Monday, July 26, 2010

Bond Basics

What Is a Bond?

A bond is a loan. When you buy a bond, you are lending money to the bond's issuer. Generally, the loan is for a fixed amount of money, the principal -- or face amount -- for a fixed length of time. At the end of that time, the bond is mature; the borrower pays off the loan by paying off the face amount. Most often, the loan is at a fixed rate of interest, the interest being due on a fixed schedule during the life of the loan (e.g., quarterly or yearly).

Technically, not all fixed income instruments are bonds. However, in this post I am using the term bond loosely to include not just bonds, but other fixed income instruments such as bills, notes and certificates of deposit as well.

Basic Bond Math: Calculating Interest

Thursday, July 1, 2010

July 2010 Stock Market Update

100 Year Dow Chart with 25-Year Moving Average

Dow 25 year moving average graph
Dow 25 Year Moving Average

Above is a very long-term chart of the Dow, including the 25-year moving average (click chart to expand); it uses this past month's close for this year's close. It shows that the market rarely falls very far below its 25-year moving average.

June, Year-To-Date & Recovery-To-Date Review
Note: click here for July Data


In early March 2009, I posted Dow At 25-Year Moving Average. The Dow continued lower for several more days before bottoming at 6547 on March 9 --