7. Bill Peters is the investment officer of a $60 million pension fund. He has become concerned about the big price swings that have occurred lately in the fund’s fixed income securities. Peters has been told that such price behaviour is only natural given the recent behaviour of market yields. To deal with the problem, the pension fund’s fixed income money manager keeps track of exposure to price volatility by closely monitoring bond duration. The money manager believes that price volatility can be kept to a reasonable level as long as portfolio duration is maintained at approximately seven to eight years.
Discuss the concepts of duration and convexity and explain how each fits into the price-yield relationship. In the situation describe above, explain why the money manager should have used both duration and convexity to monitor the bond portfolio’s exposure to price volatility.