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Cash flow matching is a process of hedging in which a company or other entity matches its cash outflows (i.e., financial obligations) with its cash inflows over a given time horizon. [1] It is a subset of immunization strategies in finance. [2] Cash flow matching is of particular importance to defined benefit pension plans. [3]
Conceptually, the easiest form of immunization is cash flow matching. For example, if a financial company is obliged to pay 100 dollars to someone in 10 years, it can protect itself by buying and holding a 10-year, zero-coupon bond that matures in 10 years and has a redemption value of $100.
Note that the total cash flow needed over the entire eight years sums to $889,234. [citation needed] Table 1. Table 2 shows series of bonds and CDs with staggered maturities whose coupon and principal payments will match the stream of income shown in the Target Cash Flows column in Table 1 (rates are fictitious for this example). The cash flow ...
Formally, the duration gap is the difference between the duration - i.e. the average maturity - of assets and liabilities held by a financial entity. [3] A related approach is to see the "duration gap" as the difference in the price sensitivity of interest-yielding assets and the price sensitivity of liabilities (of the organization) to a change in market interest rates (yields).
Provides a longer duration (facilitating cash flow matching with long-term liabilities), protection against inflation, and statistical diversification (low correlation with 'traditional' listed assets such as equity and fixed income investments), thus reducing overall portfolio volatility [5] [6]
Liabilities are the actuarial present value of future plan cash flows, discounted at current interest rates. Thus, asset/liability management strategies often include bonds and swaps or other derivatives to accomplish some degree of interest rate hedging (immunization, cash flow matching, duration matching, etc.).
Individual bonds provide the ability to match the cash flows needed, which is why the term "cash flow matching" is sometimes used to describe this strategy. Because the bonds are dedicated to providing the cash flows, the term "dedicated portfolio" or “asset dedication” is sometimes used to describe the strategy.
Modified duration can be extended to instruments with non-fixed cash flows, while Macaulay duration applies only to fixed cash flow instruments. Modified duration is defined as the logarithmic derivative of price with respect to yield, and such a definition will apply to instruments that depend on yields, whether or not the cash flows are fixed.