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BANKERS TUTORIAL · JAIIB · ORIGINAL PRACTICE & ANALYSIS

Practice & review: Bond prices, coupons and market yield

A bond's coupon is a contractual cash flow, while market yield reflects the return implied by price and assumptions. Understanding their distinction helps explain why fixed-coupon bond prices respond to changing required returns.

01 / 03Learn with a clear direction

2 min read Original learning material · Prepared 14 Oct 2026

The worked question on this page is original educational practice. It is not represented as a question from an official previous-year examination paper.

01 / UNDERSTANDING

Review the question

Write an original direction-of-change question with fixed cash flows and unchanged risk. For genuine-paper analysis, underline those assumptions before applying the inverse price-yield relationship to the alternatives. Add a distractor asserting that the issuer automatically changes a fixed coupon when market yields rise. Require the learner to reject it using the stated bond terms. A separate extension can change credit expectations, illustrating why the clean inverse relationship needs its other-assumptions-unchanged condition.

02 / UNDERSTANDING

The concept in context

Coupon rate alone is not the investor's complete realised return. Purchase price, reinvestment, holding period, default experience and eventual sale or redemption can matter. Educational price-yield examples should isolate one factor at a time rather than implying that a bond's actual market price is driven only by rates.

03 / UNDERSTANDING

A worked learning case

A bond pays a fixed coupon and matures at a stated amount. Newly available comparable investments offer a higher required return in a hypothetical scenario. The existing bond's fixed cash flows become less attractive at its old price, so a lower price is needed to provide the higher required yield, assuming other factors remain unchanged.

ORIGINAL EDUCATIONAL PRACTICE

Try it before you check.

With fixed cash flows and other assumptions unchanged, what happens to bond price when required yield rises?

Show the answer and reasoning

Price falls.

The cash flows are discounted at a higher required rate, reducing their present value. The fixed coupon itself does not rise merely because market yields increase. This inverse relationship is a controlled comparison; actual bond prices can also reflect changes in credit risk, liquidity and expected cash-flow performance.

Two traps to watch for.

  • Treating coupon rate and market yield as identical concepts.
  • Applying the inverse relationship without holding other factors constant.

YOUR TOPIC-SPECIFIC LEARNING MAP

Learn from the attempt

  1. List the bond's promised coupon and maturity cash flows.

  2. Explain how a higher discount rate changes their present value.

  3. Separate the fixed coupon from the investor's purchase-price-based return.

Explain the idea, apply it to a new situation, then check what changed in your reasoning.

BANKERS TUTORIAL · SOURCE NOTES

Keep the source alongside your notes.

Official links provide subject context and authoritative reference material. This guide’s explanation, scenario and question are original Bankers Tutorial learning content.

  1. iibf.org.in https://iibf.org.in/jaiib-junior-associate-IIBF
  2. iibf.org.in https://iibf.org.in/documents/RulesSyllabus/2026/FlagshipCourses/21%20-%20JAIIB-Final_Exam_24.07.25_Final_23.02.2026.pdf
  3. www.rbi.org.in https://www.rbi.org.in/commonperson/English/Scripts/PressReleases.aspx?Id=2123
  4. investor.sebi.gov.in https://investor.sebi.gov.in/securities-howtoinvest.html

For JAIIB preparation, check the current official notice before relying on changing dates, rules or examination requirements.

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