Expand your knowledge of the structure and application of bonds and fixed-income products

This intensive training course will allow you to improve your understanding of all aspects of bonds and fixed income. Designed to optimise your skills, the in-depth market-focused tuition will give you an edge in a competitive market.  This course is tailored to those who require up-to-date market knowledge on how these particular changes will impact their professional lives.

In 3 days you will expand your knowledge of the structure and application of bonds and fixed-income products and will gain an in-depth understanding of:

• The debt market and importance of the market
• Classification of bond instruments
• Yield curve, spread and calculations
• Interest rate risk, duration and immunisation.
• Fixed-income portfolio's
• Risk and trading strategies

Recommended background

This course is designed for all professionals directly or indirectly involved with debt instruments. You could be working in corporate finance, capital markets, audit, research and analysis, government, funding and investment.

What you will learn

By attending this program, you will learn:

• How to estimate bond prices
• Calculate real versus nominal returns.
• Learn about the bond market, issuers and players.
• Learn where to retrieve bond information.
• Construct a fixed-income portfolio.
• Evaluate risk and use risk strategies to reduce the risk

Course format

Practice-based learning and critical engagement is a key theme through all our courses allowing delegates to acquire the needed skills and techniques to be applied as soon as they are learned and developed.

Practice-based learning and critical engagement is a key theme through all our courses allowing delegates to acquire the needed skills and techniques to be applied as soon as they are learned and developed.

The Debt market and importance of the Market:

• Debt Market
• Equity Market versus Debt
• Primary versus secondary market
• Size and complexity of the bond market

The Time value of Money Revisited:

• The Fisher Effect
• Real versus Nominal
• Present Value

Raising capital through equity or debt:

• Corporate Requirements and Timing
• Market Place Condition
• Nature and needs for funds

Issuers of Debt Instruments:

• Governments
• Corporations  

Bonds and Associated Risk:

• Risk In Fixed Income
• Default
• Counterparty Risk
• Interest Rates
• Reinvestment
• Liquidity

Types of Debt instruments and sectors:

• Bonds
• Notes
• Hybrids
• Securitised

Bond Characteristics:

• Fixed, Floating and Zero
• Par Value
• Maturity
• Interest Rate
• Interest Payments

The Rating of Debt Instruments:

• Moody's & Standards and Poor
• External Research Analysis firms
• Investment Grade versus High Yield Bonds

Structure of an Issue:

• Secured Versus Unsecured
• Senior versus subordinated
• Call ability

Bond Pricing:

• Percentage Values
• Quotations conventions

Yields, spreads and Calculations:

• Yield versus return versus interest
• Nominal Yield
• Current Yield
• Price and Yields
• Yield to maturity

Interest Rate Risk, Duration and Immunisation:

• Definition
• Calculation
• Interpretation
• Limitations / advantages
• Convexity
• Immunisation.

Constructing a Fixed Income Portfolio:

• Advantages for Individuals (Bonds versus Bond Funds)
• Advantages for Institutions (Active versus Passive strategies)

Risk Continued:

• Reinvestment Risk
• Inflation Risk
• Call Risk
• Interest Rate Risk
• Sector Risk
• Liquidity Risk
• Event Risk
• Sovereign Risk

Types of Diversification:

• By Sector
• By Quality
• By Maturity or Duration

Some trading strategies:

• Bullet, barbell and ladder strategies
• Butterfly strategy
• Trading on market inefficiencies
• Identifying mis-priced bonds

Risk Management and Derivatives:

• Types of Derivatives
• Derivatives as Natural Hedges
• Hedging versus Speculation
• Some Key Hedging strategies and Examples
• Interest Rate Risk and Swaps
• Default Risk and CDS

Bringing it all Together:

• The Art of the Portfolio Manager
• Importance of Asset Allocation
•  Asset and Liability Management (ALM)

Introduction to International Bonds:

• Foreign Government Markets
• Foreign Domestic
• Euro Bonds
• Benchmarks and Credit spreads
• Credit and Currency arbitrage via Swaps

• Very good course, teacher, and approach. Material available online prior the course + request to the participants about their expectations from the course.
• This is a very well-designed course. Taking you through basics and in the end puts you in a real business scenario where you are expected to take a decision based on the tools and concepts you learnt.
• I strongly recommended this training to my colleagues as I found it very useful.
• I think this was one of the best courses I've ever attended. The trainer was extremely pedagogic and the structure of the course was very well planned with just the right mixture of theory versus practical examples and exercises.