Fixed Income
Fixed Income in short lessons: bond prices and yields, the term structure, duration and convexity, credit risk and securitised debt, each with worked examples, calculator keys and exam traps.
My deck- 01
Fixed-Income Instrument FeaturesLocked: included in All Access
The building blocks of every bond and loan: who issues it, when it matures, how much principal is repaid, how interest is paid (fixed, floating or zero), where it ranks and what options it carries; how those features turn into cash flows and simple yield measures; and what the indenture says about sources of repayment, collateral and the affirmative and negative covenants that protect lenders.
- Bonds, issuers, maturity and principalLocked: included in All Access12 min
- Coupons: fixed, floating and zeroLocked: included in All Access14 min
- Seniority, embedded options and yieldLocked: included in All Access13 min
- The indenture, repayment sources and collateralLocked: included in All Access12 min
- Covenants: affirmative versus negativeLocked: included in All Access14 min
- 02
Fixed-Income Cash Flows and TypesLocked: included in All Access
How a bond's principal can be repaid (bullet, fully or partially amortizing, sinking fund, waterfall), how its coupon can be set (fixed, floating, step-up, credit-linked, PIK, index-linked, zero and deferred), which embedded options help the issuer or the investor (call, put, conversion, CoCo), and how the place of issue and tax rules change a bond's legal and after-tax profile.
- Bullet, fully amortizing and partially amortizing bondsLocked: included in All Access14 min
- Sinking funds, waterfalls, zero-coupon and deferred coupon bondsLocked: included in All Access13 min
- Floating, step-up, credit-linked and PIK couponsLocked: included in All Access13 min
- Index-linked and inflation-linked bondsLocked: included in All Access11 min
- Callable and putable bondsLocked: included in All Access13 min
- Convertible bonds, warrants and contingent convertiblesVideo · 6 minLocked: included in All Access12 min
- Domestic, foreign and Eurobonds; tax considerationsLocked: included in All Access13 min
- 03
Fixed-Income Issuance and TradingLocked: included in All Access
How bond markets are carved up by issuer type, credit quality and maturity, which issuers borrow and which investors lend in each segment, how fixed-income indexes differ from equity indexes, and how new bonds are sold in the primary market and traded afterwards in a mostly over-the-counter secondary market, compared at each step with equities.
- Market segments and who issuesLocked: included in All Access13 min
- Who invests, and whereLocked: included in All Access11 min
- Fixed-income indexesLocked: included in All Access13 min
- Primary markets: how bonds are issuedLocked: included in All Access14 min
- Secondary markets, liquidity and distressed debtLocked: included in All Access13 min
- 04
Fixed-Income Markets for Corporate IssuersLocked: included in All Access
How companies and banks raise short-term money (credit lines, secured loans, commercial paper, deposits, interbank loans and repos), how a repurchase agreement works and what can go wrong with it, and why long-term borrowing looks so different for investment-grade and high-yield issuers.
- Short-term bank funding: credit lines, secured loans and factoringLocked: included in All Access13 min
- Commercial paper, rollover risk and asset-backed CPLocked: included in All Access12 min
- How banks fund themselves: deposits, CDs and the interbank marketLocked: included in All Access11 min
- Repo mechanics: repo rate, initial margin, haircut and variation marginVideo · 6 minLocked: included in All Access15 min
- Repos in practice: uses, repo rates, risks and triparty structuresLocked: included in All Access14 min
- Long-term debt: investment-grade vs high-yield issuersLocked: included in All Access14 min
- 05
Fixed-Income Markets for Government IssuersLocked: included in All Access
How public-sector borrowers raise and trade debt: what sets a sovereign apart, how developed and emerging market governments fund themselves, the bills, notes and bonds they issue and why they spread them across maturities, how sovereign auctions work and differ from corporate underwriting, why on-the-run government bonds serve as benchmarks, and how agencies, regional governments and supranationals choose their funding.
- Why and how sovereigns borrowLocked: included in All Access12 min
- Sovereign instruments and the maturity mixLocked: included in All Access13 min
- Sovereign issuance: auctions and primary dealersLocked: included in All Access15 min
- Trading sovereign debt and benchmark bondsLocked: included in All Access12 min
- Agencies, local governments and supranationalsLocked: included in All Access13 min
- 06
Fixed-Income Bond Valuation: Prices and YieldsLocked: included in All Access
How to price a fixed-rate bond from its market discount rate on and between coupon dates, how to read the yield-to-maturity back out of a price, how coupon, maturity and yield shape price behaviour, and how matrix pricing estimates prices for bonds that rarely trade.
- Pricing a bond with a market discount rateVideo · 7 minLocked: included in All Access12 min
- Yield-to-maturity: the bond's internal rate of returnLocked: included in All Access12 min
- Between coupon dates: accrued interest, flat and full priceVideo · 7 minLocked: included in All Access14 min
- How coupon, maturity and yield drive bond pricesVideo · 6 minLocked: included in All Access14 min
- Matrix pricing for illiquid and new bondsVideo · 6 minLocked: included in All Access13 min
- 07
Yield and Yield Spread Measures for Fixed-Rate BondsLocked: included in All Access
How to state a bond's yield on a comparable basis (periodicity, effective annual rates and market conventions), how to measure the yield of a callable bond (yield-to-call, yield-to-worst, option-adjusted yield), and how to split a yield into a benchmark rate and a spread: benchmark spread, G-spread, I-spread, Z-spread and OAS.
