Tag Archives: Municipal Bonds

Taming Premium Bonds

Posted on August 10, 2016 by Win Smith

The Bond Buyer published my commentary Taming  Premium Bonds earlier today.  Although callable premium bonds are very popular in the municipal market, I argue that they hurt issuers and the market.  Market rules dictate that the proceeds to the issuer compensate only for high … Continue reading →

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Puzzle #10: The Answer

Posted on August 22, 2014 by Win Smith

The challenge posed by Puzzle #10: Erratic Bond Pricing? was to guess what might be the cause of apparently wild swings in market yields for some municipal bonds with the same issuer and maturity: Besides this blog, I shared the … Continue reading →

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Puzzle #10: A Hint

Posted on August 15, 2014 by Win Smith

Puzzle #10: Erratic Bond Pricing? asks you what might explain some apparently erratic swings in yields for certain sporadically traded municipal bonds.  I stated that the bonds share the same issuer and maturity date. The puzzle is a bit sneaky, so … Continue reading →

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Puzzle #10: Erratic Bond Pricing?

Posted on August 7, 2014 by Win Smith

At last week’s Municipal Finance Conference in Boston, I made a brief presentation in response to a paper1 that described a new approach to deriving yield curves from municipal bond trade data. The authors have applied neural network techniques to the … Continue reading →

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2014 Municipal Finance Conference

Posted on June 3, 2014 by Win Smith

The Bond Buyer, the Brandeis International Business School, and the Rosenberg Institute of Global Finance will host the 2014 Municipal Finance Conference from July 31 to August 1, 2014 in Boston.  Now in its third year, the conference fosters communication between … Continue reading →

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Pitfalls to a Proposed Market Reform?

Posted on February 5, 2014 by Win Smith

In 2012, I moderated a session at Brandeis International Business School’s Municipal Finance Conference.  In this session, Professor Andrew Ang of Columbia Business School presented a proposal to create a nonprofit independent advisory firm—CommonMuni—that would reduce borrowing costs for municipalities … Continue reading →

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Agenda Set for 2013 Municipal Finance Conference

Posted on June 5, 2013 by Win Smith

The agenda is now set for the 2013 Municipal Finance Conference, sponsored by The Bond Buyer and Brandeis International Business School.  The conference will be held August 1-2, 2013 at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel. As a member of the organizing … Continue reading →

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2013 Municipal Finance Conference

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Win Smith

The Bond Buyer and Brandeis International Business School will host the 2013 Municipal Finance Conference on August 1-2, 2013 at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel.  The conference will bring together academics, practitioners, regulators and issuers to discuss the functioning of … Continue reading →

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Municipal Finance Conference at Brandeis

Posted on May 25, 2012 by Win Smith

The Brandeis International Business School will host its first Municipal Finance Conference on August 3, 2012.  It is a one day conference that will bring together academics and market professionals to discuss the latest public finance research.  As Rich Ryffel … Continue reading →

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