Solution
Two factors account for prominence of US Treasuries
1) Volume
2) Liquidity
Department of Treasury = largest global single issuer of debt. Most active/liquid market
in the world.
All Treausury securities
are noncallable. Thus, investors are not subject to call risk
Marketable Treasury secs
fixed-principal securities or inflation-indexed securities
Treasury Bills
- issued at discount
- no coupon
- one year or less
- return to the investor = the difference between the maturity value and purchase price
Treasury notes
- pay coupons
- 1 to 10 years
Treasury bonds
- pay coupons
- Greater than 10 years
Fixed-Rate vs. Floating-Rate
Fixed-Rate: pays interest semiannually
Floating-Rate: makes quarterly payments
TIPS
Treasury Inflation Protection Securities
- both the coupon payment and maturity are adjusted for inflation semiannually
(inflation-adjusted principal)
Treasury Auction Process
- noncompetitive bids
- lazy entity willing to purchase the sec at the yield determined by the auction process
- $ bid amount reserved at beginning
Treasury Auction Process
- competitive bid
- bidder specifies the quantity and yield sought
stop-out yield ("high yield")
, - The highest yield accepted by the Treasury
- everyone gets it
on-the-run issue ("current issue")
most recently auctioned issue
when-issued market
- when Treasury securities are traded prior to the time they are issued
Treasury bills are quoted on...
bond discount basis (not price basis)
Price Quoted on TBills Formula
Y = (D/F) * (360/t)
bond equivalent yield
- the measure that seeks to make the TBill quote comparable to Treasury notes &
bonds
- CD equivalent yield also does the same taking into consideration the price of a TBill
91-19+
19/32 + 1/64
= 91.0609375
107-222
22/32 + 2/256
= 107.6953125
109-066
6/32 + 6/256
= 109.2109375
Accrued Interest
- investor compensating the seller of a bond for the coupon interest earned from the
time of the last coupon payment to the settlement date
- number of days = days in which the investor has earned interest
trade date
date on which the transaction is executed
settlement date
transaction completed (next day)
Interest accrues...
- from the date including the previous coupon payment
- up to (but excluding) the settlement date
For Treasury coupon securities...
the actual day count convention is used
Coupon stripping (STRIPS)