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Preface | |
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Acknowledgments | |
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The Basic Basics | |
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The Life of a Bond | |
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First, What Is a Bond? | |
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How Bonds Are Issued and Traded | |
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Key Terms for Bonds | |
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The Bond Market: An Overview | |
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The Bond Market: An Overview | |
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Bond Pricing: Markups and Commissions | |
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How Bonds Are Sold: Dealers, Brokers, and Electronic Platforms | |
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Terms Used in Buying, Selling, and Discussing Bonds | |
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Volatility: Why Bond Prices Go Up and Down | |
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Interest Rate Risk, or a Tale of Principal Risk | |
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Credit Ratings: How Credit Quality Affects the Value of Your Bonds | |
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A Short History of Interest Rates | |
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The Federal Reserve and Interest Rates | |
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Summary | |
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How Much Will I Earn, or Basic Bond Math | |
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Bond Cash Flows | |
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The Many Meanings of Yield | |
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Total Return | |
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Duration and Bond Price Volatility | |
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Summary | |
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What You Need to Know before Buying Bonds | |
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The Bond Market in the Financial Press and on the Internet | |
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The Treasury Market | |
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"Yield Spreads" and Benchmarks | |
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Investinginbonds.com, FINRA.org/marketdata and EMMA.msrb.org | |
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Summary | |
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Individual Securities | |
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Treasuries, Savings Bonds, and Federal Agency Paper | |
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What Is Unique about Treasuries? | |
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Treasury Bills, Notes, and Bonds | |
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Inflation-Indexed Securities | |
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Buying Treasuries: Treasury Direct | |
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Zero Coupon Bonds | |
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U.S. Savings Bonds | |
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Federal Agencies | |
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Summary | |
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Municipal Bonds | |
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What Is Unique about Municipal Bonds? | |
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Should I Buy Munis? (or, Taxable-Equivalent Yield) | |
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Credit Quality: General Obligation versus Revenue Bonds | |
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The Rise and Fall of Bond Insurance | |
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"Recalibrations" of Municipal Bond Ratings | |
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Municipal Bond Pricing | |
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Shopping for Municipal Bonds Using the Internet | |
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Selecting Municipal Bonds | |
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Summary | |
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Additional References | |
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Appendix: The New York City Default | |
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Corporate Bonds | |
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What Is Unique about Corporate Bonds? | |
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Risk Factors of Corporate Bonds | |
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Corporate Bonds with Special Features | |
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Junk Bonds | |
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Shopping for Corporate Bonds Using the Internet | |
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Summary | |
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Mortgage-Backed Securities | |
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Why GNMAs Are Unique | |
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How Prepayments Affect GNMA Cash Flows | |
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The Vocabulary of GNMA Returns | |
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CMOs and Other Sons of GNMA | |
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Agency Backing of Mortgage-Backed Securities: Ginnie, Fannie, and Freddie | |
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Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs) and Collateralized Debt Swaps (CDSs) | |
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The Financial Crisis: 2007-2008 | |
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Current State of the Mortgage-Backed and Asset-Backed Securities Market | |
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Summary | |
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Additional References | |
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International Bonds | |
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The International Bond Market: An Overview | |
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Currency Risk | |
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Emerging Markets Debt: Brady Bonds | |
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Buying Individual International Bonds | |
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Is There a Case for Investing in International Bonds? | |
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Obtaining Information on International Bonds | |
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Summary | |
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Investing Through Funds | |
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Bond Mutual Funds: An Overview | |
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Differences between Bond Funds and Individual Bonds | |
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How Much Will I Earn? | |
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The Costs of Investing in Bond Funds | |
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Why the NAV of Your Fund Will Go Up and Down | |
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Selecting, Buying, and Monitoring Bond Funds | |
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Sources of Information Concerning Bond Funds | |
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Taxes and Bond Funds | |
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Summary | |
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Money Market Funds and Tax-Exempt Bond Funds | |
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Money Market Funds | |
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Bond Funds Whose Price Goes Up and Down: "Plain Vanilla" and More Speculative Funds | |
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Municipal Bond Funds | |
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Summary | |
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Taxable Bond Funds | |
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Domestic "Plain Vanilla" Taxable Bond Funds | |
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Treasury Inflation Protected Securities Funds | |
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GNMA (and Other Mortgage) Funds | |
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More Speculative Funds | |
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Miscellaneous Funds | |
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Summary | |
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Closed-End Bond Funds, Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs), and Unit Investment Trusts | |
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Closed-End Bond Funds | |
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Summary: Closed-End Funds | |
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Sources of Information on CEFs | |
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Exchange-Traded Funds | |
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Advantages and Disadvantages of Bond ETFs | |
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Summary: Exchange-Traded Funds | |
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Unit Investment Trusts | |
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Summary: Unit Investment Trusts | |
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Management of Bond Portfolios and Asset Allocation | |
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Management of Bond Portfolios | |
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When Will I Need the Money? | |
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Portfolio Structures | |
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Finding Attractive Buy Points | |
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Swaps | |
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Managing a Bond Portfolio for Total Return | |
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Portfolio Allocation | |
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Portfolio Allocation | |
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Asset Allocation | |
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The Case for Bonds Revisited | |
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The Current Environment and the Bond Market | |
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Conclusion | |
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Index | |