FinAcademy › Risk Track I › Rates & bonds

Module R10 · VRM 9–13, FMP 16, 18–20

Rates and bonds for the exam

What the free site already teaches (discounting, spot and forward rates, duration, convexity, swaps) is reused; this module adds the exam-specific pieces: quote conventions, realised return and carry roll-down, DV01 variants and the two-bond hedge, key-rate 01s, PCA hedging, MBS prepayment, bond and SOFR futures.

7 lessons · 22 interactive figures · 49 exercises

Module progress
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  1. 1Pricing conventions: T-bills, bonds between coupons, par rates
    Quotes are not prices. This lesson converts every quote the exam uses into cash.
    7 exercises
  2. 2Realised return, carry roll-down and the P&L decomposition
    A bond's return is what you assumed about tomorrow's curve. Say the assumption out loud and the P&L splits into four pieces.
    7 exercises
  3. 3DV01, duration, convexity and the two-bond hedge
    DV01 is a dollar. Duration is a percentage. Convexity is the correction when the move is big.
    7 exercises
  4. 4Key-rate 01s, bucketing and PCA hedging
    A parallel shift is one scenario. Ten key rates are ten. PCA says three would have done.
    7 exercises
  5. 5Mortgages, prepayment and MBS
    A mortgage pool pays back early when rates fall, which is exactly when you did not want the cash.
    7 exercises
  6. 6Bond futures, cheapest-to-deliver and SOFR futures
    The short chooses which bond to deliver. Conversion factors make the choice almost fair, and "almost" is the whole lesson.
    7 exercises
  7. 7Swaps and FRAs, exam style
    The free site prices swaps off a multicurve. The exam wants the bond view, the FRA view, and the currency swap as two bonds.
    7 exercises
Module test

20 questions drawn at random from the 49 exercises of this module, 48 minutes on the clock, marked instantly with the worked solution and a link back to the lesson for every miss.