how corporate bonds are sold
corporate bonds are issued in blocks of 1 000 in face or par value almost all have a standard coupon payment structure typically a corporate issuer will enlist the help of an investment bank to underwrite and market the bond offering to investors the investor receives regular interest payments from the issuer until the bond matures at that point the investor reclaims the face value of the bond the bonds may have a fixed interest rate or a rate that floats according to the movements of a particular economic indicator corporate bonds sometimes have call provisions to allow for early prepayment if prevailing interest rates change so dramatically that the company deems it can do better by issuing a new bond investors may also opt to sell bonds before they mature if a bond is sold the owner gets less than face value the amount it is worth is determined primarily by the number of payments that still are due before the bond matures investors may also gain access to corporate bonds by investing in any number of bond focused mutual funds or etfs 