The Following Information Relates to Questions
Lena Liecken Is

question 19

Multiple Choice

The following information relates to Questions
lena liecken is a senior bond analyst at taurus investment Management. Kristel Kreming,
a junior analyst, works for liecken in helping conduct fixed-income research for the firm's
portfolio managers. liecken and Kreming meet to discuss several bond positions held in the
firm's portfolios.
bonds i and ii both have a maturity of one year, an annual coupon rate of 5%, and a mar-
ket price equal to par value. The risk-free rate is 3%. historical default experiences of bonds
comparable to bonds i and ii are presented in exhibit 1.
EXHIBIT 1 Credit Risk Information for Comparable Bonds

$\begin{array}{lcc}&&\text { Percentage of Bonds That}\\&&\text { Survive and Make Full}\\\text { Bond } & \text { Recovery Rate } & \text { Payment } \\\hline \text { I } & 40 \% & 98 \% \\\text { II } & 35 \% & 99 \% \\\hline\end{array}$
Bond III
Bond III is a zero-coupon bond with three years to maturity. Liecken evaluates similar bonds and estimates a recovery rate of $38 \%$ and a risk-neutral default probability of $2 \%$ , assuming conditional probabilities of default. Kreming creates Exhibit 2 to compute Bond III's credit valuation adjustment. She assumes a flat yield curve at $3 \%$ , with exposure, recovery, and loss given default values expressed per 100 of par value.
$$\begin{array}{l}\text { EXHIBIT } 2 \text { Analysis of Bond III }\\\begin{array} { l c c c c c c c } \hline \text { Date } & \text { Exposure } & \text { Recovery } & \begin{array} { c } \text { Loss Given } \\\text { Default }\end{array} & \begin{array} { c } \text { Probability } \\\text { of Default }\end{array} & \begin{array} { c } \text { Probability } \\\text { of Survival }\end{array} & \begin{array} { c } \text { Expected } \\\text { Loss }\end{array} & \begin{array} { c } \text { Present Value } \\\text { of Expected } \\\text { Loss }\end{array} \\\hline 0 & & & & & & & \\1 & 94.2596 & 35.8186 & 58.4410 & 2.0000 \% & 98.0000 \% & 1.1688 & 1.1348 \\2 & 97.0874 & 36.8932 & 60.1942 & 1.9600 \% & 96.0400 \% & 1.1798 & 1.1121 \\3 & 100.0000 & 38.0000 & 62.0000 & \underline{1.9208 \% }& 94.1192 \% & \underline{1.1909} &\underline{ 1.0898} \\ \text { Sum } & & & & 5.8808 \% & & 3.5395 & 3.3367 \\\hline\end{array}\end{array}$$
Bond IV
Bond IV is an AA rated bond that matures in five years, has a coupon rate of $6 \%$ , and a modified duration of 4.2. Liecken is concerned about whether this bond will be downgraded to an A rating, but she does not expect the bond to default during the next year. Kreming constructs a partial transition matrix, which is presented in Exhibit 3, and suggests using a model to predict the rating change of Bond IV using leverage ratios, return on assets, and macroeconomic variables.
$$\begin{array}{l}\text { EXHIBIT } 3 \text { Partial One-Year Corporate Transition Matrix (entries in \%) }\\\begin{array} { l r c c } \hline \text { From/To } & \text { AAA } & \text { AA } & \text { A } \\\hline \text { AAA } & 92.00 & 6.00 & 1.00 \\\text { AA } & 2.00 & 89.00 & 8.00 \\\text { A } & 0.05 & 1.00 & 85.00 \\\text { Credit Spread (\%) } & 0.50 & 1.00 & 1.75 \\\hline\end{array}\end{array}$$
Default Probabilities

Kreming calculates the risk-neutral probabilities, compares them with the actual default probabilities of bonds evaluated over the past 10 years, and observes that the actual and risk-neutral probabilities differ. She makes two observations regarding the comparison of these probabilities:

Observation 1: Actual default probabilities include the default risk premium associated with the uncertainty in the timing of the possible default loss.

Observation 2: The observed spread over the yield on a risk-free bond in practice includes liquidity and tax considerations, in addition to credit risk.
-Kreming's suggested model for bond iV is a:

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Definitions:

Sexual Conflict

A situation in evolutionary biology where the evolutionary interests of males and females diverge, often leading to an evolutionary arms race between the sexes.

Reproductive Organs

Specific organs within an organism that are involved in the production of offspring, including structures for producing gametes and facilitating fertilization and gestation.

Sexual Selection

A form of natural selection where individuals with certain inherited characteristics are more likely than other individuals to obtain mates.

Reproductive Success

The degree to which an organism passes on its genes to the next generation, often measured by the number of offspring that survive to reproduce.