- Periodicity and converting annual yieldsVideo · 7 minLocked: included in All Access14 min
- Current yield and other yield conventionsLocked: included in All Access13 min
- Callable bonds: yield-to-call, yield-to-worst and option-adjusted yieldVideo · 7 minLocked: included in All Access14 min
- Benchmark rates, yield spreads and the G-spreadLocked: included in All Access13 min
- I-spread, Z-spread and option-adjusted spreadVideo · 6 minLocked: included in All Access14 min
- 08
Yield and Yield Spread Measures for Floating-Rate InstrumentsLocked: included in All Access
How floating-rate notes are priced against a market reference rate, what the gap between the quoted margin and the discount margin says about price and credit risk, and how money market discount rates and add-on rates are converted to a bond equivalent yield so short-term instruments can be compared fairly.
- Floating-rate notes: quoted margin vs required marginLocked: included in All Access12 min
- Pricing an FRN and estimating its discount marginVideo · 7 minLocked: included in All Access14 min
- Money market yields and the discount rate basisLocked: included in All Access12 min
- Add-on rates and certificates of depositLocked: included in All Access12 min
- Bond equivalent yield: comparing money market instrumentsVideo · 7 minLocked: included in All Access13 min
- 09
The Term Structure of Interest Rates: Spot, Par, and Forward CurvesLocked: included in All Access
How default-risk-free spot rates describe the term structure of interest rates, how to price bonds with them, how par rates and implied forward rates are derived from them (and spot rates back from forwards), and how the shapes of the spot, par and forward curves are linked.
- Spot rates and the spot curveLocked: included in All Access12 min
- Pricing a bond with spot ratesVideo · 6 minLocked: included in All Access13 min
- Par rates and the par curveVideo · 6 minLocked: included in All Access13 min
- Implied forward rates from spot ratesVideo · 6 minLocked: included in All Access14 min
- Spot rates from forward rates, and pricing with forwardsLocked: included in All Access12 min
- Comparing the spot, par and forward curvesLocked: included in All Access13 min
- 10
Interest Rate Risk and ReturnLocked: included in All Access
Where a fixed-rate bond investor's return really comes from, how to measure the realized (horizon) yield when rates move, why reinvestment risk and price risk pull in opposite directions, and how Macaulay duration marks the holding period at which the two cancel.
- The three sources of return on a fixed-rate bondVideo · 6 minLocked: included in All Access12 min
- Horizon yield: the realized return when rates moveLocked: included in All Access14 min
- Reinvestment risk, price risk and the duration gapVideo · 7 minLocked: included in All Access13 min
- Calculating Macaulay duration on a coupon dateVideo · 6 minLocked: included in All Access13 min
- Macaulay duration between coupon dates and the closed-form formulaLocked: included in All Access12 min
- 11
Yield-Based Bond Duration Measures and PropertiesLocked: included in All Access
How to turn a bond's cash flows into one number for its interest rate risk: Macaulay and modified duration, the approximate (price-based) modified duration, money duration and the PVBP, the special cases of zero-coupon, perpetual and floating-rate bonds, and how maturity, coupon and yield push duration up or down.
- From Macaulay duration to modified durationVideo · 7 minLocked: included in All Access14 min
- Approximate modified durationLocked: included in All Access12 min
- Money duration and the price value of a basis pointVideo · 7 minLocked: included in All Access12 min
- Duration of zero-coupon, perpetual and floating-rate bondsLocked: included in All Access11 min
- How maturity, coupon and yield drive durationLocked: included in All Access13 min
- 12
Yield-Based Bond Convexity and Portfolio PropertiesLocked: included in All Access
Why duration alone misjudges large yield moves, how convexity measures the curvature of the price-yield relationship, how to combine duration and convexity into a sharper price-change estimate (in percent and in currency), and how to measure and interpret the duration and convexity of a bond portfolio.
- Convexity: measuring the curveLocked: included in All Access14 min
- What drives convexity, and why investors value itLocked: included in All Access12 min
- Estimating price changes with duration and convexityVideo · 6 minLocked: included in All Access13 min
- Money convexity: the adjustment in currencyLocked: included in All Access11 min
- Portfolio duration and convexityVideo · 7 minLocked: included in All Access13 min
- 13
Curve-Based and Empirical Fixed-Income Risk MeasuresLocked: included in All Access
Interest rate risk measured against a benchmark yield curve instead of a bond's own yield: effective duration and effective convexity for bonds with embedded options, the negative convexity of callable bonds, price estimates for a curve shift, key rate durations for non-parallel moves, and why empirical duration can beat analytical duration for bonds with credit risk.
