Municipal Bonds Education and Training

How to become a muni bonds expert

By Felicia R. Blue
You need to quickly understand how municipal bonds work. You’ve just started working for a bond firm that specializes in trading municipal bonds and bond funds. Your manager wants you to get municipal bonds education and training. Attending school is an option, but you don’t want to spend money and time getting an advanced degree. Instead, you just want to get up to speed, understanding the terms and the relationship between yields and prices.

You do have options. There are many websites that have valuable information on municipal bonds. Who knows? After you’ve become familiar with muni bonds, you may decide you want to become a licensed bond broker. When it comes to municipal bonds education and training, you can do the following:

1. Learn about muni bonds through online courses.

2. Become skilled on how to buy muni bonds online.

3. Obtain training in managing bond portfolios by studying for a Series 7 exam.

 

Use the Internet to learn all about muni bonds

Most people know that government entities, such as counties, cities and states, issue bonds so they can finance and perform their projects. However, you'll want to know other information, pertaining to municipal bonds. You'll want to know how experts rate muni bonds. You'll also want to know the bonds' yield and rating or if they're tax-free or taxable.
Try: New York Institute of Finance offers a comprehensive course on muni bonds. Here, not only will you learn about the different types of municipal bonds, but you'll understand their tax advantages as well as trading strategies. Action Forex is another place you can learn about muni bonds. This website compares municipal bonds with corporate bonds. It also discusses the security of the bond, explaining the difference between general obligation and revenue bonds.

Learn how to buy muni bonds online

You don't need to use a broker to buy municipal bonds. Instead you can go to a website that specializes in them, open an account and start trading. These websites offer these bonds at wholesale price. As a result, this will help you save on commissions. You'll want to consider one of these websites because you'll have access to a large municipal bonds listing. You can find vital information on them, such as quotes and yields.
Try: Zions Direct offers education on investing. You can access more than 25,000 bonds. FMSbonds also provides a municipal bond listing. If you need to refresh yourself on how bonds work, FMSbonds provides good information.

Learn how to get your Series 7 so that you can manage municipal bond portfolios

Consider becoming a municipal bonds broker if you want to advance your career. You will have to take the Series 7 exam. Thanks to the Internet, you can order materials to help you prepare for this exam. For example, you can watch a video that will show you how government entities issue muni bonds. Not only will they show you how to do a municipal bond search, but explain general obligation and revenue bonds.
Try: Series 7 Test sells a video on municipal bond securities. You will learn about the MSRB rules as well as the difference between general obligation and revenue bonds. Securities Training Corp. also offers comprehensive information on muni bonds. Not only will you learn about these tax-free municipal bonds, but you will get a solid understanding of the relationship between yields and prices.

 

  • Make sure you thoroughly understand the difference between general obligation and revenue bonds if you take the Series 7 exam. They make up more than 50 questions on the exam.


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