historical forward rates are used to calibrate the lognormal forward rate model - as advocated by Hull and White (1999, 2000), Longstaff, Santa Clara and Schwartz (1999), Rebonato (1999a,b,c), Rebonato and Joshi (2001) and many others - a Libor yield curve needs to be fit to the available data...

This paper presents a study of extreme interest rate movements in the U.S. Federal Funds market over almost a half century of daily observations from the mid 1950s through the end of 2000. We analyze the fluctuations of the maximal and minimal changes in short term interest rates and test the...