This paper derives a closed‐form solution for European options on pure discount bonds, assuming a mean‐reverting Gaussian interest rate model as in Vasicek [8]. The formula is extended to European options on discount bond portfolios.

This paper investigates the resiliency of the new-issue high-yield bond market by examining the changes in implied default rates of such bonds before and after the largest high-yield bond default, i.e., the LTV bankruptcy. Specifically, the paper compares implied default probabilities of high-yield bonds during the post-LTV period calculated from actual new-issue yields with instrumental default probabilities calculated on the assumption that the default had not occurred. A comparison of these probabilities reveals that the market's perception of default on the high risk segment of the bond market increased significantly after the LTV bankruptcy. However, the effect was transitory, lasting only six months. Thus, the market was resilient to a major default.

We develop a multiperiod rational expectations model of securities market equilibrium in which equilibrium prices may move between periods even though it is common knowledge that no new information has arrived about ultimate security payoffs. This happens because investors know they have imperfect information about the endowments of other investors and this knowledge affects their probability beliefs about the prices that will prevail at the intermediate trading date. These beliefs are reflected in the equilibrium at the initial trading date when investors focus on the probabilities of intermediate capital gains and losses, rather than ultimate payoffs.

1. Preferences Representation and Risk Aversion. 2. Stachastic Dominance. 3. Mathematics of the Portfolio Frontier. 4. Two Fund Separation and Linear Valuation. 5. Allocative Efficiency and the Valuation of State Contingent Securities. 6. Valuation of Complex Securities and Options with Preference Restrictions. 7. Multiperiod Securities Markets I: Equilibrium Valuation. 8. Multiperiod Securities Markets II: Valuation by Arbitrage. 9. Financial Markets with Differential Information. 10. Econometric Issues in Testing the Capital Asset Pricing Model.