Understand Global Fixed Income Markets
Fixed income is the part of the financial system where governments and companies borrow money and repay it on agreed terms. This page explains how a bond is built, why prices and yields move in opposite directions, and how rate expectations reach other markets.
Instrument Type
Bonds and debt instruments
Key Drivers
Policy rates and credit
Availability at MarketsAll
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Related Tools
Economic Calendar
Why Fixed Income Matters Across Other Markets
Bond yields are a reference point for pricing across the financial system, so a move in fixed income is often felt elsewhere. The instruments below are not bonds — they are instruments on the MarketsAll MetaTrader 5 server that fixed income moves often influence.
Investors compare the returns available in each currency, one of the factors watched in pairs such as EURUSD and USDJPY. Gold pays no coupon, so its appeal can change when yields on interest-bearing assets move. Share valuations are often assessed against bond yields.
No instrument matches that search.
Live quotes are shown when the price feed is available. Spreads and contract details for each instrument are published in MetaTrader 5.
What Is Fixed Income?
A bond is a loan in tradable form: an issuer raises money and commits to a schedule of payments in return. Governments issue bonds to fund public spending, companies to fund their operations.
The name describes the payment schedule, not the value. Payments are fixed at issue; the market price is not, and it moves with rates, inflation expectations and views on the issuer. Four terms describe any conventional bond.
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Principal
The face value of the bond, repaid at maturity. It does not move with the market price.
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Coupon
The interest the issuer pays, set at issue as a percentage of face value and fixed in cash terms.
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Maturity
The date the principal is repaid. Terms run from months to decades, and longer terms carry more rate exposure.
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Yield
The return measured against the price paid today rather than the face value, so it moves with the price.
Bond Prices and Yields
One relationship explains most of what happens in fixed income. Once a bond is trading, its price and its yield move in opposite directions.
Bond Price ↑ → Yield ↓
Bond Price ↓ → Yield ↑
The coupon does not change
The issuer keeps paying the cash amount fixed at issue, whatever the bond trades at.
The price paid does change
Yield measures that payment against the price paid, so a higher price means a lower return.
A bond with a face value of 1,000 and a 4% coupon pays 40 a year, so a buyer at 1,000 earns roughly 4%. At a price of 1,100 that same 40 is a yield of about 3.6%; at 900 it is about 4.4%. Only the price paid for those fixed payments has changed.
Government vs Corporate Bonds
Bonds are grouped by who is borrowing. Investors assess a sovereign and a corporate issuer against the same question: are the agreed payments likely to be made in full and on time?
Government bonds are not free of risk. Their risk depends on the issuer, the currency of issue and market conditions, and prices move with rates like any other bond.
What Moves Bond Yields?
Market yields are not the policy rate: they price in what investors expect over the life of the bond, which is why yields often move ahead of central bank meetings.
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Policy Rates
Central banks set the rate they lend at, which anchors the short end of the market. When it rises, new debt has to offer more, so older, lower-coupon bonds look less attractive.
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Inflation
A coupon fixed in cash terms buys less when prices rise, so higher inflation expectations tend to push yields up and the prices of existing bonds down.
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Credit Risk
The possibility that the issuer does not pay as agreed. Investors who see more of that risk require a higher yield, so similar bonds can trade at different yields.
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Duration
How strongly a price reacts to a rate change, based on the timing of the bond's payments. Longer duration means a larger reaction.
The Yield Curve
Plotting the yields of one issuer's bonds across different maturities produces the yield curve. Its shape is described in one of three ways.
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Normal
Longer maturities yield more than shorter ones, so investors are paid extra for lending for longer.
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Flat
Short and long maturities yield roughly the same, often reflecting uncertainty about policy rates.
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Inverted
Shorter maturities yield more than longer ones, generally read as an expectation of lower policy rates.
The curve shows what the market expects, and expectations can be wrong. An inversion is widely discussed but is one input among many.
Following Rates and Yields
Interest rate decisions, inflation releases and bond auctions are scheduled events, so they can be prepared for rather than reacted to. The Economic Calendar lists what is due and when.
Fixed Income at MarketsAll
The current fixed income instrument list is published on the MetaTrader 5 platform.
The account conditions below apply to the instruments available today on MetaTrader 5. The platform is the reference for the current fixed income instrument list, spreads and trading schedule.
Benchmark spreads vary by account type and market conditions. Review the applicable trading conditions before opening a position.
Full conditions are published on the pricing page and the account types page. Support is available 24 hours a day, Monday to Friday.
Related Market Analysis
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Fixed Income Risk Information
Fixed income risks differ from those of other markets. The points below are educational, not investment advice.
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Interest Rate Risk
When market rates move, the price of an existing bond usually moves the other way. A bond held to maturity still repays its agreed terms, but beforehand its market value can fall below the price paid.
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Credit Risk
The issuer may fail to pay a coupon or to repay the principal in full. This applies to corporate and government issuers alike.
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Duration Risk
Instruments with longer duration react more strongly to a given rate change, so two bonds facing the same move can show very different price changes.
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Liquidity Risk
Not every bond trades actively. In quiet or stressed conditions the gap between buying and selling prices can widen.
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Inflation Risk
A coupon fixed in cash terms loses purchasing power when inflation rises, and higher inflation expectations tend to push yields up and bond prices down.