- Effective duration: why curve duration replaces yield durationLocked: included in All Access13 min
- Effective convexity: callable versus putable bondsVideo · 7 minLocked: included in All Access13 min
- Estimating price changes with effective duration and convexityLocked: included in All Access12 min
- Key rate duration and yield curve shape riskVideo · 7 minLocked: included in All Access14 min
- Empirical versus analytical durationLocked: included in All Access11 min
- 14
Credit RiskLocked: included in All Access
What credit risk is and where it comes from, how expected loss splits into probability of default and loss given default, what credit ratings can and cannot tell you, which macroeconomic, market and issuer-specific forces move yield spreads, and how a spread change feeds through to a bond's price via duration and convexity.
- Credit risk and where it comes fromLocked: included in All Access12 min
- Expected loss: POD × LGDVideo · 6 minLocked: included in All Access14 min
- What drives default risk and recoveryLocked: included in All Access12 min
- Credit ratings: uses and limitsLocked: included in All Access14 min
- Why spreads move: macro and issuer factorsLocked: included in All Access13 min
- Inside the spread: credit and liquidityLocked: included in All Access12 min
- How spread changes move bond pricesVideo · 6 minLocked: included in All Access15 min
- 15
Credit Analysis for Government IssuersLocked: included in All Access
How credit analysis changes when the borrower is a government: why sovereigns repay from taxes and must be judged on willingness as well as ability to pay, the qualitative and quantitative factors behind a sovereign rating (institutions, fiscal, monetary, economic and external), and how agencies, public banks, supranationals and regional governments, including general obligation and revenue bonds, are assessed.
- Why government credit is differentLocked: included in All Access11 min
- Qualitative factors: institutions, policy and the economyLocked: included in All Access14 min
- Quantitative factors: fiscal strength and economic growthLocked: included in All Access14 min
- External stability and foreign-currency debtLocked: included in All Access13 min
- Agencies, public banks and supranationalsLocked: included in All Access11 min
- Regional governments: general obligation and revenue bondsLocked: included in All Access14 min
- 16
Credit Analysis for Corporate IssuersLocked: included in All Access
How a credit analyst judges a non-financial company's ability to repay: the qualitative picture (business model, industry, business risk, governance and covenants), the quantitative factors and the profitability, coverage and leverage ratios that measure them, and how seniority, collateral and the priority of claims drive recovery, issue ratings and notching.
- Qualitative factors: business, industry and governanceLocked: included in All Access13 min
- Quantitative factors: the four things to measureLocked: included in All Access11 min
- Calculating credit ratiosVideo · 6 minLocked: included in All Access15 min
- Interpreting ratios: trends, peers and covenantsLocked: included in All Access13 min
- Seniority, priority of claims and recoveryVideo · 7 minLocked: included in All Access15 min
- Issuer versus issue ratings and notchingLocked: included in All Access12 min
- 17
Fixed-Income SecuritizationLocked: included in All Access
How loans and receivables are pooled, sold to a special purpose entity and turned into asset-backed securities; who benefits (issuers, investors, economies and markets) and what risks remain; the parties and legal documents involved; why the bankruptcy-remote SPE is the heart of the deal; and how tranching decides who is paid first and who absorbs losses first.
- What securitization is and the main structuresLocked: included in All Access12 min
- Benefits for issuers, investors and marketsLocked: included in All Access13 min
- The parties and the flow of fundsLocked: included in All Access13 min
- The SPE: true sale and bankruptcy remotenessLocked: included in All Access12 min
- Tranching: who is paid first and who loses firstVideo · 6 minLocked: included in All Access14 min
- 18
Asset-Backed Security (ABS) Instrument and Market FeaturesLocked: included in All Access
How covered bonds keep loans on the bank's balance sheet yet give investors two layers of protection, how securitizations use overcollateralization, excess spread and subordination to absorb losses, how credit card and solar ABS pay investors over their life, and how CDOs and CLOs use an active collateral manager to run a leveraged pool of loans.
- Covered bonds: dual recourse and a dynamic poolLocked: included in All Access13 min
- Credit enhancement: OC, excess spread and tranchingVideo · 6 minLocked: included in All Access15 min
- Amortizing vs non-amortizing collateral: credit card ABSLocked: included in All Access14 min
- Solar ABSLocked: included in All Access11 min
- CDOs: managed pools and leveraged equityLocked: included in All Access13 min
- CLOs: capital structure, tests and the managerLocked: included in All Access14 min
- 19
Mortgage-Backed Security (MBS) Instrument and Market FeaturesLocked: included in All Access
How mortgage loans work and why the borrower's right to prepay makes their cash flows uncertain, how residential pass-throughs and CMOs package and reshuffle that prepayment risk, and why commercial MBS behave differently: call protection, balloon risk, concentration risk and the DSC and LTV ratios.
- Prepayment risk and time tranchingVideo · 6 minLocked: included in All Access11 min
- Residential mortgage loansLocked: included in All Access14 min
- Agency and non-agency RMBS, and pass-throughsVideo · 7 minLocked: included in All Access13 min
- Collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs)Video · 7 minLocked: included in All Access15 min
- Commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS)Locked: included in All Access15 min