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vantan
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Joined: March 3rd, 2005, 11:54 pm

CMS

April 21st, 2005, 11:18 pm

Hi,Have another question about Constant Maturity Swaps (CMS). I'm quite new with CMS. Please advise.1. I'm confused whether the floating leg is libor or current swar rate. I read several paper and they mention it differently.2. What is "a 5-year 6% floors on 10-year CMS"? Which rate should I compare with 6% when I make a decision on exercise? When does the first floorlet begin? (Does it make sense if I'll execise at t(0)?3. In what sense is this different from a typical Floor?Many thanks,Vantan
 
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Pat
Posts: 28
Joined: September 30th, 2001, 2:08 am

CMS

April 22nd, 2005, 12:15 pm

a 5-year 6% floors on 10-year CMS ... set up a standard schedule (I think quarterly) starting spot of today and running 5 years. 2 (london) business day before each interval starts, one looks at the 10y swap rate for the swap that starts on the intervals start date. At the end of the period, one pays max{6% - SwRate, 0} * dcf where dcf is the day count fraction for the interval. Having said that, (a) I am really not sure if the stadard frequency is quarterly (b) I believe the day count basis follows the swap rate basis (30/360 for USD, Act365 for GBP) (c) there may be a convention that the first caplet is not paid for spot starting CMS floors, since its payoff would be set on the trade date and effectively just change the price.