US Government Securities:: Treasury and Agency Securities

This module familiarizes viewers with the main types of securities and some important characteristics of the market for US government and agency securities. The bulk of the session is devoted to the US Treasury securities market, the largest most liquid securities market in the world. The module begins with an overview of the general investment characteristics of US treasuries, which cause them to be among of the most highly demanded securities for investors worldwide. To provide a sense of the broader context the presentation addresses US government debt generally, though the focus is is primarily on the securities traded in the markets. There are detailed discussions of all the types of marketable treasury securities: bills, notes and bonds, the regular securities as well as those with special features such as inflation protection or adjustable coupons. The treasury portion of the presentation wraps up with a discussion of yield auctions, the process through which treasury securities are sold to investors. The last segment introduces US government agency securities. It begins with a brief discussion of the general investment characteristics of agency securities. That introduction is followed by an overview of the two categories of issuers, government agencies and government sponsored enterprises, and the potential significance of that distinction. The session closes with an overview of the security types issued by those entities.