Bond

A fixed-income debt instrument in which an investor loans money to a borrower (government or corporation) for a defined period at a specified interest rate. Bonds are generally considered safer than stocks, though they carry their own risks including interest rate risk, credit risk, and inflation risk. The global bond market is actually larger than the stock market, exceeding $130 trillion in outstanding debt. Bond prices move inversely to interest rates -- when rates rise, bond prices fall.