Problem 15-03

June Klein, CFA, manages a $300 million (market value) U.S. government bond portfolio for an institution. She anticipates a small parallel shift in the yield curve and wants to fully hedge the portfolio against any such change.

PORTFOLIO AND TREASURY BOND FUTURES CONTRACT CHARACTERISTICS
					Conversion Factor	Portfolio Value /
	Modified		Basis Point		for Cheapest to	Future Contract
Security	Duration		Value		Deliver Bond	Price
Portfolio	10 years		$300,000.00		Not Applicable	$300,000,000
U.S. Treasury bond futures contract	7 years		$201.86		1	96-04

1. Formulate Kleins hedging strategy using only the futures contract shown. Calculate the number of futures contracts to implement the strategy. Do not round intermediate calculations. Round your answer up to the nearest whole number.

   Kleins hedging strategy is to -Select-buysellItem 1 futures contracts.

2. Determine how each of the following would change in value if interest rates increase by 10 basis points as anticipated. Use the rounded value of the number of futures contracts from part a. Round your answers to the nearest dollar. Enter your answers as positive values.
   1. The original portfolio.

      The market value of the original portfolio will -Select-declineincreasenot changeItem 3 by $ .

   2. The Treasury bond futures position.

      The total cash -Select-inflowoutflowItem 5 from the futures position will be $ .

   3. The newly hedged portfolio.

      Theoretically, the change in the value of the hedged portfolio is -Select-zerothe change in value of the original portfoliothe cash flow from the hedge positionItem 7 .

3. State three reasons why Kleins hedging strategy might not fully protect the portfolio against interest rate risk.
   1. If interest rates decrease Kleins hedging strategy can not be applied. It means that the strategy protects the portfolio only against increase in interest rate.
   2. The volatility of the yield between the T-bond futures and the government bond portfolio may not be one-to-one.
   3. This may still be a cross-hedge, because the government bonds in the portfolio may not be the same as the cheapest-to-deliver bond.
   4. The duration will change as time passes, so risk will arise unless continual rebalancing takes place

   -Select-II, III, IVI, II, IIII, II, IVI, III, IVItem 8