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A swaption is an option granting its owner the right but not the obligation to enter into an underlying swap. Although options can be traded on a variety of swaps, the term "swaption" typically refers to options on interest rate swaps.
There are two types of swaption contracts (analogous to put and call options): [1]
In addition, a "straddle" refers to a combination of a receiver and a payer option on the same underlying swap.
The buyer and seller of the swaption agree on:
There are two possible settlement conventions. Swaptions can be settled physically (i.e., at expiry the swap is entered between the two parties) or cash-settled, where the value of the swap at expiry is paid according to a market-standard formula.
The participants in the swaption market [2] are predominantly large corporations, banks, financial institutions and hedge funds. End users such as corporations and banks typically use swaptions to manage interest rate risk arising from their core business or from their financing arrangements. For example, a corporation wanting protection from rising interest rates might buy a payer swaption. A bank that holds a mortgage portfolio might buy a receiver swaption to protect against lower interest rates that might lead to early prepayment of the mortgages. A hedge fund believing that interest rates will not rise by more than a certain amount might sell a payer swaption aiming to make money by collecting the premium. Investment banks make markets in swaptions in the major currencies, and these banks trade amongst themselves in the swaption interbank market. The market-making banks typically manage large portfolios of swaptions that they have written with various counterparties. A significant investment in technology and human capital is required to properly monitor and risk-manage the resulting exposure. Swaption markets exist in most of the major currencies in the world, the largest markets being in U.S. dollars, euro, sterling and Japanese yen.
The swaption market is primarily over-the-counter (OTC), i.e., not cleared or traded on an exchange. [3] Legally, a swaption is a contract granting a party the right to enter an agreement with another counterparty to exchange the required payments. The owner ("buyer") of the swaption is exposed to a failure by the "seller" to enter the swap upon expiry (or to pay the agreed payoff in the case of a cash-settled swaption). Often this exposure is mitigated through the use of collateral agreements whereby variation margin is posted to cover the anticipated future exposure.
There are three main styles that define the exercise of the swaption:
Exotic desks may be willing to create customised types of swaptions, analogous to exotic options. These can involve bespoke exercise rules, or a non-constant swap notional.
The valuation of swaptions is complicated in that the at-the-money level is the forward swap rate, being the forward rate that would apply between the maturity of the option—time m—and the tenor of the underlying swap such that the swap, at time m, would have an "NPV" of zero; see swap valuation. Moneyness, therefore, is determined based on whether the strike rate is higher, lower, or at the same level as the forward swap rate.
Addressing this, quantitative analysts value swaptions by constructing complex lattice-based term structure and short-rate models that describe the movement of interest rates over time. [4] [5] However, a standard practice, particularly amongst traders, to whom speed of calculation is more important, is to value European swaptions using the Black model. For American- and Bermudan- styled options, where exercise is permitted prior to maturity, only the lattice based approach is applicable.
In finance, an interest rate swap (IRS) is an interest rate derivative (IRD). It involves exchange of interest rates between two parties. In particular it is a "linear" IRD and one of the most liquid, benchmark products. It has associations with forward rate agreements (FRAs), and with zero coupon swaps (ZCSs).
In finance, an interest rate cap is a type of interest rate derivative in which the buyer receives payments at the end of each period in which the interest rate exceeds the agreed strike price. An example of a cap would be an agreement to receive a payment for each month the LIBOR rate exceeds 2.5%.
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In mathematical finance, the Greeks are the quantities representing the sensitivity of the price of a derivative instrument such as an option to changes in one or more underlying parameters on which the value of an instrument or portfolio of financial instruments is dependent. The name is used because the most common of these sensitivities are denoted by Greek letters. Collectively these have also been called the risk sensitivities, risk measures or hedge parameters.
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In finance, a swap is an agreement between two counterparties to exchange financial instruments, cashflows, or payments for a certain time. The instruments can be almost anything but most swaps involve cash based on a notional principal amount.
In finance, an interest rate derivative (IRD) is a derivative whose payments are determined through calculation techniques where the underlying benchmark product is an interest rate, or set of different interest rates. There are a multitude of different interest rate indices that can be used in this definition.
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In finance, a bond option is an option to buy or sell a bond at a certain price on or before the option expiry date. These instruments are typically traded OTC.
In mathematical finance, a Monte Carlo option model uses Monte Carlo methods to calculate the value of an option with multiple sources of uncertainty or with complicated features. The first application to option pricing was by Phelim Boyle in 1977. In 1996, M. Broadie and P. Glasserman showed how to price Asian options by Monte Carlo. An important development was the introduction in 1996 by Carriere of Monte Carlo methods for options with early exercise features.
In financial mathematics, the Ho-Lee model is a short-rate model widely used in the pricing of bond options, swaptions and other interest rate derivatives, and in modeling future interest rates. It was developed in 1986 by Thomas Ho and Sang Bin Lee.
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The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to finance:
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In finance, an option is a contract which conveys to its owner, the holder, the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell a specific quantity of an underlying asset or instrument at a specified strike price on or before a specified date, depending on the style of the option. Options are typically acquired by purchase, as a form of compensation, or as part of a complex financial transaction. Thus, they are also a form of asset and have a valuation that may depend on a complex relationship between underlying asset price, time until expiration, market volatility, the risk-free rate of interest, and the strike price of the option. Options may be traded between private parties in over-the-counter (OTC) transactions, or they may be exchange-traded in live, public markets in the form of standardized contracts.
A dual-currency note (DC) pays coupons in the investor's domestic currency with the notional in the issuer's domestic currency. A reverse dual-currency note (RDC) is a note which pays a foreign interest rate in the investor's domestic currency. A power reverse dual-currency note (PRDC) is a structured product where an investor is seeking a better return and a borrower a lower rate by taking advantage of the interest rate differential between two economies. The power component of the name denotes higher initial coupons and the fact that coupons rise as the foreign exchange rate depreciates. The power feature comes with a higher risk for the investor, which characterizes the product as leveraged carry trade. Cash flows may have a digital cap feature where the rate gets locked once it reaches a certain threshold. Other add-on features include barriers such as knockouts and cancel provision for the issuer. PRDCs are part of the wider Structured Notes Market.
The trinomial tree is a lattice-based computational model used in financial mathematics to price options. It was developed by Phelim Boyle in 1986. It is an extension of the binomial options pricing model, and is conceptually similar. It can also be shown that the approach is equivalent to the explicit finite difference method for option pricing. For fixed income and interest rate derivatives see Lattice model (finance)#Interest rate derivatives.
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