Which bond has the greatest price volatility? A
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A. B. C. D.B
This question is asking: given a change in yield, which of the bonds will exhibit the greatest price change? Of the four choices, the bond with the longest maturity and lowest coupon will have the greatest price volatility.
All else equal, the bond with the longer term to maturity is more sensitive to changes in interest rates. Cash flows that are further into the future are discounted more than near-term cash flows. Here, this means that one of the 20-year bonds will have the highest volatility. Similar reasoning applies to the coupon rate. A lower coupon bond delivers more of its total cash flow (the bond's par value) at maturity than a higher coupon bond. All else equal, a bond with a lower coupon than another will exhibit greater price volatility. Here, this means that of the 20-year bonds, the one with the 5% coupon rate will exhibit greater price volatility than the bond with the 10% coupon.