Moody's Bond Survey

The event in which companies or individuals will be unable to make the required payments on their debt obligations. Lenders and investors are exposed to default risk in virtually all ...

The highest possible rating assigned to the bonds of an issuer by credit rating agencies. An issuer that is rated AAA has an exceptional degree of creditworthiness and can easily meet ...

A debt security issued by a corporation and sold to investors. The backing for the bond is usually the payment ability of the company, which is typically money to be earned from future ...

The formal term to describe credit rating agencies that provide credit ratings that are used by the U.S. government in several regulatory areas. Ratings provided by Nationally Recognized ...

A well-known rating agency that evaluates bonds of all kinds. Egan-Jones Rating Company (EJR) rates corporate debt of all kinds, from high-grade issues to high-yield debt. EJR is funded ...

An independent, unaffiliated research company that rates fixed income securities. Moody's assigns ratings on the basis of risk and the borrower's ability to make interest payments. ...

An unmanaged market-weighted index, comprised of government and investment grade corporate debt instruments with maturities of one year or greater. The Lehman Brothers ...

They may not be sexy, but bonds do have a place in every balanced portfolio. Find out why.

Bond investing is a stable and low-risk way to diversify a portfolio. However, knowing which types of bonds are right for you is not always easy.