Hello again.

This post is the fourth in an ongoing series covering chapter 3 of my book and starting here. It’s a short one, to make up for the monster post of last week.

As I already mentioned, IKB, Quaternion and d-fine are organizing a two-days QuantLib workshop in Düsseldorf on November 13th and 14th. The agenda is here; if you’re interested, send an email to the contacts listed in there. Registration is free; there are just 35 places, though.

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Term structures

Example: adding z-spread to an interest-rate curve

This example (a lot simpler than the previous one) shows how to build a term-structure based on another one. We’ll take an existing risk-free curve and modify it to include credit risk. The risk is expressed as a z-spread, i.e., a constant spread to be added to the zero-yield rates. For the pattern-savvy, this is an application of the Decorator pattern; we’ll wrap an existing object, adding some behavior and delegating the rest to the original instance.

Listing 3.12: Implementation of the ZeroSpreadedTermStructure class.

  class ZeroSpreadedTermStructure : public ZeroYieldStructure {
    public:
      ZeroSpreadedTermStructure(
                        const Handle<YieldTermStructure>& h,
                        const Handle<Quote>& spread);
      : originalCurve_(h), spread_(spread) {
          registerWith(originalCurve_);
          registerWith(spread_);
      }
      const Date& referenceDate() const {
          return originalCurve_->referenceDate();
      }
      DayCounter dayCounter() const {
          return originalCurve_->dayCounter();
      }
      Calendar calendar() const {
          return originalCurve_->calendar();
      }
      Natural settlementDays() const {
          return originalCurve_->settlementDays();
      }
      Date maxDate() const {
          return originalCurve_->maxDate();
      }
    protected:
      Rate zeroYieldImpl(Time t) const {
          InterestRate zeroRate =
              originalCurve_->zeroRate(t, Continuous,
                                       NoFrequency, true);
          return zeroRate + spread_->value();
      }
    private:
      Handle<YieldTermStructure> originalCurve_;
      Handle<Quote> spread_;
  };

The implementation of the ZeroSpreadedTermStructure is shown in listing 3.12. As previously mentioned, it is based on zero-yield rates; therefore, it inherits from the ZeroYieldStructure adapter described here and will have to implement the required zeroYieldImpl method. Not surprisingly, its constructor takes as arguments the risk-free curve to be modified and the z-spread to be applied; to allow switching data sources, both are passed as handles. The arguments are stored in the corresponding data members, and the curve registers with both of them as an observer. The update method inherited from the base class will take care of forwarding any received notifications.

Note that none of the base-class constructors was called explicitly. As you might remember from this post, this means that instances of our curve store no data that can be used by the TermStructure machinery; therefore, the class must provide its own implementation of the methods related to reference-date calculation. In true Decorator fashion, this is done by delegating behavior to the wrapped object; each of the referenceDate, dayCounter, calendar, settlementDays, and maxDate methods forwards to the corresponding method in the risk-free curve.

Finally, we can implement our own specific behavior—namely, adding the z-spread. This is done in the zeroYieldImpl method; we ask the risk-free curve for the zero-yield rate at the required time (continuously compounded, since that’s what our method must return), add the value of the z-spread, and return the result as the new zero-yield rate. The machinery of the ZeroYieldStructure adapter will take care of the rest, giving us the desired risky curve.