Hedging Interest Rate Risk with Futures Portfolios under Full-Rank Assumptions

Abstract

A spot portfolio of rate-sensitive assets can be hedged by a portfolio of interest-sensitive futures contracts. The hedge ratios of minimum-variance portfolios are unique when the fixed cash flows of underlying instruments are linearly independent and when the covariance matrix of unexpected changes in spot rates over the term of the cash flows is of full rank. Hilliard's (1984) full-rank model has produced smaller portfolio variances than a duration model in a short-term hedging context. However, the methodology typically requires extensive econometric analysis. This paper develops a structured covariance matrix of full rank that requires only one parameter estimate. Hedging examples are provided.