Pricing Floating-Rate Bond Coupons with Zero-Coupon Bond Replication
Summary
The document derives the value of a floating-rate bond by pricing its coupon payments and principal as cash flows that can be replicated with zero-coupon bonds. It defines each LIBOR coupon from the bond price over its accrual period, then shows that the payment’s value at an earlier time is the difference between the prices of bonds maturing at the period’s start and end. Summing these coupon values with the final principal gives the stated bond pricing formula.
Two risk-neutral valuation arguments support the result: one uses the money-market account as numeraire, and the other uses a maturity-matched forward measure, under which the LIBOR rate is a martingale. A separate replication argument buys a bond maturing at the reset date and reinvests its proceeds to reproduce the later floating payment. The derivation assumes the specified LIBOR and bond-pricing setup; it does not discuss credit risk, transaction costs, or how the result changes under other rate conventions.
Key ideas
- A floating coupon for an accrual period can be expressed using the bond price at the period’s start and end.
- The value of that coupon at an earlier time equals the difference between the two corresponding zero-coupon bond prices.
- A portfolio of zero-coupon bonds can replicate the floating coupon cash flows and final principal.
- Risk-neutral valuation under the money-market numeraire and valuation under a forward measure both support the result.
- The forward-measure argument uses the martingale property of the matching LIBOR rate.
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Full text
# How do I price $P(t)=P(t,T_{n})+\sum_{i=1}^{n}[P(t,T_{i-1})-P(t,T_{i})]$?
# How do I price $P(t)=P(t,T_{n})+\sum_{i=1}^{n}[P(t,T_{i-1})-P(t,T_{i})]$?
Derive the pricing formula $$P(t)=P(t,T_{n})+\sum_{i=1}^{n}[P(t,T_{i-1})-P(t,T_{i})]$$directly, by constructing a self-financing portfolio which replicates the cash flow of the floating rate bond.
$P(t,T_{i-1}) $ means Buy, at time $t$, one $T_{i−1}$-bond. This will cost $P(t, T_{i−1})$ $P(t)$ means price at $t$ time
This question is related to the Arbitrage Theory in Continuous Time book by Tomas Bjork.
## Answer by Gordon (score 3, accepted)
https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/18886
In another solution, the answer is based on replication approach. Here, we provide some other approaches for the valuation of the LIBOR rate, \begin{align} L(T_{i-1}; T_{i-1}, T_i) = \frac{1}{\Delta T_i}\left(\frac{1}{P(T_{i-1}, T_i)}-1\right), \end{align} set a $T_{i-1}$ and paid at $T_i$, where $\Delta T_i =T_i-T_{i-1}$.
Let $E$ be the expectation operator under the risk-neutral measure $P$, which has the money market account value process $B_t$ as the numeraire. Then the value at time $t$ of the float payment $L(T_{i-1}; T_{i-1}, T_i)\Delta T_i$ made at $T_i$ is given by \begin{align*} B_t E\left(\frac{L(T_{i-1}; T_{i-1}, T_i)\Delta T_i}{B_{T_i}}\mid\mathcal{F}_t \right) &= B_t E\left(\frac{L(T_{i-1}; T_{i-1}, T_i)\Delta T_i}{B_{T_{i-1}}} E\left(\frac{B_{T_{i-1}}}{B_{T_i}} \mid \mathcal{F}_{T_{i-1}}\right)\mid\mathcal{F}_t \right)\\ &=B_t E\left(\frac{L(T_{i-1}; T_{i-1}, T_i)\Delta T_i}{B_{T_{i-1}}} P(T_{i-1}, T_i)\mid\mathcal{F}_t \right)\\ &=B_t E\left(\frac{1}{B_{T_{i-1}}} \Big[1 - P(T_{i-1}, T_i)\Big]\mid\mathcal{F}_t \right)\\ &= B_t E\left(\frac{1}{B_{T_{i-1}}}\mid\mathcal{F}_t \right) - B_t E\left(\frac{P(T_{i-1}, T_i)}{B_{T_{i-1}}}\mid\mathcal{F}_t \right)\\ &=P(t, T_{i-1}) - B_t \times \frac{P(t, T_i)}{B_t}\\ &= P(t, T_{i-1}) - P(t, T_i). \end{align*}
