How bond investments work : bonds

Extracted from text ... 4 May 2006 Moneyweb's PERSONAL FINANCE BONDS How bond investments work What are the factors that influence them, and how do you get into them? By ANA MONTEIRO FOR a long time, the bond market was an investment arena reserved for the super-rich, insurance companies and unit trust funds, with the nominal value of a single bond running into hundreds of thousands of rands. However, with the introduction of government retail bonds by the National Treasury in May 2004, individuals are now able to effectively 'lend' their money to the government, receiving bi-annual interest payments, and get their initial ..