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The bond market (also known as the debt, credit,
or fixed income market) is a financial market where participants buy and
sell debt securities, usually in the form of bonds. As of 2006, the size of
the international bond market is an estimated $45 trillion, of which the
size of the outstanding U.S. bond market debt was $25.2 trillion.
Nearly all of the $923 billion average daily trading volume (as of early
2007) in the U.S. Bond Market takes place between broker-dealers and
large institutions in a decentralized, over-the-counter (OTC) market.
However, a small number of bonds, primarily corporate, are listed on
exchanges.
References to the "bond market" usually refer to the government bond market,
because of its size, liquidity, lack of credit risk and, therefore,
sensitivity to interest rates. Because of the inverse relationship between
bond valuation and interest rates, the bond market is often used to indicate
changes in interest rates or the shape of the yield curve.
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