What is the yield to maturity for a 5% annual coupon bond trading at par? The bond matures in 10 years.
The yield to maturity for a bond trading at par will be identical to its coupon. Therefore the yield to maturity for this bond will be 5%
What is the approximate delta of an exactly at-the-money call option?
The delta of an at-the-money call option is close to 0.5. It is close to 1 when it is deep in the money. It is close to 0 when it is deep out of the money. It is never negative. Therefore Choice 'b' is the correct answer.
Which of the following is NOT a historical event which serves as an example of a short squeeze that happened in the markets?
There was no event such as the CDO squeeze in 2008. (Quite on the contrary, securitized products were selling at distressed prices.).
The silver squeeze of 1979-80 (Hunt brothers), the Chicago fire of 1872 (leading to a short squeeze on wheat), and the wheat squeeze (Hutchingson) of 1866 are real historical events that led to short squeezes in commodity markets. Choice 'b' is therefore the correct answer.
For the PRM exam, you should try to remember the event broadly, and the commodity involved.
The gamma of a call option is 0.08. What is the gamma of the corresponding put option?
From the put-call parity, we know that Call - Put = Stock - Bank deposit. Since the bank deposit has a zero Gamma, and the Gamma of the Stock itself is also 0, we get the relationship Gamma of Call - Gamma of Put = 0. Therefore, if the Gamma of a call option is 0.08, the Gamma of the corresponding put option is also 0.08.
An investor holds a portfolio of mortage backed securities valued at $100m. Using a Monte Carlo based pricing model, he determines that the value of the portfolio would rise to $102m if interest rates were to fall by 45 basis points, and fall to $97m if interest rates were to rise by 45 basis points. What is the estimated modified duration of the investor's portfolio?
For fixed income portfolios where standard cash flow discounting models are not available, duration calculations are based upon estimated price moves in response to a change in rates. Recall that we define duration as the percentage change in price expected for a 1% change in yield. In this case, we have three price points known to us:
Line | Price | Yield
a | $102 | r - 45bps
b | $100 | r
c | $ 97 | r + 45bps
(where r is the current yield)
The change in price from line a to line c is $102m - $97m = $5m. We use the middle point, ie $100m, to calculate the percentage change. Therefore the percentage change in price is $5m/$100m = 5%.
The change in yield between lines a and c is 90 basis points [=(r+45bps) - (r-45bps)]. In other words, the change in price is 5% for a 90 bps change in yield. So the duration can be calculated as 5/(90/100) = 5.56. The other answers are incorrect.
