Securities Market

a. The Yield to Maturity (YTM) is the nominal rate of return which investors would realize if they held the bond to maturity and the bond did not default.

Convertibles are appealing to investors who are looking for an investment with greater growth potential than that offered by a traditional bond. By purchasing a convertible bond, the investor can still receive

The bonds can be issues with fixed interest or variable rate interest, each of which has its advantages and there disadvantages.

Moderate risk. Purchasing a bond means giving a loan to a company. “T-Bonds” are bonds issued by the U.S. Treasury and are safer than corporate bonds. (Loaning money to the government is safer than loaning money to a private business.)

An investment in a tax-exempt (municipal) bond with an interest rate of 8 percent is preferable to an investment in a taxable (corporate) bond with an interest rate of 10 percent.

1. Briefly explain why many corporations prefer to issue callable long-term corporate bonds rather than noncallable long-term bonds.

Even though these products are issued as long-term securities, they have many of the same features as traditional short-term ones. These debt products are both callable and puttable which gives the issuer as well as the investor flexibility. The call feature allows the issuer to buy back the bond. For issuers who are not sure how long they will need funds, they can get out of the agreement by calling the bond. Same goes for the investor; they can exercise the put option and receive their money back. In order to make these products more liquid, investment banks are used as remarketing agents. These agents resell the bonds at new rates to other investors. However, there is a cap on how high the rates on the bonds can be reissued at in order to limit the coupon payments. These variable rate debts also track the JJ Kenny index. The JJ Kenny index is an index similar to the S&P 500 but for municipal bonds. Also, a synthetic fixed rate debt can be created from combining a variable rate debt and a SWAP. Given the two proposals, the state is faced with three forms of debt. The first form is a fixed rate option that would provide the state with 20 year serial issued bonds with fixed

Second City Options (SCO) is a small firm that specializes in option trading. Employing 35 people, SCO is located on LaSalle Street in the Chicago financial district. It is a member firm of the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), where it trades options on stocks and stock indices. It is also a member firm of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group (CME Group), where it trades options on futures and the underlying futures contracts.

Credit rating agencies take a wide range of factors – debt raising purpose, industry outlook, corporate profile and financial measures into account when performing corporate bond

If the company benefits from the provision of the bond, then the coupon rate will be higher. If the bondholder’s benefit, then the bond will have lower coupon rate.

The advantage to choosing a convertible bond for financing is that "they provide issuers with ‘cheap' debt and allow them to sell equity at a premium over current value". Jen, Choi, Lee (1997).

It provides an evaluation of the bond issuer’s financial strength and ability to pay back the bond’s principle and interest. The bond rating also provides investors with some sense of security when investing in a particular firm. A higher bond rating implies a lower likelihood for the firm to default. Investors would feel more secured investing in such a bond, thus demanding a relatively lower rate of return. As such, high rated bonds enable the issuer to enjoy a lower cost of borrowing. A lower bond rating, on the other hand, serves as a negative signal to investors on the firm’s ability to repay debt obligations.

Firstly, interest on debt is tax deductible, therefore, debt is the least costly source of long-term financing as this is a tax saving for the frim. Thus, creditors or bondholders require a lower return on debt as it is considered a reflectively less risky investment. Secondly, the capital structure of a firm is flexible due to debt financing. Ultimately, bondholders are creditors and they do not have voting rights, hence, they are not involved in decision making and business operations. Additionally, the major advantages of equity finance are as follows. Firstly, the capital provided is to finance the businesses short term needs and future projects. Secondly, the business will not have to pay any additional bank expenses such as interest on loans, thus allowing the business to use the money for business activities. Lastly, investors anticipate that the business will develop thus they help in exploring and executing thoughts. Certain sources, for example, venture capitalists and business angel can bring significant skills, abilities, contacts and experience to businesses and they can also provide expertise advice to businesses (Hofstrand,

In fact, bond investments are carried out in several ways, depending on the type of bond:

A bond is debt to whoever sells the bond to an inventor. If you buy an IBM bond, you are loaning money ($1000) to IBM instead of a bank loaning money to them. Just like a bank, you are going to charge IBM interest on your money, as well as a return of principle when the loan is due (ten years later). The company does not go to the bank to borrow the money, because the bank will rate the company as a high risk company. Hence, banks are really tight with their money. High yields bond investment relies on an credit analysis in that it concentrates on issuer fundamentals, and a "bottom-up" process. It focuses more on "downside risk default and the unique characteristics of the issuer. In a portfolio of high yield bonds,