European fixed income securities

Introduction to European Fixed Income Securities and Markets... 

This chapter explores interest rate options—a vitat part of the European fixed income securities market. The first section tooks at exchange-traded options, where 20 bittion worth of bond options and over 250 billion of options on short-term rates change hands every day. Next, we ll look at the flexible OTC markets for interest rate options, including caps, collars, swaptions, and structured products. Finally, having explained the products themselves, we ll move on to explore how they can be used to hedge interest rate risk. 

Introduction to European Fixed Income Securities and Markets Moorad Choudhry, Frank J. Fabozzi, and Steven V. Mann... 

The cash flows of a fixed-income security can be denominated in any currency. For bonds issued by countries within the European Union, the issuer typically makes both coupon payments and maturity value payments in euros. However, there is nothing that prohibits the issuer from making payments in other currencies. The bond s indenture can specify that the issuer may make payments in some other specified currency. There are some issues whose coupon payments are in one currency and whose maturity value is in another currency. An issue with this feature is called a dual-currency issue. 

This discussion covers the main factors affecting bond returns in the European fixed income market, namely, the random fluctuations of interest rates and bond yield spreads, the risk of an obligor defaulting on its debt, or issuer-specific risk, and currency risk. There are also other, more subtle sources of risk. Some bonds such as mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities are exposed to prepayment risk, but such instruments still represent a small fraction of the total outstanding European debt. Bonds with embedded options are exposed to volatility risk. However, it is not apparent that this risk is significant outside derivatives markets. 

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