Tag Archives: Puzzle

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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Puzzle #9 (Follow-up): Binary Sudoku and the Limits of Visualization

Posted on March 6, 2014 by Win Smith

In Puzzle #9: Island of Games, I described an island where a thousand residents enjoy playing three games: Chess, Checkers, and speed-solving of Rubik’s Cube.  Each islander’s skill at each game is assessed with a rating score between zero and … Continue reading →

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Puzzle #9: Island of Games

Posted on March 7, 2013 by Win Smith

Life is fun on the Island of Games.  The thousand inhabitants enjoy competing at chess, checkers, and contests to solve the Rubik’s Cube puzzle as fast as possible.  The islanders are rated for their skill at each of the three … Continue reading →

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Puzzle #7 (Follow-up): Treasury Island, Part 1

Posted on March 5, 2013 by Win Smith

In Puzzle #7: The Mysterious Islands, I told the story of two islands where each individual’s remaining lifespan can be perfectly predicted. The lifespans on Uniformia are evenly distributed, and their average remaining life expectancy will gradually decline over time. … Continue reading →

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Puzzle #8: James Bond

Posted on November 11, 2012 by Win Smith

Few know that a scene was cut from the James Bond movie Goldfinger.  Bond has been captured by Goldfinger and is strapped tightly to a large turntable.  Bond’s feet are at the center of the platter and his head rests … Continue reading →

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David Brode

Posted on September 19, 2012 by Win Smith

David Brode is a financial modeler in Boulder, Colorado.  An avid puzzle solver, he found this blog while searching for puzzles online.  He was intrigued by the puzzles and was curious to see a kindred spirit in Colorado.  David called … Continue reading →

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Puzzle #7: The Mysterious Islands

Posted on August 25, 2012 by Win Smith

Many years ago, a large jetliner crashed into the ocean.  No one could ever find the plane or any of its passengers or crew.  The outside world did not know that there were many survivors.  They made their way to … Continue reading →

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Puzzle #6: Treasury Debt

Posted on June 4, 2012 by Win Smith

Last week was historic for U.S. Treasury debt.  The yield on the 10-year Treasury dipped below 1.44% to its lowest level ever, and the total debt held by the public* rose to $11,006,251,094,374.26. Some might argue that $11 trillion in public … Continue reading →

Posted in Bonds, Economics, Fun, Math | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments