ond Tutor is a visual and interactive presentation of the theory of fixed income securities.   It covers the principles of time value of money, bond valuation, the term structure of interest rates, forwards and futures, and also related securities such as Eurodollar deposits.  It began from a set of lecture notes in courses we taught to MBA-level and undergraduates on trading and financial markets at Carnegie Mellon University.

Besides the revision and addition of material, what is unique about this version is that the software is directly integrated into an online textbook, creating what we call an interactive textbook.  In the text, you will see "Interactive Calculators" in the live screens.  In any of these calculators, you can change the numbers and see the results visually and numerically.  This ability to experiment gives you an intuitive grasp of the theory beyond just numbers and equations.

We have also added “real-world” calculators that let you see how the concepts are applied in todays markets.   At BondTutor.com you can click on "The Treasury Yield Curve" to see what is happening with the current yield curve (including zero curve, spot and forward rates) where we discuss some of the major drivers of these curves.  The underlying data is updated daily so the curves are always current.  You can also find Interest Rate Trends --- provides recent trends in interest rates including moving averages and volatility bounds, Inflation Expectations --- an important source of current information about inflation expectations by maturity including moving averages and volatility bounds, TIPS (Real Rates) ---  another important source of information because the prices of TIPS are sensitive to the current outlook for the US economy.  As we add more such capability you will see further menu items appear on the left.

We welcome comments and suggestions.  Shortly you will be able to submit these to the Bond Tutor Blog.  

John O'Brien and Sanjay Srivastava