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I am just starting to get familiar with QuantLib (in particular, fixed rate bond pricing functions). I read a number of examples, from which I am able to calculate bond price and bond yield.

The following script uses an input yield (0.057154825761367800000) to calculate a bond price (96.9073930899788536), using bond.cleanPrice.

I then took that calculated bond price, and fed it back into a bond.bondYield calculation (other inputs unchanged), expecting to get back my original input yield.

I found the back-calculated yield was close, but not as close as I would naively expect (it matched to 8 decimal places). Did I do something wrong? Is this acceptable precision based on the numerical solver max iterations? Something else?

import QuantLib as ql


def calculate_bond_price():

    settlementDays = 0
    faceValue = 100

    issueDate = ql.Date(11, 2, 2020)
    maturityDate = ql.Date(11, 2, 2025)
    tenor = ql.Period(ql.Quarterly)
    calendar = ql.NullCalendar()
    businessConvention = ql.Following
    dateGeneration = ql.DateGeneration.Backward
    monthEnd = False
    schedule = ql.Schedule (issueDate, maturityDate, tenor, calendar, businessConvention, businessConvention, dateGeneration, monthEnd)

    coupon_rate = 0.05
    coupons = [coupon_rate]

    dayCount = ql.Thirty360()

    bond = ql.FixedRateBond(settlementDays, faceValue, schedule, coupons, dayCount)

## manually specify a yield rate to 16 decimal places
## this is the value I expect to get back from bond.bondYield calculation
    yield_rate = 0.057154825761367800000

    bond_price = bond.cleanPrice(yield_rate, dayCount, ql.Simple, ql.Quarterly)
    print(f'PRICE >> calculated={bond_price:20,.16f}')
    # OUTPUTS: PRICE >> calculated= 96.9073930899788536

# feed the calculated bond price back into a bond.bondYield calculation with exact same (dayCount, Simple, Quarterly) inputs
# expect to get back the yield_rate (16 decimal); but only match to 8 decimals
    back_calculate_bond_yield = bond.bondYield(bond_price, dayCount, ql.Simple, ql.Quarterly)
    print(f'YIELD >> calculated={back_calculate_bond_yield:20,.16f} | expected={yield_rate:20,.16f} | diff={back_calculate_bond_yield-yield_rate:20,.16f}')
    # OUTPUTS: YIELD >> calculated=  0.0571548314094543 | expected=  0.0571548257613678 | diff=  0.0000000056480865


if __name__ == '__main__':
    calculate_bond_price()
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  • $\begingroup$ IMHO, matching beyond 8 decimal places seems economically absolutely irrelevant. $\endgroup$
    – skoestlmeier
    Commented Feb 12, 2020 at 6:58
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    $\begingroup$ @skoestlmeier - in real life, yes. But showing a "perfect" match will make it easier to convince Vetting my code is doing what it should. $\endgroup$
    – Roberto
    Commented Feb 12, 2020 at 12:20

1 Answer 1

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I would start by saying that yes, this is an acceptable precision.

However, the reason you are not getting the same result is because, by default, QuantLib has accuracy=1.0e-8 and maxEvaluations=100.

You can set these parameters like this:

bond.bondYield(bond_price, dayCount, ql.Simple, ql.Quarterly, ql.Date(), 1.0e-16, 100)

This will get you much closer...

YIELD >> calculated= 0.0571548257613679 | expected= 0.0571548257613678 | diff= 0.0000000000000001

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  • $\begingroup$ Thanks, that almost certainly explains it! I will run some tests tomorrow and mark your answer. Looks like those precision parameters you mentioned are in the reference manual (quantlib.org/reference/…), but I am still finding my way around there and missed it. $\endgroup$
    – Roberto
    Commented Feb 12, 2020 at 2:49

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