Caps & Floors Best Practices

Overview

This document applies to all releases of Eagle software V11 and above.

Interest Rate Caps & Floors are contracts that allow investors to speculate on interest rate movements. In the case of a Cap, the buyer earns income when the prevailing rate is higher than the strike, and in the case of a Floor, when it is lower. Eagle provides core support utilizing a combination of fixed income and option contract functionality. This document covers the full lifecycle including Accounting, Data Management, and Performance.

Payoffs

Cap

Buyer accrues receivable (writer accrues payable) equal to:

(Reference Rate - Strike Rate)

IF

Reference Rate > Strike Rate

0

IF

Reference Rate <= Strike Rate

Floor

Buyer accrues receivable (writer accrues payable) equal to:

(Strike Rate - Reference Rate)

IF

Reference Rate < Strike Rate

0

IF

Reference Rate >= Strike Rate

Entity Setup

Entities can be added/updated using Add/Change Entity or Create/Edit Entity (differs by version). Apart from the regular data setup, entities trading Caps and/or Floors need two additional pieces of data.

  • Net Cap Floor (5830)

    • No: long and short positions in the same contract are held separately, with units always positive in Eagle Accounting

      • Short positions have negative units in Data Management

      • Trade event types are BUY, WRITE, SELL, and BUYCVR

    • Yes: long and short positions in the same contract are netted together, allowing a trade to cross zero and bring the position from long to short or vice versa

      • Short positions are represented by negative units in both Eagle Accounting and Data Management

      • Trade event types are BUY and SELL

  • Primary Amortization/Accretion Rule (3197): must be straight line (DEFAULTSL), straight line actual (DEFAULTSLA), or none (DEFAULTNONE)

    • If it is set to anything else, a security-level amortization/accretion rule must be established specifying one of the three above

Reference Data

Storage & Configuration

Eagle has modeled Cap/Floor security master files (SMFs) as single rows in Data Management.

Market Data

Caps/Floors are pegged to underlying floating rate indices. These rates must be loaded to an index security that is linked as an underlying to the Cap/Floor.

Security Data

Caps/Floors can be set up using Issue Viewer, Security Reference Manager (SRM), or Reference Data Center (RDC). The list below contains all fields required to configure a Cap/Floor security master file (SMF).

  • Issue Name (961)

  • Primary Asset ID (14) & Type (1432)

  • Processing Security Type (3931): OPIRCA (Interest Rate Option Caps) or OPIRFL (Interest Rate Option Floors)

  • Price Multiplier (18): defaults to 0.01, but may need to be changed to 1.00 depending on the prices you receive

  • Quantity Scale (19): typically 1.00

  • Issue Country Code (1418)

  • Asset Currency (85)

  • Primary Exchange (17)

  • Coupon (70)

  • Coupon Type (97) = X (Floating Rate)

  • Strike Rate (11850)

    • Negative rates are supported in V17 R2.21 and above

  • Day Count Basis (471)

  • Payment Frequency (472)

  • Issue Price (69)

  • Issue Date (68)

  • Dated Date (1183)

  • First Coupon Date (473)

  • Last Coupon Date (474)

  • Maturity Date (38)

  • Floating Rate Fields

    • First Rate Reset Date (10911): enter the actual first reset date, including any adjustments for weekends/holidays (same as first payment date unless the rate resets more frequently)

    • Reset Frequency (1788): same as payment frequency unless the rate resets more frequently

    • Underlying Security (1347): select appropriate floating rate index security

      • Index Offset (215): spread above or below the floating rate, entered in basis points (0.55% = 55)

Trade Processing

Open & Close

Trades are entered using Book Trade once the entity and reference data have been configured. Enter the appropriate entity, security identifier, and trade/settle dates and click Submit to query for the security. Right-click it and select Open > Buy or Close > Sell.

The fields below are used for both opens and closes.

