Duration and VaR

Hey guys, need some help with this:

A portfolio's current value is $6 billion and its duration is 1.5 years. Use an example to explain how a portfolio manager can leverage the existing portfolio to double the amount of assets in the original portfolio. Assume that the yield changes for all maturities are the same.

What is the duration of the new leveraged portfolio? If the volatility of yield change is 2%, what are the one-year 99% VaRs of the original and new leveraged portfolios, respectively?

My answer thus far (I think this is correct):

The portfolio manager could use the current assets as collateral to borrow $6 billion, therefore doubling his assets.

VaR (original) = 2.33(1.5)(6 billion)(0.02)

What I need help is calculating the new duration - not quite sure how to go about doing that. Once I have that, I can use the equation above to get the VaR for the leveraged portfolio. Am I on the right track?

2 Comments
 

If you leverage the assets like you mentioned and just bought more of the same securities, your duration would double from 1.5 years to 3.0 years (twice as sensitive to interest rate changes).

Pretty much anyway you measure it, the risk will be twice as high in the leveraged portfolio, with less than twice the expected return (because of borrowing costs).

 

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