Bonds are securities that establish a creditor relationship between the purchaser (creditor) and the issuer (debtor). The issuer receives a certain amount of money in return for the bond, and is obligated to repay the principal at the end of the lifetime of the bond (maturity). Typically, bonds also require coupon or interest payments. Since all these payments are determined as part of the contracts, bonds are also called fixed income securities. A straight bond is one where the purchaser pays a fixed amount of money to buy the bond. At regular periods, she receives an interest payment, called the coupon payment
