Video
Video: how a yield curve is drawn, and what its shape is meant to show
A short visual explainer on plotting borrowing costs across maturities.
Marcus Lindqvist
Demonstration profile. Marcus Lindqvist writes about bonds, currencies and how investors price risk.
Articles by Marcus Lindqvist
Analysis
When countries cannot pay: how sovereign debt restructurings work
There is no bankruptcy court for nations. Debt crises are instead resolved through slow, often painful negotiations shaped by contract terms, creditor diversity and the threat of lost market access.
Explainer
Reading the bond market: what the yield curve does and does not tell investors
The gap between short- and long-term interest rates is one of the most watched signals in finance. It is also one of the most misunderstood.
Explainer
How compounding works for savers and against borrowers, often in the same household
Interest that earns interest is the most powerful force in personal finance. It rewards patience on one side of the balance sheet and punishes delay on the other.
Podcast
Markets, Explained: a sample episode
A weekly guide to how markets work, one concept at a time. This is a demonstration episode.
Analysis
Why house prices are so sensitive to interest rates, and why the effect is uneven
For most buyers, the price of a home is really the price of a loan. That link explains why property markets react sharply when borrowing costs change.
Analysis
What makes a currency strong — and why a strong currency is not always good news
Exchange rates reflect interest rates, trade and confidence. A rising currency helps some parts of an economy and hurts others.
Podcast
Markets, Explained: what a credit spread tells you
One concept, fifteen minutes. This is a demonstration episode.
Explainer
Following the money: a guide to how global payment systems actually settle
Tapping a card or sending money abroad feels instantaneous. Behind it sits a layered architecture of messages, ledgers and central bank accounts that determines when a payment is truly final.
Explainer
What moves commodity prices: supply shocks, storage and the dollar
Oil, metals and grains trade in markets where small imbalances can produce large price swings. Understanding why requires looking at inventories, futures curves and the currency in which they are priced.
Explainer
Fixed, floating or somewhere in between: how exchange-rate regimes differ
Every country must choose how its currency relates to others. The choice is a trade-off between stability, monetary independence and openness to capital — and no country can have all three.
Explainer
How player transfer markets work, and why prices can seem so detached from reality
When teams buy and sell the contracts of athletes, they are trading scarce talent under unusual rules. The result is a market prone to bidding wars and sharp swings in value.
Analysis
How small investment fees add up to large sums over a lifetime of saving
A charge that looks trivial in a single year compounds alongside returns. Understanding how fees work is one of the simplest ways for savers to keep more of what they earn.
Explainer
How to read a company's cash-flow statement — the account that is hardest to dress up
Profits are an accounting opinion; cash is a fact. The cash-flow statement shows where money really came from and where it went.
