Advantages and Disadvantages of Bonds: Advantages of Bonds | Saylor Academy (2024)

Bonds have some advantages over stocks, including relatively low volatility, high liquidity, legal protection, and a variety of term structures.

TERMS

• inflation-linked bonds

  Inflation-indexed bonds (also known as inflation-linked bonds or colloquially as linkers) are bonds where the principal is indexed to inflation. They are thus designed to cut out the inflation risk of an investment.

• Zero coupon bonds

  A zero-coupon bond (also called a discount bond or deep discount bond) is a bond bought at a price lower than its face value, with the face value repaid at the time of maturity.

• Convertible bonds

  A convertible bond is a type of bond that the holder can convert into shares of common stock in the issuing company or cash of equal value, at an agreed-upon price.

Definition and Purpose of a Bond

Infinance, a bond is an instrument of indebtedness of the bond issuer to the holders. It is a debt security under which the issuer owes the holders a debt and, depending on the terms of the bond, is obliged to pay them interest (the coupon). In addition, the issuer might have to repay the principal at a later date, which is termed the maturity. Interest is usually payable at fixed intervals (semiannual, annual, and sometimes monthly). Very often the bond is negotiable; in other words, the ownership of the instrument can be transferred in thesecondary market.

Bonds are bought and traded mostly by institutions like centralbanks, sovereign wealth funds,pension funds, insurance companies,hedgefunds, and banks. Insurance companies and pension funds haveliabilities, which essentially include fixed amounts payable on predetermined dates. They buy the bonds to match their liabilities and may be compelled by law to do this. Most individuals who want to own bonds do so throughbond funds. Still, in the U.S., nearly 10% of all outstanding bonds are held directly by households.

Advantages of Bonds

Bonds have a clear advantage over other securities. The volatility of bonds (especially short and medium dated bonds) is lower than that of equities (stocks). Thus bonds are generally viewed as safer investments than stocks. In addition, bonds do suffer from less day-to-day volatility than stocks, and the interest payments of bonds are sometimes higher than the general level ofdividendpayments.

Bonds are often liquid. It is often fairly easy for an institution to sell a large quantity of bonds without affecting the price much, which may be more difficult for equities. In effect, bonds are attractive because of thecomparativecertainty of a fixed interest payment twice a year and a fixed lump sum at maturity.

Bondholders also enjoy a measure of legal protection: under the law of most countries, if a company goes bankrupt, its bondholders will often receive some money back (the recovery amount), whereas the company's equity stock often ends up valueless. Furthermore, bonds come withindentures(an indenture is a formal debt agreement that establishes the terms of a bond issue) and covenants (the clauses of such an agreement). Covenants specify the rights of bondholders and the duties of issuers, such as actions that the issuer is obligated to perform or is prohibited from performing.

There are also a variety of bonds to fit different needs of investors, including fixed rated bonds, floating rate bonds,zero coupon bonds,convertible bonds, andinflationlinked bonds.