110 likes | 264 Views
Predicting fixed income credit spread movements. March 1, 2001 Mary Murphy Luisa Rubino Steve Smigie Gigi Widham. Summary. Prediction of direction and magnitude of credit spread movements for: 10-year US Swap Spread spread between US corporate AAA 7-10 year and 10-year Treasury Bond
E N D
Predicting fixed income credit spread movements March 1, 2001 Mary Murphy Luisa Rubino Steve Smigie Gigi Widham
Summary • Prediction of direction and magnitude of credit spread movements for: • 10-year US Swap Spread • spread between US corporate AAA 7-10 year and 10-year Treasury Bond • spread between US corporate BBB 7-10 year and the 10-year Treasury Bond • Prediction was most successful for the spread between AAA and 10-year T-Bond • Trading strategy produces an annualized alpha of 1.01% • Predictive power can be used to test other trading strategies
Why Credit spreads? • Increase in significance of corporate debt in fixed income portfolio management • Decrease in supply of Treasury bonds • Reduction in number of fixed income asset classes in Europe • Relevance of credit risk for fixed income investors
Historical trends Corporate spreads Swap spreads
Methodology • Reviewed existing research • Focused on financial variables • Used in-sample data from January 1990 to December 1999 • Tested models out of sample from January 2000 to December 2000
Variables • Lag of the change in S&P 500 P/E • Lag of the S&P 500 P/E • Lag of the change in the VIX • Lag of the change 30-year Treasury Bond future volatility • Lag of the change in the 10 year on/off spread • Lag of the change in the yield of 10-year Treasury bonds • Lag of the spread btwn BBB and the AAA yields (7-10yr maturities) • Lag of the change in spread between the 10 year T-bond and 3 Month T-bill • Lag of change of each credit spread • Lag of each credit spread
Models • AAA Spread t = 0.103 - 0.511 AAA Spread t-1 + 0.477 Swap Spread t-1 - 0.039 S&P500 P/E t-1 • BBB Spread t = 0.111 – 0.148 AAA Spreadt-1 + 0.808 Swap Spread t-1 + 0.273 10yr T-bond t-1 - 0.049 S&P500 P/E t-1 + 0.614 BBB - AAAt-1 • Swap Spread t = - 0.016 + 0.002 S&P500 PE t-1 - 0.055 Swap Spread t-1 – 0.004 S&P500 P/E t-1 + 0.032 BBB Spread t-1
Trading strategy • Long position in BBB corporate bonds and short equal amount in 10 year Treasury bond when model predicts that credit spreads tighten • Results: (vs. benchmark of 30 day Euro$)
Conclusions/future paths of study • Credit spread movements are predictable • Models include valuable information to predict business cycle • Future research could test trading strategies that capitalize on the predictive power