A Technical Guide For Pricing Interest Rate Swaption
A Technical Guide For Pricing Interest Rate Swaption
A Technical Guide For Pricing Interest Rate Swaption
Vaulation
Alan White
FinPricing
Swaption
Summary
◆ Interest Rate Swaption Introduction
◆ The Use of Swaption
◆ Swaption Payoff
◆ Valuation
◆ Practical Guide
◆ A real world example
Swaption
Swaption Introduction
◆ An interest rate (European) swaption is an OTC option that grants its owner the
right but not the obligation to enter the underlying swap.
◆ There are two types of swaptions: a payer swaption and a receiver swaption.
◆ A payer swaption is also called a right-to-pay swaption that allows its holder to
exercise into a swap where the holder pays fixed rates and receives floating
rates
◆ A receiver swaption is also called right-to-receive swaption that allows its
holders to exercise into a swap where the holder receives fixed rates and pays
floating rates.
◆ Swaptions provide clients with a guarantee that the fixed rate of interest they
will pay or receive at some of future time will not exceed certain level.
Swaption
Swaption Payoff
◆ For a payer swaption, the payoff at payment date T is given by
𝑃𝑎𝑦𝑓𝑓𝑝𝑎𝑦𝑒𝑟 = max(0, 𝑁𝐴(𝑆𝑇 − 𝑆0 )
where
N- the notional;
A – the annuity or forward basis point value
𝑆0 – the fixed rate or contract swap rate at inception
𝑆𝑇 – the swap rate at time T
Valuation
◆ The present value of a payer swaption is given by
𝑃𝑉𝑝𝑎𝑦𝑒𝑟 𝑡 = 𝑁𝐴 𝑆Φ 𝑑1 − 𝐾Φ(𝑑2)
where
t – the valuation date
N – the notational principal amount
𝑛
𝐴= 𝑖=1 𝜏𝑖 𝐷𝑖 – the annuity factor or forward basis point value
𝑆 = 𝐷1 − 𝐷𝑛 𝐴 - the forward swap rate
Φ - the cumulative standard normal distribution function
i – the ith cash flow (swaplet) of the underlying swap from 1 to n
𝜏𝑖 = 𝜏(𝑇𝑖−1 , 𝑇𝑖 ) – the accrual period ( , ) of the ith cash flow.
𝐷𝑖 = 𝐷(𝑡, 𝑇𝑖 ) – the discount factor
Swaption
Valuation (Cont)
◆ The present value of a receiver swaption can be expressed as
𝑃𝑉𝑝𝑎𝑦𝑒𝑟 𝑡 = 𝑁𝐴 𝐾Φ −𝑑2 − 𝑆Φ −𝑑1
Practical Guide
◆ A swaption contract contains terms and conditions of the swaption and the
underlying swap. For example, it specifies two maturities: swaption
maturity and underlying swap maturity.
◆ The valuation model for pricing a swaption is the Black formula that
assumes the underlying swap rate follows a log-normal process.
◆ First, one needs to generate the cash flows of the underlying swap. The
generation is based on the start time, end time and payment frequency of
each leg, plus calendar (holidays), business convention (e.g., modified
following, following, etc.) and whether sticky month end.
Swaption
Practical Guide
◆ The accrual period is calculated according to the start date and end date of
a cash flow plus day count convention
◆ Any compounded interest zero rate curves can be used to compute discount
factor, of course the formulas will be slightly different. The most common
used one is continuously compounded zero rates.
◆ The other key for accurately pricing an outstanding swaption is to construct
an arbitrage-free volatility surface. Unlike a cap/floor volatility surface that
is 3 dimensional (maturity – strike – volatility), a swaption volatility surface
is 4 dimensional (swaption maturity – underlying swap tenor – strike –
volatility).
Swaption