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Alternatively, let $E_{T_i}$ be the expectation operator under the $T_i$-forward measure $P_{T_i}$, which has the bond price process $\{P(t, T_i)\mid t \geq 0\}$ as the numeraire. Then the LIBOR rate process $\{L(t; T_{i-1}, T_i) \mid 0\leq t \leq T_{i-1} \}$ is a martingale under $P_{T_i}$. Moreover, for $0 \leq t \leq T_{i-1}$, let \begin{align} \eta_t &\triangleq \frac{dP}{dP_{T_{i}}}\big|_t\\ &=\frac{B_t P(0, T_{i})}{P(t, T_i)}. \end{align} By Bayes formula, for $0 \leq t \leq T_{i-1}$, the value at time $t$ of the float payment $L(T_{i-1}; T_{i-1}, T_i)\Delta T_i$ made at $T_i$ is given by \begin{align*} B_t E\left(\frac{L(T_{i-1}; T_{i-1}, T_i)\Delta T_i}{B_{T_i}}\mid\mathcal{F}_t \right) &= B_t E_{T_i}\left(\frac{\eta_{T_i}}{\eta_t}\frac{L(T_{i-1}; T_{i-1}, T_i)\Delta T_i}{B_{T_i}}\mid\mathcal{F}_t \right)\\ &=P(t, T_i)E_{T_i}\left(L(T_{i-1}; T_{i-1}, T_i)\Delta T_i\mid\mathcal{F}_t \right)\\ &=P(t, T_i)L(t; T_{i-1}, T_i) \Delta T_i\\ &=P(t, T_{i-1}) - P(t, T_i), \end{align*} from the martingale property of $L$ under the $T_i$-forward measure $P_{T_i}$.
## Answer by user16891 (score 1)
https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/18872
Edit for Gordon. First, fix point in time $T_0,...,T_n$ whereas $T_1,...,T_n$ are the coupon dates and $T_0$ is interpreted as the emission date of the bond. At time $T_i$, $i = 1,...,n$ the owner of the bond receives $c_i$.At time $T_n$ the owner receives the face value K.We now go on to compute the price of this bond, and it is obvious that the coupon bond can be replicated by holding a portfolio of zero coupon bonds with maturities $T_i$, $i = 1,...,n$.So the price,$P(t)$, at a time $t < T_1$, of the coupon bond is given by $$P(t)=KP(t,T_{n})+\sum_{i=1}^{n}c_i P(t,T_{i})$$
If the coupon rate $r_i$ is set to the spot LIBOR rate $L(T_{i−1}, T_i)$ ,then \begin{align} c_i=(T_i-T_{i−1})L(T_{i−1}, T_i)K \end{align} We now go on to compute the value of this bond at some time $t < T_0$, in the case when the coupon dates are equally spaced, with $T_i−T_{i−1}=\delta$, and to this end we study the individual coupon $c_i$. Without loss of generality we may assume that $K = 1$, and inserting the definition of the LIBOR rate \begin{align} c_i=\frac{1}{P(T_{i−1}, T_i)}-1 \end{align} The value at $t$, of the term $−1$ , is of course equal to $-P(t, T_i)$ and it remains to compute the value of the term$\frac{1}{P(T_{i−1}, T_i)}$ which is paid out at $T_i$.This is, however, easily done through the following argument.
- Buy, at time $t$, one $T_{i−1}$-bond. This will cost $P(t, T_{i−1})$.
- At time $T_{i−1}$ you will receive the amount $1$.
- Invest this unit amount in $T_{i−1}$-bond. This will give you exactly $\frac{1}{P(T_{i−1}, T_i)}$ bonds.
- At $\,T_i$ the bonds will mature, each at the face value $1$. Thus, at time $T_i$, you will obtain the amount $\frac{1}{P(T_{i−1}, T_i)}$
Thus the value at $t$, of obtaining $\frac{1}{P(T_{i−1}, T_i)}$ at $T_i$, is given by $P(t, T_{i-1})$, and the value at t of the coupon $c_i$ is $P(t, T_{i−1}) − P(t, T_i)$. then, by summing up all values of $c_i$ and the value of the notional amount (i.e. 1) at $T_n$, we have $$P(t)=P(t,T_{n})+\sum_{i=1}^{n}P(t,T_{i-1})-P(t,T_{i})=p(t,T_0)$$Shown in full with attribution under the source's licence. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 (Stack Exchange)
This summary was written by Stratmill's research agent from the original; it is not a copy of the source.