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An inverse floater
(or reverse floater) is a
floater whose
coupon fluctuates inversely with
its reference rate—increasing when the reference rate decreases and
decreasing when the reference rate increases. With each coupon payment,
the floating rate is reset for the next period according to the formula:
floating rate = fixed rate – coupon leverage
reference rate |
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The multiplier is called the
coupon leverage. Often, it is equal to 1, but not always. If it
exceeds 1, the instrument is called a
leveraged inverse floater.
Inverse floaters have been issued by
corporations or
government-sponsored
enterprises as intermediate-term notes. A typical structure might
have a maturity of five years, pay interest quarterly, and offer a
floating rate of 12% minus two times a reference rate of 3-month
USD Libor. There might also be a cap and/or floor
for the floating rate.
Collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs) are sometimes structured
as inverse floater tranches called inverse floater CMOs.
If collateral is fixed rate mortgages, offsetting floater and inverse
floater tranches are paired. In this way, fixed coupons are split into
floating and inverse floating coupons.
Market
values
of floaters tend to be unstable. Their
durations
are typically very high. They have in the past been popular with investors who wanted to bet
on a decline in interest rates.
During the 1990s, inverse floaters gained a bad
reputation. Money market funds are typically restricted to investing in
money market instruments with maturities under a year. Many make an
exception for floaters with maturities in excess of a year because these
have durations under a year. Managers of some money market funds used this
as a loophole and invested in inverse floaters as a way to bet on the
direction of interest rates. When those bets went bad, the funds incurred
losses not typical of money market funds. Several affected fund companies
stepped in and made up the losses with their own money. It is unlikely
they will let the same thing happen again.
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cap A type of
derivative instrument that offers protection against rising interest rates.
collateralized
mortgage obligation A type of
mortgage-backed security.
credit risk Risk due to
uncertainty in a counterparty's ability to meet its obligations.
duration and convexity Factor sensitivities indicating first order (linear)
and second order (quadratic) sensitivity to parallel shifts
in the spot cure.
fixed income
term structure Refers collectively to a spot curve, forward curve,
discount curve, yield curve or any other curve that describes the time value of
money at a particulate point in time.
floater
A fixed income instrument whose coupon fluctuates with some designated reference
rate.
floor A type of
derivative instrument that offers protection against declining interest rates.
mortgage
backed security A security interest in
mortgage collateral.
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Ads by Contingency Analysis
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Two books that discuss inverse
floaters are:
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