  • Event Type (55): see table below

  • Select Values to be Calculated by STAR (7000): set to Traded Interest to have it calculated, or Calculate None to enter it manually

  • Contracts (40): enter the Cap/Floor notional

  • Price per Contract (45): clean unit price

    • Multiplied by Contracts, Quantity Scale, and Price Multiplier to calculate the premium

  • Commission (47), Tax Amount (46), SEC Fee (48), Stamp Duty Tax (51), Other Fee (3752): these are added to the premium to generate the total net amount

  • Traded Interest (49): calculated or entered manually

  • Settlement Currency (63): if a Cap/Floor’s trade premium settles in a currency that differs from its Asset Currency, this must be changed to the appropriate currency

  • Lot Selection Method (27): defaults to entity value, but can be overridden

    • Used fo

  • Broker (88)

Event Type (55)

BUY

WRITE

SELL

BUYCVR

Event Type (55)

BUY

WRITE

SELL

BUYCVR

Long-Short Indicator (15)

L (LONG)

S (SHORT)

L (LONG)

S (SHORT)

Net Cap Floor (5830) = No

Creates a long position (long with positive quantity).

Creates a short position (short with positive quantity).

Closes (partially or fully) a previously established long position.

Closes (partially or fully) a previously established short position.

Net Cap Floor (5830) = Yes

Creates a long position (long with positive quantity) or closes a previously established short position (long with negative quantity).

N/A

Creates a short position (long with negative quantity) or closes a previously established long position (long with positive quantity)

N/A

Close

The book trade panel should be used to process sells. Eagle Accounting can handle both full and partial terminations.

Accounting

Once a Cap/Floor trade is booked it will be picked up in Eagle’s global workflow. Daily accruals and periodic coupon payments are generated as part of the earnings process, Accounting valuation is calculated when posting unrealized gain/loss, and Data Management valuation is calculated in the STAR to PACE push. These can be scheduled or triggered manually.

  • V17 & Above: Accounting Center > Processing and Exceptions > Global Processes

    • Accruals: Earnings > Run Income Accruals

    • Accounting Valuation: Unrealized Gain Loss Entries > Post Daily Fund Unrealized Gain Loss-Position

    • Data Management Valuation: Eagle STAR to Eagle PACE Direct Processing > Transfer Data - Batch

  • Prior to V17: Global Process Center

    • Accruals: Earnings > Accrue

    • Accounting Valuation: Unrealized Gain Loss Entries > Post Daily Fund Unrealized Gain Loss-Position

    • Data Management Valuation: STAR to PACE Direct Processing > Transfer Data - Batch

Valuation

Accounting calculates the value of a Cap/Floor by using the formula below:

  • Market Value = Notional Amount * Clean Unit Price * Price Multiplier * Quantity Scale

    • Price Multiplier and Quantity Scale are typically 1.00 for Caps & Floors

Accounting needs the prices to be supplied as clean unit prices (without accrued interest).

Reporting

STAR to PACE (S2P)

Almost all reports in Eagle Accounting leverage data from Data Management, which is populated by the S2P process. This will be scheduled as part of the daily workflow, but can also be triggered manually as described in the Accounting section.

The S2P process creates one row for each Cap/Floor in the POSITION, POSITION_DETAIL, TRADE, and CASH_ACTIVITY tables. The MARKET_VALUE_INCOME column captures the total market value, inclusive of price fluctuations and period-to-date accruals payable or receivable (receivable if bought and payable if written). Cash activity is appropriately signed based on whether the Cap/Floor is bought or written.

Accounting Reports

Eagle has a core set of accounting reports that can be used to review Cap/Floor information. These are designed to support the daily operational workflow for business users, allowing Grid Reports to be easily exported to Excel and customized to provide additional details as needed. Advanced Reports are intended to be client-facing and do not provide the same level of customization.

Insurance Reporting

Data Management Reporting

Performance

The performance toolkit calculates market value-based performance for Caps/Floors using data supplied by the S2P process. However, this can be misleading because traditional market values do not capture a Cap/Floor's true exposure. Exposure-based analyses, which can be implemented using Eagle Enrichment, calculate more meaningful returns.

Exposure

Exposure reporting and analysis are available in the product suite, but some accounting data must be augmented via Eagle Enrichment. Please contact Instrument Engineering for more implementation information based on your specific requirements. Additional details are also available in  and .