Question

What is a debt market and how does a bond work within it?

Answer 1

Debt Market:

The debt market is the market where debt instruments are traded. Debt instruments are assets that require a fixed payment to the holder, usually with interest. Examples of debt instruments include bonds (government or corporate) and mortgages.

Investments in debt securities typically involve less risk than equity investments and offer a lower potential return on investment. Debt investments by nature fluctuate less in price than stocks. Even if a company is liquidated, bondholders are the first to be paid.

Bonds are the most common form of debt investment. These are issued by corporations or by the government to raise capital for their operations and generally carry a fixed interest rate. Most are unsecured but are issued with a rating by one of several agencies such as Moody's to indicate the likely integrity of the issuer.

It is reasonable to ask why a fixed-rate investment can change in value. If an individual investor buys a bond, it will pay a set amount of interest periodically until it matures, and then can be redeemed at face value. However, that bond might be resold in the debt market, called the secondary market.

The bond retains its face value at maturity. However, its real yield, or net profit, to a buyer change constantly. It loses yield by the amount that has already been paid in interest. The investment value increases or decreases with the constant fluctuations in the going interest prices offered by newly-issued bonds. If the interest rate of return on the bond is higher than the going rate, and the bond a reasonable time until maturity, the value may be at par or above the face value.

Therefore, in the secondary, the bond will sell at a discount to its face value or a premium to its face value.