What are Bonds? Bonds are fixed-income securities that are issued by corporations and governments to raise capital. The bond issuer borrows capital from the bondholder and makes fixed payments to them at a fixed (or variable) interest rate for a specified period. What is an Indenture? An indenture is a binding contract between an…
What is a Celebrity Bond? A celebrity bond is a type of asset-backed security issued by a holder of fame-based intellectual property rights. Issuers of celebrity bonds receive money upfront from investors in exchange for proceeds from future royalties from the works of art, which are covered by intellectual property rights listed in the security. Celebrity…
What is Momentum Investing? Momentum investing is an investment strategy aimed at purchasing securities that have been showing an upward price trend or short-selling securities that have been showing a downward trend. The main rationale behind momentum investing is that once a trend is well-established, it likely to continue. There is no consensus among economists…
What is a Coupon Bond? A coupon bond is a type of bond that includes attached coupons and pays periodic (typically annual or semi-annual) interest payments during its lifetime and its par value at maturity. These bonds come with a coupon rate, which refers to the bond’s yield at the date of issuance. Bonds that have…
What are Bond Ratings? Bond ratings are representations of the creditworthiness of corporate or government bonds. The ratings are published by credit rating agencies and provide evaluations of a bond issuer’s financial strength and capacity to repay the bond’s principal and interest according to the contract. The three private independent rating agencies – S&P, Moody’s,…
What is Over-the-Counter? Over-the-counter (OTC) is the trading of securities between two counterparties executed outside of formal exchanges and without the supervision of an exchange regulator. OTC trading is done in over-the-counter markets (a decentralized place with no physical location), through dealer networks. Contrary to trading on formal exchanges, over-the-counter trading does not require the…
What are Vulture Funds? Vulture funds are a subset of hedge funds that invest in distressed securities that have a high chance of default. The fund buys risky debt instruments at highly discounted prices in the secondary market and benefits by taking legal action against the issuers for debt recovery. Vulture fund portfolio managers seek…
What is a Reverse Convertible Note (RCN)? A Reverse Convertible Note (RCN) is a short-term investment option that can be very helpful to investors suffering from some cash flow problems. RCNs are securities that offer a consistent and predictable income, rivaling and surpassing traditional returns, including returns investors generally only see from high-yield bonds. The…
What is Value at Risk (VaR)? Value at Risk (VaR) is a financial metric that estimates the risk of an investment. More specifically, VaR is a statistical technique used to measure the amount of potential loss that could happen in an investment portfolio over a specified period of time. Value at Risk gives the probability…
What is a Convertible Bond? A convertible bond is a type of debt security that provides an investor with a right or an obligation to exchange the bond for a predetermined number of shares in the issuing company at certain times of a bond’s lifetime. It is a hybrid security that possesses features of both…
