investment-education

Non-agency MBS are mortgage-backed securities without government guarantees. Learn about private-label MBS types, credit enhancement structures, subordination mechanics, and lessons from the subprime crisis.

Learn how stable value funds work in 401(k) plans: GICs, synthetic GICs, wrap contracts, crediting rate mechanics, and comparisons to money market and bond funds.

Variable life insurance combines death benefit protection with investment subaccounts, transferring investment risk to the policyholder in exchange for market participation.

Learn how credit card ABS work, including master trust structures, excess spread calculations, and early amortization triggers. Essential guide for fixed income investors analyzing consumer ABS.

Money market instruments are short-term debt securities with maturities of one year or less. Learn about T-bills, commercial paper, negotiable CDs, repos, federal funds, and money market mutual funds.

Learn how the TBA market works for agency MBS trading. Covers forward settlement conventions, the 48-hour rule, dollar rolls, good delivery guidelines, spec pools, and roll analysis with worked examples.

A comprehensive guide to preferred stock covering types, features, yields, DRD tax treatment, and comparison to bonds and common stock.

Emerging market debt offers higher yields than developed-market bonds but with sovereign credit risk and currency exposure. Learn about Brady bonds, EMBI indices, stripped spreads, and how to analyze EM sovereign credit.

Municipal bonds offer tax-exempt income for individual investors. Learn the difference between general obligation and revenue bonds, how to evaluate municipal credit, and how bond insurance works.

Learn how Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) protect purchasing power through CPI-U principal adjustment, calculate breakeven inflation rates, and compare TIPS to I-Bonds and global inflation linkers.