BondValuation: An R package for fixed coupon bond analysis

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the R package BondValuation for the analysis of large datasets of fixed coupon bonds. The conceptual heterogeneity of fixed coupon bonds traded in the global markets imposes a high degree of complexity on their comparative analysis. Contrary to baseline fixed income theory, in practice, most bonds feature coupon period irregularities. In addition, there are a multitude of day count methods that determine the interest accrual, the cash flows and the discount factors used in bond valuation. Several R packages, e.g., fBonds, RQuantLib, and YieldCurve, provide tools for fixed income analysis. Nevertheless, none of them is capable of evaluating bonds featuring irregular first and/or final coupon periods, and neither provides adequate coverage of day count conventions currently used in the global bond markets. The R package BondValuation closes this gap using the generalized valuation methodology presented in Djatschenko (2019).