NO.PZ201812020100000409
问题如下:
SD&R
Capital (SD&R), a global asset management company, specializes in fixed-income
investments. Molly, chief investment officer, is meeting with a prospective
client, Leah of DePuy Financial Company (DFC).
Leah
informs Molly that DFC’s previous fixed-income manager focused on the interest
rate sensitivities of assets and liabilities when making asset allocation
decisions. Molly explains that, in contrast, SD&R’s investment process first
analyzes the size and timing of client liabilities, and then it builds an asset
portfolio based on the interest rate sensitivity of those liabilities.
Molly notes that SD&R generally uses actively managed portfolios designed to earn a return in excess of the benchmark portfolio. For clients interested in passive exposure to fixed-income instruments, SD&R offers two additional approaches.
- Approach 1: Seeks to fully replicate a small range of benchmarks consisting of government bonds.
- Approach 2: Follows an enhanced indexing process for a subset of the bonds included in the Bloomberg Barclays US Aggregate Bond Index. Approach 2 may also be customized to reflect client preferences.
Leah informs Molly that DFC has a single $500 million liability due in nine years, and she wants SD&R to construct a bond portfolio that earns a rate of return sufficient to pay off the obligation. Leah expresses concern about the risks associated with an immunization strategy for this obligation. In response, Molly makes the following statements about liability-driven investing:
- Statement 1: Although the amount and date of SD&R’s liability is known with certainty, measurement errors associated with key parameters relative to interest rate changes may adversely affect the bond portfolios.
- Statement 2: A cash flow matching strategy will mitigate the risk from non-parallel shifts in the yield curve.
The discussion turns to benchmark selection. DFC’s previous fixed-income manager used a custom benchmark with the following characteristics:
- Characteristic 1: The benchmark portfolio invests only in investment-grade bonds of US corporations with a minimum issuance size of $250 million.
- Characteristic 2: Valuation occurs on a weekly basis, because many of the bonds in the index are valued weekly.
- Characteristic 3: Historical prices and portfolio turnover are available for review.
Based
on DFC’s bond holdings and Exhibit 2, Molly should recommend:
选项:
A.
Benchmark 1.
B.
Benchmark 2.
C.
Benchmark 3.
解释:
B
is correct. DFC has two types of assets, short term and intermediate term. For
the short-term assets, a benchmark with a short duration is appropriate. For
the intermediate-term assets, a benchmark with a longer duration is
appropriate.
In
this situation, DFC may wish to combine several well-defined sub-benchmark
categories into an overall blended benchmark (Benchmark 2). The Bloomberg
Barclays Short-Term Treasury Index is an appropriate benchmark for the
short-term assets, and SD&R uses a 50% weight for this component. The
longer-duration Bloomberg Barclays US Corporate Bond Index is an appropriate
benchmark for the intermediate-term assets, and SD&R uses a 50% weight for
this component. As a result, Molly should recommend proposed Benchmark 2.
为什么可以选第二个benchmark
另外,选benchmark的时候不用考虑duration是吗?我理解的是,duration越接近,两者对市场的波动敏感程度越接近,越能更好地track,当然是在不考虑convexity等等的情况下