StrikeAndYield crib sheet · information and education only

Fixed Income

Debt instruments that pay interest and return principal — from government bonds to securitised credit.

The shelf — 17 instruments

Corporate Bond	Lending to companies for a spread: the extra yield is the price of the chance they don't pay you back.
Government Bond	A loan to a state, and the reference price of money itself — the yardstick every other asset is measured against.
Green & Sustainability-Linked Bonds	Debt with a purpose clause: either the money is earmarked for green projects, or the coupon itself bets on the issuer's climate targets.

Callable Bond	A bond the issuer can hand back early — which means you get your money returned exactly when you least want it.
Covered Bond	Bank debt with a safety net: backed by the bank AND a ring-fenced pool of mortgages. Zero defaults in two centuries of Pfandbriefe.
Emerging Market Bonds	Lending to the developing world — in dollars you'll probably get back, or in pesos that will decide what they're worth later.
Floating Rate Note	A bond whose coupon resets with the market — interest-rate risk engineered out, credit risk left in.
High-Yield Bond	Bonds from borrowers the rating agencies doubt — priced somewhere between fixed income and equity, behaving like both.
Inflation-Linked Bond	A bond that grows with the price level — real purchasing power, contractually guaranteed.
Municipal Bond	Lending to cities, states and school districts — with the US tax code, not the coupon, doing half the work.
Schuldschein	A loan that behaves like a bond and is documented like a handshake — the German middle market's answer to the capital market.
Sukuk	Not a bond — a certificate of ownership in an asset that generates rent. Economically similar, legally very different, and the difference only shows up when something goes wrong.
Zero-Coupon Bond	No coupons, one payment: buy at a discount, collect face value at maturity. The purest interest-rate instrument.

Asset-Backed Security	Any cash-flowing asset — car loans, credit cards, royalties — sliced into bonds of graded risk.
CMBS	Securitised loans against offices, malls and hotels. Fewer, larger, lumpier loans than residential — which makes the analysis property-by-property and the tail much thicker.
Contingent Convertible Bond	A bank bond with a self-destruct clause: it pays like debt until the bank stumbles — then it becomes equity, or nothing.
Mortgage-Backed Security	Thousands of home loans bundled into a bond — with the homeowners' right to refinance baked into your risk.

Expected policy rates — The front end is almost nothing else
Inflation expectations — They set the long end more than current inflation does
Supply — More issuance, cheaper bonds, all else equal
Credit spread, where there is credit — It widens far faster than it tightens
Duration and convexity — The same yield move is not the same price move at both ends
Forced holders — Regulation and mandates buy regardless of value

Counted from the same table each product page prints. Not a rating and not a ranking: there is deliberately no total.