medium · Principles of Finance valuation

Compare Bond A (10-year, 8% coupon) and Bond B (10-year, 2% coupon), both currently yielding 5%.

If interest rates increase by 100 basis points, which bond will experience the larger percentage price decrease, and why?

  1. Bond B, because bonds carrying lower coupons exhibit lower convexity, making them far more vulnerable to sudden rate spikes.
  2. Bond B, because lower-coupon bonds have a higher proportion of their present value in the distant principal payment, increasing duration.
  3. Both bonds will experience an identical percentage decrease, since they share the same maturity and identical starting yield of 5%.
  4. Bond A, because its larger coupon payments make its price more sensitive to the discount rate applied in the earliest years of the bond's life.

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