When CR < YTM, price < par value (discount bond)
Pricing of Bonds
You are reviewing a price sheet for bonds and see the following
prices (per $100 par value) reported. You observe what seem to be
several errors. Without calculating the price of each bond, indicate
which bonds seem to be reported incorrectly, and explain why?
Bond Price Coupon Rate (%) Required Yield (%)
U 90 6 9
V 96 9 8
W 110 8 6
X 105 0 5
Y 107 7 9
Z 100 6 6
Pricing of Bonds
Relationship Between Bond Price and Time (If the
Required Yield or Market Interest Rate is
Unchanged):
If the required yield does not change between the time
the bond is purchased and the maturity date, in case of
a bond selling at par, its coupon will be equal to the
required yield and its price will remain constant as the
bond moves toward the maturity date.
However, the price of a premium or discount bond
will not remain the same as the bond approaches
maturity. The price of a discount bond increases while
the price of a premium bond decreases as it approaches
maturity and the price of both the bonds will be equal
to par at the maturity date.
Pricing of Bonds
Reasons For Change in the Price of a Bond
The price of a bond will change for one or more of the
following reasons:
There is a change in required yield owing to changes
in credit quality of the issuer
There is a change in the price of a discount or premium