Question 6

Suppose you bought a five-year zero-coupon Treasury bond for $800 per $1000 face value. Suppose after 3 years, the yield to maturity on comparable bonds declines to 3%. Calculate the holding period return if you sell the bond at that time.

*Make sure to input all currency answers without any currency symbols or commas, and use two decimal places of precision.

1 answer

To calculate the holding period return (HPR) on the five-year zero-coupon Treasury bond, we first need to determine the bond's price after three years, given that the yield to maturity (YTM) has declined to 3%.

Step 1: Calculate the price of the bond after 3 years.

The bond initially has a maturity of 5 years, and after 3 years, it has 2 years remaining until maturity (5 - 3 = 2).

The price of a zero-coupon bond can be calculated using the formula:

\[ P = \frac{F}{(1 + r)^n} \]

where:

  • \(P\) is the price of the bond
  • \(F\) is the face value of the bond (which is $1000)
  • \(r\) is the yield to maturity (3% or 0.03)
  • \(n\) is the number of years until maturity (2 years)

Substituting in the values:

\[ P = \frac{1000}{(1 + 0.03)^2} \] \[ P = \frac{1000}{(1.03)^2} \] \[ P = \frac{1000}{1.0609} \] \[ P \approx 941.76 \]

Step 2: Calculate the holding period return (HPR).

The holding period return is calculated as follows:

\[ HPR = \frac{Selling\ Price - Purchase\ Price}{Purchase\ Price} \]

Where:

  • Selling Price = Price of the bond after 3 years = $941.76
  • Purchase Price = $800 (the price at which the bond was initially bought)

Substituting in the values:

\[ HPR = \frac{941.76 - 800}{800} \] \[ HPR = \frac{141.76}{800} \] \[ HPR \approx 0.1772 \text{ or } 17.72% \]

To express this in decimal form (which is often used in financial contexts), the HPR is approximately:

17.72 (without the percent sign or any currency symbol).