Interest rate swap Wikipedia. In finance, an interest rate swap IRS is an interest rate derivative IRD. 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. General Descriptionedit1An interest rate swaps IRSs effective description is a derivative contract, agreed between two counterparties, which specifies the nature of an exchange of payments benchmarked against an interest rate index. The most common IRS is a fixed for floating swap, whereby one party will make payments to the other based on an initially agreed fixed rate of interest, to receive back payments based on a floating interest rate index. In finance, an interest rate derivative IRD is a derivative whose payments are determined through calculation techniques where the underlying benchmark product is. A Appendices A. 1 Time grid and day count conventions In this appendix we will be reviewing some practical details related to the time grid 0T0 ltT1 ltltTN. Notes 5. Seeforexample,PiterbargAndersen,InterestRateDerivativesModeling2011. See for example, Merton 1974, and Hull White, Valuing Credit Default Swaps. Andersen Piterbarg Interest Rate Modeling Pdf ReaderEach of these series of payments is termed a leg, so a typical IRS has both a fixed and a floating leg. The floating index is commonly an interbank offered rate IBOR of specific tenor in the appropriate currency of the IRS, for example LIBOR in USD, GBP, EURIBOR in EUR or STIBOR in SEK. To completely determine any IRS a number of parameters must be specified for each leg the notional principal amount or varying notional schedule, the start and end dates and date scheduling, the fixed rate, the chosen floating interest rate index tenor, and day count conventions for interest calculations. Graphical depiction of IRS cashflows between two counterparties based on a notional amount of EUR1. IBOR index. Extended descriptioneditAs OTC instruments, interest rate swaps IRSs can be customised in a number of ways and can be structured to meet the specific needs of the counterparties. For example payment dates could be irregular, the notional of the swap could be amortized over time, reset dates or fixing dates of the floating rate could be irregular, mandatory break clauses may be inserted into the contract, etc. A common form of customisation is often present in new issue swaps where the fixed leg cashflows are designed to replicate those cashflows received as the coupons on a purchased bond. Download Free Prolapse The Italian Flag Rar File there. The interbank market, however, only has a few standardised types. Each currency has its own standard market conventions regarding the frequency of payments, the day count conventions and the end of month rule. There is no consensus on the scope of naming convention for different types of IRS. Even a wide description of IRS contracts only includes those whose legs are denominated in the same currency. It is generally accepted that swaps of similar nature whose legs are denominated in different currencies are called cross currency basis swaps. Swaps which are determined on a floating rate index in one currency but whose payments are denominated in another currency are called quantos. In traditional interest rate derivative terminology an IRS is a fixed leg versus floating leg derivative contract referencing an IBOR as the floating leg. If the floating leg is redefined to be an overnight index, such as EONIA, SONIA, FFOIS, etc. OIS. Some financial literature may classify OISs as a subset of IRSs and other literature may recognise a distinct separation. Fixed leg versus fixed leg swaps are rare, and generally constitute a form of specialised loan agreement. Float leg versus float leg swaps are much more common. These are typically termed single currency basis swaps SBSs. The legs on SBSs will necessarily be different interest indexes, such as 1. M, LIBOR, 3. M LIBOR, 6. M LIBOR, SONIA, etc. The pricing of these swaps requires a spread often quoted in basis points to be added to one of the floating legs in order to satisfy value equivalence. Interest rate swaps are used to hedge against or speculate on changes in interest rates. In finance, an interest rate swap IRS is an interest rate derivative IRD. In particular it is a linear IRD and one of the most liquid, benchmark products. Andersen Piterbarg Interest Rate Modeling Pdf PrinterInterest rate swaps are also used speculatively by hedge funds or other investors who expect a change in interest rates or the relationships between them. Traditionally, fixed income investors who expected rates to fall would purchase cash bonds, whose value increased as rates fell. Today, investors with a similar view could enter a floating for fixed interest rate swap as rates fall, investors would pay a lower floating rate in exchange for the same fixed rate. Interest rate swaps are also popular for the arbitrage opportunities they provide. Varying levels of creditworthiness means that there is often a positive quality spread differential that allows both parties to benefit from an interest rate swap. The interest rate swap market in USD is closely linked to the Eurodollar futures market which trades among others at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Valuation and pricingeditIRSs are bespoke financial products whose customisation can include changes to payment dates, notional changes such as those in amortised IRSs, accrual period adjustment and calculation convention changes such as a day count convention of 3. E to ACT3. 60 or ACT3. A vanilla IRS is the term used for standardised IRSs. Typically these will have none of the above customisations, and instead exhibit constant notional throughout, implied payment and accrual dates and benchmark calculation conventions by currency. A vanilla IRS is also characterised by one leg being fixed and the second leg floating referencing an IBOR index. The net present value PV of a vanilla IRS can be computed by determining the PV of each fixed leg and floating leg separately and summing. For pricing a mid market IRS the underlying principle is that the two legs must have the same value initially see further under Rational pricing. Calculating the fixed leg requires discounting all of the known cashflows by an appropriate discount factor PfixedNRi1n. PtextfixedNRsum i1n1diviwhere Ndisplaystyle N is the notional, Rdisplaystyle R is the fixed rate, n. Calculating the floating leg is a similar process replacing the fixed rate with forecast index rates PfloatNj1n. PtextfloatNsum j1n2rjdjvjwhere n. IBOR index rates of the appropriate currency. The PV of the IRS from the perspective of receiving the fixed leg is then PIRSPfixedPfloatdisplaystyle PtextIRSPtextfixed PtextfloatHistorically IRSs were valued using discount factors derived from the same curve used to forecast the IBOR rates. This has been called self discounted. Some early literature described some incoherence introduced by that approach and multiple banks were using different techniques to reduce them. It became more apparent with the 2. IRSs was needed. Post crisis, to accommodate credit risk, the now standard pricing framework is the multi curves framework where forecast IBOR rates and discount factors exhibit disparity. Note that the economic pricing principle is unchanged leg values are still identical at initiation. See Financial economics Derivative pricing for further context. Overnight Index Swap OIS rates are typically used to derive discount factors, since that index is the standard inclusion on credit support annexes CSAs to determine the rate of interest payable on collateral for IRS contracts. Since the basis spread between LIBOR rates of different maturities widened during the crisis, forecast curves are generally constructed for each LIBOR tenor used in floating rate derivative legs. Currency basis will require additional curves. Regarding the curve build, the old framework, of a single self discounted curve was bootstrapped, exactly returning the prices of selected instruments. Under the new framework, the various curves are best fitted as a set to observed market data prices. See 451The complexities of modern curvesets mean that there may not be discount factors available for a specific IBOR index curve. These curves are knows as forecast only curves and only contain the information of a forecast IBOR index rate for any future date.