Intro -- INTRODUCTION -- 1 A FIRST VISIT TO INTEREST RATES AND BONDS -- 2 AN ARBITRAGE-ENFORCED VALUATION OF BONDS -- 3 THE VARIOUS CONCEPTS OF RATES OF RETURN ON BONDS: YIELD TO MATURITY AND HORIZON RATE OF RETURN -- 4 DURATION: DEFINITION, MAIN PROPERTIES, AND USES -- 5 DURATION AT WORK: THE RELATIVE BIAS IN THE T-BOND FUTURES CONVERSION FACTOR -- 6 IMMUNIZATION: A FIRST APPROACH -- 7 CONVEXITY: DEFINITION, MAIN PROPERTIES, AND USES -- 8 THE IMPORTANCE OF CONVEXITY IN BOND MANAGEMENT -- 9 THE YIELD CURVE AND THE TERM STRUCTURE OF INTEREST RATES -- 10 IMMUNIZING BOND PORTFOLIOS AGAINST PARALLEL MOVES OF THE SPOT RATE STRUCTURE -- 11 CONTINUOUS SPOT AND FORWARD RATES OF RETURN, WITH TWO IMPORTANT APPLICATIONS -- 12 TWO IMPORTANT APPLICATIONS -- 13 ESTIMATING THE LONG-TERM EXPECTED RATE OF RETURN, ITS VARIANCE, AND PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION -- 14 INTRODUCING THE CONCEPT OF DIRECTIONAL DURATION -- 15 A GENERAL IMMUNIZATION THEOREM, AND APPLICATIONS -- 16 ARBITRAGE |