Bạn đang đánh bắt trong một cuộc tranh cãi với một người nào đó, sự hiểu biết những gì thúc đẩy người khác thường đi một chặng đường dài hướng tới giải quyết cuộc xung đột. Sau khi tất cả, nó dễ dàng hơn để tháo gỡ một quả bom khi bạn biết được nơi các cầu chì. | A Volatile Relationship When you re caught in an argument with someone understanding what s motivating the other person often goes a long way toward resolving the conflict. After all it s easier to defuse a bomb when you know where the fuse is. The same goes for bonds. If you know what causes fixed income volatility . what causes prices to bounce around in the secondary market you have a better chance of defending against their negative moves. Fixed income volatility can come from changes in the issuer s financial condition or from changing interest rates. For example as an issuer s financial condition improves its cost of borrowing declines because investors shoulder less risk. Any existing bonds the company had previously issued will appreciate in value bringing those yields down to the newly appropriate level. Conversely if the issuer s credit is downgraded existing bond values fall so that the yields will rise to levels that more adventurous investors will find alluring. The features that make each bond unique shape a bond s volatility via their reactions to interest rate movements. A bond s Maturity Coupon and Credit rating 171 172 A VOLATILE RELATIONSHIP affect the degree to which the bond will react to changes in interest rates. The level of current interest rates also affects how much all bonds will react to future changes. The situation is similar to when you played with your Jr. Chemistry set. When you combined four different elements with nitrogen separately you d get four different reactions. Then if you combined all four with nitrogen at the same time the sum total would be something different again with each element playing a part in the final reaction that sent the chemistry lab up in flames. To understand how maturity coupon credit rating and current interest rates contribute to a bond s volatility let s examine how each one is affected by interest rate fluctuations. MATURITY The shorter a bond s maturity the lower its sensitivity to interest .
