- "Secured" bonds or notes give you a direct claim on the assets of the company if it goes into default. It's better to be secured than not but, as the finance company debacle showed, assets may not be worth anything by the time a company fails.
- "Convertible" bonds or notes means the company doesn't have to give you cash when the bond matures. Instead it can choose to return your principal in the form of shares in the company.
- "Callable" bonds means the company can repay you early (for example, if interest rates have fallen and it wants to get cheaper funding). So you don't have a guaranteed "locked-in" return.
- "Perpetual" bonds have no set date for repayment and can pay coupons forever. When you want your money back you have to sell the bond (if you can find a buyer) and accept whatever price the bond is trading for.
- "Floating rate" notes or bonds have coupon payments which are re-set regularly. The coupons are based on a benchmark interest rate such as the one-year wholesale market swap rate.
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