Investing & risk
A Bond Promise Has Terms, Conditions, and Risks
Understand what a bond contract promises, why a maturity date does not eliminate risk, and how repayment assumptions affect a hypothetical investor outcome.
Financial education
Investing & risk
Portfolio exposures, valuation assumptions and the limits of return comparisons.
Analysis & practical guides
58 articles
Investing & risk
Coupon Rate and Current Yield Answer Different Questions
Distinguish a bond's fixed coupon from yield on its purchase price, and see why neither measure alone explains a premium or discount investor's return.
Investing & risk
Yield to Maturity Is a Cash-Flow Equation
Learn how yield to maturity links bond prices to scheduled payments, why reinvestment matters, and where the calculation differs from realized performance.
Investing & risk
Duration Translates Yield Changes into Approximate Price Changes
Use modified duration to interpret bond price sensitivity, distinguish percentage points from percent changes, and understand the limits of a linear estimate.
Investing & risk
Convexity Explains Why Bond Price Changes Are Not Symmetric
Explore curvature in a simple bond valuation, compare equal upward and downward yield shocks, and learn why duration alone is an approximation.
Investing & risk
Call Risk Moves the Reinvestment Decision to the Issuer
Understand how early bond redemption can change cash-flow timing, why a premium matters, and how replacement income depends on future opportunities.
Investing & risk
Individual Bonds and Bond Funds Have Different Cash-Flow Structures
Compare a bond's maturity promise with a fund's continuing portfolio, and separate diversification benefits from assumptions about recovering an original investment.
Investing & risk
Price Return and Total Return Can Tell Different Stories
Learn to combine price changes and distributions consistently, avoid dividend double counting, and compare hypothetical investments using the same return definition.
Investing & risk
A Fund Distribution Does Not Create Free Wealth
Understand the mechanical relationship between fund distributions and NAV, distinguish cash receipts from gains, and avoid counting payouts twice.
Investing & risk
Average Returns and Compound Growth Are Different Calculations
See why arithmetic average returns can overstate a compounded outcome, how losses change the base, and when geometric growth is the relevant measure.
Investing & risk
Annualizing a Short Return Changes Its Scale, Not Its Evidence
Understand how a short-period return becomes an annualized number, why repetition is an assumption, and how to compare periods without inventing a forecast.
Investing & risk
A Low Expense Ratio Is Not the Same as a Low Total Cost
Map fund, adviser, platform, and trading costs to their separate charging bases, and learn to avoid both omitted costs and double counting.