BlackRock’s iShares fixed income exchange-traded funds can now be analysed using Bloomberg’s Yield and Spread Analysis (YAS) tool.
Originally developed for individual bonds, YAS has been enhanced to analyse the yield spread and interest rate risk sensitivity of select fixed income ETFs.
iShares fixed income ETFs were the first of their kind to be valued using this enhanced functionality.
“As the first provider of fixed income ETFs, iShares continues to be committed to opening traditionally opaque markets and breaking down the barriers to fixed income ETF usage. Bloomberg’s enhancements to the YAS tool represent a significant step forward,” says Matthew Tucker, head of iShares fixed income investment strategy at BlackRock. “By offering bond analytics on iShares fixed income ETFs, Bloomberg is giving institutional investors important tools to conduct due diligence and evaluate an ETF in the same way they would an individual bond.”
“Investors want better, more sophisticated tools to keep pace with the growing fixed income ETF market,” says Ben Macdonald, Bloomberg’s global head of fixed income. “This enhancement to our platform is another example of how Bloomberg continues to add value for our clients by providing transparency and efficiencies across markets.”
With the Bloomberg YAS enhanced functionality, Bloomberg users can:
• Analyse fixed income ETFs the same way individual bonds are analysed
• View a last-traded ETF price, converted to yield
• Perform traditional yield and yield spread analysis versus a selected benchmark
• Input custom parameters to analyse the relationship between price, yield and spread
• Measure risk based on custom inputs to determine whether an ETF meets pre-determined investment criteria
In addition to YAS, Bloomberg enhanced its Cashflow Analysis tool (CSHF) to provide users with the ability to view the cash flows, coupon payments and maturities of the bonds within an ETF.
