8006 Exam Dumps : Exam I: Finance Theory Financial Instruments Financial Markets - 2015 Edition

A zero coupon bond has a Macaulay duration equal to its maturity, ie in this case 5 years. We can calculate modified duration from Macaulay duration by using the following relationship:

Modified duration = Macaulay duration/(1 + y) where y is the yield.

Therefore the correct answer is 5 / (1.05) = 4.76.

Or intuitively, all the other answers appear clearly incorrect: 5 and 5.25 are too high, and 4 is too low. Therefore the only reasonable choice is 4.76.

Futures contracts carry no gamma. Only options have gamma. Choice 'a' is the correct answer. Any instrument whose price varies in a linear fashion with respect to the underlying will have gamma equal to zero.

Explanation:

If the spot rate is 1.1010 and the forward is 1.1040, the swap rate is 30 "points" (= 1.1040 - 1.1010). The annualized swap premium is the swap premium divided by the spot rate, and therefore =0.0030/1.1010 =0.27%, or 27 basis points.