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Clear filtersCorporate Bonds
A loan to a company, with terms set out in an indenture. The yield compensates for the time and for the possibility that the company does not pay.
Credit Ratings
An opinion on the likelihood of repayment, expressed on a letter scale, produced by firms paid by the issuers they rate.
Credit Spreads
The extra yield over a government bond of the same maturity. It compensates for default risk and for liquidity, and it is one of the better-watched indicators of financial conditions.
Municipal Bonds
Debt issued by states, cities and their agencies. The interest is generally exempt from federal tax, which changes how the yield should be compared to anything else.
Inflation-Linked Bonds
Bonds whose principal adjusts with a price index. They pay a real yield, and the difference against a nominal bond is the market's inflation expectation.
Ladders, Barbells and Bullets
Three ways of arranging maturities across a bond portfolio, each with a different response to a change in the shape of the yield curve.
Bond Funds and Individual Bonds
An individual bond matures; a fund does not. That single difference produces most of the distinction between them, and it is smaller than it is usually made to sound.