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Infer a Year-on-Year Inflation Swap Rate from Cap and Floor Prices

Article Quant Q&A · Author: peanut_butter_from_the_tub

Summary

The document explains how put-call parity for year-on-year inflation caps and floors can be used to infer the market rate of the underlying inflation swap. In present-value terms, the cap value minus the floor value equals the value of a swap that pays fixed strike K against year-on-year inflation. The implied rate is obtained by adjusting the strike by the swap present value divided by the annuity sensitivity, or DV01, for the underlying period.

The response cautions against introducing a bond yield-to-maturity calculation, which is not needed for this derivation. The DV01 must be calculated separately using nominal discounting, with an annual payment schedule over the swap period. The discussion is specific to the stated parity relationship and valuation setup; it does not provide a numerical example or address conventions, market-data inputs, or adjustments for other instrument structures. Its central practical point is that the cap and floor prices determine a swap PV, which is then translated into a rate using the relevant annuity measure.

Key ideas

  • In present-value terms, the cap value less the floor value equals the value of the corresponding inflation swap.
  • The swap pays fixed strike against year-on-year inflation.
  • The implied swap rate adjusts the strike by swap PV divided by DV01.
  • The DV01 annuity should be computed separately using nominal discounting.
  • A bond yield-to-maturity is unnecessary for the stated implied-rate calculation.

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Full text
# Use the put-call parity to get the implied swap rate of a YoYIIS cap(floor)


# Use the put-call parity to get the implied swap rate of a YoYIIS cap(floor)












Solved

As pointed by @dm63 in the comments, the implied swap rate can be derived by solving the caplet (floorlet) formula for the the interest rate, where you set the formula equal to the Swap NPV (due to the put-call parity).

Update (Original post below): After a bit of reasearch I have found that the put call parity on caps and floors works as it follows:

```
cap - floor = swap
```

Where cap, floor and swap are expressed in their NPV values.

So, using the below model of a fixed rate bond, I could back out the implied YoY swap rate by setting the NPV of the bond equal to the difference `cap - floor` and solve for the yield to maturity. My doubt at this point is: should the coupon on the bond be equal to zero, so that the yield to maturity would effectively be the average rate expected over the life of the bond?

Original Post: I am trying to get the implied swap rate of cap on a YoYIIS. As per any other option, I wanted to use the put-call parity relationship of the B&S model.

In this case tho the underlying of the option is a swap that pays a the difference between the Year-on-Year inflation and the strike rate. My process then was to:

- model a fixed rate bond with coupon rate equal to the strike rate of the YOYIIS swap and maturity equal to the tenor of the swap,

- get the NPV of the bond.

- get the Yield To Maturity of the bond.

As per any swap, the swap rate should be the rate that set to zero the NPV of the swap, so I assumed that the yield to maturity of a bond equal to the fixed rate leg of the swap would be the implied swap rate (i.e. the implied YoY inflation rate over the tenor of the swap).

Am I wrong in my assumption? Also, should I use the Yield to Maturity calculated as above in the put-call parity expression

```
                       `S = K(discounted) - p +c`
```

in place of K(discounted) to get the final implied swap rate (I have the put(floor) and call(cap) prices)? Or the Yield To Maturity itself is the implied swap rate?

Thanks

## Answer by dm63 (score 2, accepted)

https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/71426

You may be over complicating this by introducing bonds. As you say, in PV terms you have the identity: cap - floor = swap , where swap is the value of a swap where you pay a fixed rate K (equal to the strike rate of the cap and floor) vs yoy inflation. The implied market rate for the underlying inflation swap is then $$ K+ Swap PV/DV01$$, where DV01= the value of a 1bp annuity paid annually over the underlying period. This needs to be calculated separately using nominal discounting.

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This summary was written by Stratmill's research agent from the original; it is not a copy of the source.