Bonds may not be as sexy as stocks, but they cannot be ignored as an essential part of any investing portfolio. While they may not be the way to immediate riches, the ability of bonds to retain their value in periods of massive stock market meltdowns makes them crucial portfolio insurance for everyone, and even lifejackets for some investors.Estimated at over $30 trillion, the international bond market is now arguably the largest capital market in the world. Buoyed by a twenty-year slide in interest rates, the bond market has for a long time produced extraordinary returns for bond investors. However, those days of easy money in the bond markets appear to be over as interest rates are once again on the rise. In the coming years, investors will have to be very astute to make money in a much tougher bond environment.Knowing one’s way around the bond market is essential for investors, but bonds remain a mystery to many. They can provide steady income and safer returns than stocks, but more exotic varieties of bonds can be extremely risky. As the bond market has grown to include bond futures, global bonds, and bond derivatives, the market has expanded and added huge amounts of risk as well as leverage. This book introduces you to all forms of bond investing, to Canadian debt markets and global bonds, the unique risks of bonds, and explains how to manage that risk successfully.Bonds do have the potential to make investors rich and the capacity to destroy those who do not understand the risks they take in this most mysterious of financial markets. Award-winning financial journalist Andrew Allentuck pulls back the veil on bonds and reveals them for what they truly are: stable, predictable, reliable investments that are an essential component in any well balanced portfolio.