Please provide original answers to the following questions. Your answers should be no longer than 100 words long in a single paragraph. Please include a maximum of one illustration (e.g., chart, table, or figure) per answer.
1. When will a bond trade at a discount? Par? At a premium? Which bonds will be the most sensitive to changes in yields? Explain.
2. Provide an explanation of standardizations and conventions associated with credit default swaps. Which did not exist before the Big Bang protocol?
3. What is the credit fixings methodology used to settle CDS?
4. How will the Dodd Frank Act impact OTC derivatives?
5. What is a basket CDS? What motivates investors to invest in basket CDS? Do you think a basket CDS will be more or less expensive than a portfolio of single name CDS written on the names in the basket? Explain.
6. Compare and contrast Credit Default Swaps and Asset Swaps.
7. How is the CDX index created? Explain in detail.
8. What is a CDO? What is a synthetic CDO? What are CDO squareds? What motivated investors to invest in CDO squareds?
9. How and why has the notional outstanding for CDS and IRS changed over the past 7 years?
10. What is the difference between IRS value and IRS price? How can each of these be calculated?