I am sure these have been answered already, so I will try and be brief...Let's say I sell the March bund at 118.60; this is similar but not identical to selling the DBR 4.25% of Jan 2014 forward for Mar 10 2005. (It's not identical because the bond I'm short of can change if I sell the future)The forward price is FP * CF, or 118.6*.882591 = 104.6753. The Jan 14s are trading for spot delivery at 105.1, a conventional YTM of 3.573%.If I use Bloomberg's YA function, and use 103.6753 for the price and 3/10/05 for the settlement, I see a yield of 3.62%. These are my questions: (i) Is there anything obviously wrong with what I've said above?(ii) Bloomberg lists "conventional yield" and "US Government equivalent" - is this just a difference due to annual vs semi-annual conventions?(iii) Is there any easy way to calculate the "forward yield", i.e. the 3.62%, so that it can be put into a quick and dirty spreadsheet?(iv) How should one interpret the "forward yield"? Is it just the benefit of carry foregone?Thanks, and sorry if these are poorly-thought out questions - I am trying to learn this stuff and it helps to be put right on some obvious things sometimes. (Actually, a very practical reference would be a great help too - most of what I have to go on is finance textbooks, which are great but not so practical)Alphabet

Help?

Oh go on all you gurus.

You can get better answers by going to the Bloomberg screen you have questions about and pressing the "HELP" key. I'm not trying to be unhelpful, but fixed-income conventions are complicated. Bloomberg will tell you exactly what it's doing in as much or little detail as you like. It's context sensitive, so you're more likely to get the right information. What I give you may be out of date, apply to different markets or securities, or be plain wrong.(i) No.(ii) Probably not. A yield convention consists of assumptions about compounding, daycount, stub period, settlement time and cash flows, reinvestment and other things. I don't know the conventions for Bunds (but Bloomberg does).(iii) You have two problems. First, you need to find the precise definition. For a 10 year bond, daycount and settlement may not matter much, but reinvestment and compounding will. Second, yields must be solved by trial and error. You can do this easily in a macro, but only clumsily or one-at-a-time with Goal Seek, in an Excel formula. On the other hand, lots of people write these macros, get them exactly right, and give them away free.(iv) "Forward yield" usually means the YTM corresponding to the forward bond price. It doesn't sound as if that's how you're using it. Check how Bloomberg defines it on your screen.

Thank you very much Aaron, that is very helpful. (I know the devil is in the details, but that's what makes this aspect of finance so hard for self-study...)