To illustrate bootstrapping, we will use the Treasury yields shown in Exhibit 4 for
maturities up to 10 years using 6-month periods.7 Thus, there are 20 Treasury yields shown.
The yields shown are assumed to have been interpolated from the on-the-run Treasury issues.
Exhibit 5 shows the Treasury yield curve based on the yields shown in Exhibit 4. Our objective
is to show how the values in the last column of Exhibit 4 (labeled ‘‘Spot rate’’) are obtained.
Throughout the analysis and illustrations to come, it is important to remember that the
basic principle is the value of the Treasury coupon security should be equal to the value of the
package of zero-coupon Treasury securities that duplicates the coupon bond’s cash flows. We
saw this in Chapter 5 when we discussed arbitrage-free valuation.
Consider the 6-month and 1-year Treasury securities in Exhibit 4. As we explained in
Chapter 5, these two securities are called Treasury bills and they are issued as zero-coupon
instruments. Therefore, the annualized yield (not the discount yield) of 3.00% for the 6-month