Accrued Market Discount

  

The bonds in the oil well driller looked just fine when they were issued by the company right around par value of $1,000 with a 6% coupon. But that earthquake and tsunami didn't mesh well with the angry sperm whale invasion, and when the platform came loose, bad things happened to the bonds. They cratered to $600 and sat there. It was then that you bought them.

The flavor of bond you purchased comes due in six years, and it carries what's called an accrued market discount. Each year, that bond will come closer to owing its full principal, and you as the holder may have to pay the gain as that market discount comes closer to par value. Note that, if the bonds are truly in danger of not paying, then you don't pay tax, and the bond likely sits in the doldrums at some very low price. That delta between what you paid for the bond and its expected eventual principal return value of $1,000 par is the accrued market discount.

Related or Semi-related Video

Finance: What is Accrual Accounting?39 Views

00:00

Finance a la shmoop... what is accrual accounting? well there are two

00:07

religions in the way in which beans get counted the first is cash accounting [Cash accounting building]

00:12

which just tracks cash in the door and cash out the door in any given period [Cash enters door and exits]

00:17

the second is accrual accounting which tries to guess or impute the values

00:23

coming in and going out in a given firm hoping to give a true picture of how

00:27

well or poorly a company is performing financially and you might ask how cash

00:32

and accrual accounting can be different like aren't beans just beans that you

00:36

count well stay tuned here in accrual accounting you might have an obligation

00:41

like an employee bonus which you think is highly likely to be paid at the end [Employee happy at getting a bonus]

00:47

of the year almost treated like debt the employee makes 6 grand a month and is

00:52

very likely due 10 grand in bonus money at the end of the year it's payable on

00:56

December 31 that's when the cash would go out the door of the company but given [Cash exiting the door]

01:01

that it's highly likely to be paid or earned by the employee so they'd have a

01:06

legal claim on that 10 grand the company using accrual accounting would accrue

01:12

the liability labeled something like bonuses or or is it bony well something

01:18

like that bonus is payable.. and would accrue the

01:22

value of 10 grand divided by 12 because that's the number of months in a year in

01:26

California anyway or about 833 dollars a month throughout the year that's how you [Employee bonus divided by 12 months calculation]

01:31

would accrue for that likely bonus now promising an employee a bonus and not

01:35

giving it to them after they've earned it well that would be a cruel accounting [Person holds out cash to employee and takes it away]

01:40

a totally different thing and much more mean-spirited

Up Next

Finance: What is Accrued Interest?
42 Views

What is Accrued Interest? Most bonds pay interest on a fixed calendar schedule, which can be quarterly, bi-annually, or annually. The interest earn...

Finance: What is pooling: investment/interest?
3 Views

A pooled interest occurs when two or more investors combine capital in order to make a joint investment. Especially if investing in a prosthetics c...

Finance: What is Unearned Income?
32 Views

Unearned income is more than just the lunch money you stole on the playground. Hit play to find out more about unearned and earned income. And mayb...

Finance: What is Paid-In-Capital/Surplus?
11 Views

What is paid-in-capital and capital surplus? Hit play to find out.

Find other enlightening terms in Shmoop Finance Genius Bar(f)