Swap

A rate swap is a financial instrument that represents the exchange of streams of payments. The swap is formed of legs, where each leg typically represents the obligations of the seller or buyer of the swap. In the simplest vanilla interest rate swap, there are two legs, one with a fixed rate and the other a floating rate. Many other more complex swaps can also be represented.

For example, a swap might involve an agreement to exchange the difference between the fixed rate of 1% and the GBP LIBOR rate every 3 months for 2 years.

The Strata swap instrument covers four types of legs - Fixed, Ibor rate, Overnight rate and Inflation rate. Other types of swap have their own instruments.

Key classes

A rate swap is represented in Strata using the Swap class. The Swap class stores details of the product that was agreed. The trade details are stored in SwapTrade class.

A Swap can be created using a builder as follows:

SwapLeg payLeg = RateCalculationSwapLeg.builder()
  .payReceive(PayReceive.PAY)
  .accrualSchedule(PeriodicSchedule.builder()
    .startDate(LocalDate.of(2014, 9, 12))
    .endDate(LocalDate.of(2021, 9, 12))
    .frequency(Frequency.P6M)
    .businessDayAdjustment(BusinessDayAdjustment.of(MODIFIED_FOLLOWING, HolidayCalendarIds.USNY))
    .build())
  .paymentSchedule(PaymentSchedule.builder()
    .paymentFrequency(Frequency.P6M)
    .paymentDateOffset(DaysAdjustment.NONE)
    .build())
  .notionalSchedule(NotionalSchedule.of(Currency.USD, 100_000_000))
  .calculation(FixedRateCalculation.of(0.015, DayCounts.THIRTY_U_360))
  .build();

SwapLeg receiveLeg = RateCalculationSwapLeg.builder()
  .payReceive(PayReceive.RECEIVE)
  .accrualSchedule(PeriodicSchedule.builder()
    .startDate(LocalDate.of(2014, 9, 12))
    .endDate(LocalDate.of(2021, 9, 12))
    .frequency(Frequency.P3M)
    .businessDayAdjustment(BusinessDayAdjustment.of(MODIFIED_FOLLOWING, HolidayCalendarIds.USNY))
    .build())
  .paymentSchedule(PaymentSchedule.builder()
    .paymentFrequency(Frequency.P3M)
    .paymentDateOffset(DaysAdjustment.NONE)
    .build())
  .notionalSchedule(NotionalSchedule.of(Currency.USD, 100_000_000))
  .calculation(IborRateCalculation.of(IborIndices.USD_LIBOR_3M))
  .build();

Swap swap = Swap.of(payLeg, receiveLeg);

TIP: The strata-loader project provides the ability to load a Swap from FpML and CSV.

Risk measures

The strata-measure module provides high-level risk measures for rate swaps. The main entry point is SwapTradeCalculations.

The following measures are available:

  • present value, detailed breakdown, and associated sensitivity
  • single-node bucketed gamma
  • par rate
  • par spread
  • cash flows
  • accrued interest
  • leg initial notional
  • leg present value
  • currency exposure
  • current cash

These measures are also available using the calculation API.

The strata-pricer module provides lower-level pricing support for rate swaps:

  • DiscountingSwapTradePricer, see Javadoc.
  • DiscountingSwapProductPricer, see Javadoc.

Product model

The following table summarizes the fields on Swap that can be used to control the product. Only the most important fields are shown below. For more detail on the meaning of each field, see the Javadoc;

Property name Description Required/Optional
legs The list of swap legs Required

There are a number of kinds of swap leg. The most common is RateCalculationSwapLeg, see the Javadoc;

Property name Description Required/Optional
payReceive Whether the leg is pay or receive Required
accrualSchedule The accrual schedule, see schedules Required
paymentSchedule The payment schedule Required
notionalSchedule The notional schedule Required
calculation The calculation details Required

A payment schedule is specified by PaymentSchedule, see the Javadoc;

Property name Description Required/Optional
paymentFrequency The periodic frequency of payments Required
paymentRelativeTo The base date that each payment is relative to Defaults to period end
paymentDateOffset The offset to the payment date Required
compoundingMethod Whether and how compounding occurs Required

A notional schedule is specified by NotionalSchedule, see the Javadoc;

Property name Description Required/Optional
currency The currency of the leg Required
fxReset Definition of FX resets Required
amount Amount of the notional and how it varies over time Required
initialExchange Whether to exchange the initial notional Defaults to false
intermediateExchange Whether to exchange the intermediate notionals Defaults to false
finalExchange Whether to exchange the final notional Defaults to false

A fixed rate is specified by FixedRateCalculation, see the Javadoc;

Property name Description Required/Optional
dayCount The day count Required
rate The fixed rate of interest Required

The fixed interest rate must be specified in decimal form. A 5% rate is specified as 0.05.

A floating Ibor rate is specified by IborRateCalculation, see the Javadoc;

Property name Description Required/Optional
dayCount The day count Defaults to the day count of the index
index The Ibor index to observe Required
resetPeriods The reset periods, used for rate averaging Optional
fixingRelativeTo The base date that each fixing is relative to Defaults to period start
fixingDateOffset The offset to the fixing date Defaults to the offset of the index
negativeRateMethod Whether to allow negative rates Defaults to allow negative rates
firstRegularRate The first regular rate, used to lock the first fixing Optional
initialStub Details of the initial stub Optional
finalStub Details of the final stub Optional
gearing How gearing varies over time Optional
spread How spread varies over time Optional

A floating Overnight rate is specified by OvernightRateCalculation, see the Javadoc;

Property name Description Required/Optional
dayCount The day count Defaults to the day count of the index
index The Overnight index to observe Required
accrualMethod Whether to compound or average Defaults to compounded
negativeRateMethod Whether to allow negative rates Defaults to allow negative rates
rateCutOffDays The days before the end to stop observing Defaults to zero
gearing How gearing varies over time Optional
spread How spread varies over time Optional

A floating inflation rate is specified by InflationRateCalculation, see the Javadoc;

Property name Description Required/Optional
index The Price index to observe Required
lag The period between the index and the accrual date Required
interpolated Whether the rate is interpolated Defaults to false
gearing How gearing varies over time Optional