In their simplest form bonds are pretty straightforward. After all, just about anybody can comprehend the borrowing and lending of money. However, like many securities, bonds involve some more complicated underlying concepts as they are traded and analyzed in the market.

The goal of this tutorial is to explain the more complex aspects of fixed-income securities. We'll reinforce and review bond fundamentals such as pricing and yield, explore the term structure of interest rates, and delve into the topics of duration, and convexity. (Note: Although technically a bond is a fixed-income security with a maturity of ten years or more, in this tutorial we use the term "bond" and "fixed-income security" interchangeably.)

The information and explanations in this tutorial assume you have a basic understanding of fixed-income securities. If you feel you need a refresher, please see our bond basics tutorial. Please keep in mind that some concepts extend across more than one of the advanced topics that we discuss, so there may be some overlap.

Next: 1. Bond Type Specifics