What Is the Yield Curve? Bond Market Basics
Chapter 1

The giant IOU machine

Chapter 2

Uncle Sam's piggy bank

Chapter 3

Corporate cash and municipal magic

Chapter 4

The yield curve and the economic crystal ball

Ch 4 · The yield curve and the economic crystal ball
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diego87 The inverted recession predictor

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diego87 What is the yield curve

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diego87 The Yield Curve

When short-term treasury yields rise above the long, the inverted curve signals that a recession is coming.

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diego87 The bond vigilantes

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The inverted recession predictor

diego87 An inverted yield curve occurs when short-term bonds pay higher interest than long-term ones, often predicting an economic recession.

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Fun Fact

Recession radar: An inverted yield curve has successfully predicted all ten US recessions since 1955, with only one false alarm.

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What is the yield curve

diego87 The yield curve is a simple graph that plots the interest rates of bonds with different maturity dates.

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Glossary
yield curve (noun)
A graph that plots the interest rates of similar bonds across different maturity dates. In 1986, economist Campbell Harvey demonstrated that an inverted slope on this graph historically foreshadows economic recessions.

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Quiz

What is the nickname for investors who sell bonds to protest government policies they view as inflationary?

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Gossip

Is the bond market smarter than the stock market?

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The Magic Yield Ball
BETA

diego87 Shake the Magic Yield Ball to learn how bonds fund public projects and earn interest.

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diego87 The see-saw of prices and rates

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Quiz

An inverted yield curve is famous for predicting which economic event?

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Quiz

If you buy a bond for $1,000 and sell it for $950 before it matures, what have you experienced?

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Quiz

Since 1955, how many US recessions has an inverted yield curve successfully predicted?

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Quiz

What shape does a normal, healthy economic yield curve have on a graph?

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Quiz

What happens to the price of existing bonds when market interest rates go up?

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Quiz

What is the mathematical term for the actual annual return an investor gets from a bond?

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Quiz

What is it called when short-term bonds pay higher interest rates than long-term bonds?

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