Crash Course in Bonds

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Crash Course in Bonds

Included in: Fixed Income Markets Certification (FIMC^©) ,

97 Lessons
8h 41m
96,178 Students

A step-by-step crash course in bonds designed for those pursuing a career in fixed income research, investments, sales and trading or investment banking (debt capital markets).

$99 Add to Cart

Why You Should Take This Course

We’ll be blunt: bond analysis is usually taught horribly. Our course completely demystifies fixed income analysis to give people from the outside a clear window to the inside.

If you’ve ever tried to learn about bonds – either through a textbook, a university class, or CFA training materials, you’ve most likely discovered that it quickly gets painful. We’ll be blunt: bond analysis is usually taught horribly. Beyond super-basic concepts of bond pricing and interest rate valuation, concepts like convexity, modified duration and forward curves are introduced with no connection to how they relate to real-world investment strategies.

We made this bonds course with one overall objective in mind: to make something truly different than what’s out there now. Something that completely demystifies fixed income analysis and gives people a clear window to the inside.

We feel certain we've accomplished this. We take you step-by-step through the core concepts you need, and completely cut out concepts you’ll never use. The result is an intuitive look at the use of bonds in fixed income research, sales and trading and investment banking.

This course is used to train new hires at:

What You Will Learn

Fixed income market overview
Bond math basics
Yield calculations and conventions
Money Market math
Interest rate risk
Real world bond pricing nuances
Callable bonds
The yield curve
Nominal spread & Z-spread
OAS
Spot rates
Realized compound yield
Holding period yield
Forward rates
Credit analysis
Debt Capital Markets

BONUS:

We'll show you how market practitioners use Bloomberg on the job.

Course Samples

DV01

Interpreting the Bloomberg YAS screen

Yield curve shape at various points in the business cycle

Get the Bond Math & Analysis Certification

Trainees are eligible to take the Crash Course in Bonds Certification Exam for 24 months from the date of enrollment. Those who complete the exam and score above 80% will receive the certification. The exam is a challenging online examination covering the most difficult concepts covered in the Crash Course in Bonds and Debt.

Course Highlights

Used on the Street

This is the same comprehensive course our corporate clients use to prepare their analysts and associates.

1.5x, 2x Video Speed

Save loads of time by bumping up playback speed to breeze through lessons at your own pace.

Taught by Bankers

Our instructors are former I-bankers who give lessons real-world context by connecting it to their experience on the desk.

Instructor Support

Have a question on course content? Communicate directly with instructors by asking questions throughout the course.

Course TOC

Chapter 1: Fixed income market overview

1. What is fixed income? 2:30

2. Course Downloads Files

3. Size of the bond market 2:41

4. Bond market geographic breakdown 3:21

Chapter 2: Bond basics

5. Basic bond terms 4:28

6. Basic bond math 5:52

7. Using Excel’s RATE() function 5:00

8. Reinvestment assumption of YTM 3:26

9. YTM vs. current vs. nominal yield 2:16

10. Annuities 4:28

11. Bond price as present value of a bond’s cash flows 1:32

12. Simple bond price exercise 2:47

13. More bond terms 4:58

14. Bond issuance costs 2:53

15. The price/yield relationship 3:52

16. Primary vs. secondary bond market 4:28

17. The bid/ask spread 2:44

18. Bond basics review Quiz

Chapter 3: Yield calculations and conventions

19. Coupon frequency and bond equivalent yield (BEY) 3:14

20. BEY vs Effective annual yield (EAY) 6:45

21. Converting from BEY to EAY 4:14

22. Compounding conventions of 0-coupon bonds 7:41

23. Yield calculations and conventions review Quiz

Chapter 4: The money market math

24. Money market yield 8:04

25. Money market math exercises 5:08

26. Compounding 9:53

27. Discount basis 12:46

28. Converting interest rates 5:49

29. Money market instruments 3:26

30. The money market math review Quiz

Chapter 5: Real world bond pricing nuances

31. Settlement date 0:37

32. Bond pricing between coupons 1:29

33. Fractional periods 7:01

34. Day count convention 1:51

35. Dirty price 2:19

36. Dirty price exercise 6:15

37. Clean vs dirty price 4:08

38. Useful Excel functions 2:55

39. Bond pricing exercise, part 1 6:34

40. Bond pricing exercise, part 2 8:25

41. Bond pricing exercise, part 3 4:51

42. Interpreting the Bloomberg bond screen 6:43

43. Bond pricing nuances review Quiz

Chapter 6: Realized compound yield and holding period yield

44. Realized compound yield and holding period yield 2:55

45. RCY / HPY exercise, part 1 6:07

46. RCY / HPY exercise, part 2 2:34

47. RCY / HPY exercise, part 3 19:48

48. Realized compound yield and holding period yield review Quiz

Chapter 7: Interest rate risk

49. Intro to interest rate risk 4:27

50. DV01 5:36

51. Hedging interest rate risk 6:15

52. Estimating the price impact of rate changes 2:50

53. Modified duration & dollar duration 4:39

54. Modified duration exercise 5:59

55. Useful Excel functions for interest rate risk 1:48

56. Modified duration exercise, part 2 6:31

57. Modified duration exercise, part 3 3:54

58. Convexity 6:16

59. Convexity exercise 13:35

60. How convexity is applied in practice 2:29

61. Duration/convexity between coupons 3:01

62. Duration/convexity between coupons exercise 8:33

63. Interpreting the Bloomberg YAS screen 10:16

64. Interest rate risk review Quiz

Chapter 8: Callable bonds

65. Make whole call 10:04

66. Make whole call, Apple example 3:17

67. Callable bonds 10:01

68. Sinking fund redemption 2:59

69. Yield to call and yield to worst 5:54

70. Callable bonds review Quiz

Chapter 9: The Yield Curve

71. Yield curve intro 4:57

72. Term structure theory 11:31

73. Monetary policy intro 6:03

74. Federal funds and the discount rate 3:13

75. Open market operations 3:03

76. Other central bank tools 6:07

77. Summary of forces affecting the yield curve 8:09

78. Yield curve shape at various points in the business cycle 10:02

79. Yield Curve review Quiz

Chapter 10: Spot rates

80. Spot rates intro 6:48

81. Spot rates role in bond valuation 9:56

82. Full vs YTM bond valuation approaches 6:56

83. Bootstrapping the spot curve, part 1 11:18

84. Bootstrapping the spot curve, part 2 13:47

85. Spot rates review Quiz

Chapter 11: Z-spread and OAS

86. Yield spreads and the z-spread 16:30

87. Option adjusted spread 4:10

88. Z-spread and OAS review Quiz

Chapter 12: Forward rates

89. Forward rates 8:41

90. Forward rate exercise, part 1 7:10

91. Forward rate exercise, part 2 9:18

92. Trading strategy using forward rates 10:57

93. Forward rates review Quiz

Chapter 13: Credit analysis

94. Credit risk 8:01

95. Credit analysis 17:03

96. Navigating Clear Channel’s bond agreement 8:54

97. Credit analysis review Quiz

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