BOND MATH: The Theory Behind the Formulas

Preface

This book could be titled Applied Bond Math or, perhaps, Practical Bond Math. Those who do serious research on fixed-income securities and markets know that this subject matter goes far beyond the mathematics covered herein. Those who are interested in discussions about “pricing kernels” and “stochastic discount rates” will have to look elsewhere. My target audience is those who work in the finance industry (or aspire to), know what a Bloomberg page is, and in the course of the day might hear or use terms such as “yield to maturity,” “forward curve,” and “modified duration.”

My objective in Bond Math is to explain the theory and assumptions that lie behind the commonly used statistics regarding the risk and return on bonds. I show many ...