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Value of a three-year bond with quarterly coupons

Question

A bond with face value $1000 matures in three years and pays a coupon of 2%2\% of face every quarter. The market rate is 5%5\% per year, applied as 1.25%1.25\% per quarter. What is the bond worth, to the nearest cent?

Short answer

About $1083.09. There are 1212 quarterly coupons of $20 discounted at 1.25%1.25\%: they are worth about 20⋅1−1.0125−120.0125≈221.5920\cdot\frac{1-1.0125^{-12}}{0.0125}\approx221.59, and the face repayment 1000/1.012512≈861.511000/1.0125^{12}\approx861.51. The 8%8\% annual coupon exceeds the 5%5\% yield, so it trades at a premium.

Adapted from QuantQuestions.io; question and answer rewritten by SelfMadeQuant.com.

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