Medium Term Notes

CFA Level III Fixed Income
#1

Quick question I can’t seem to wrap my head around,

Pg 69 CFAI Fixed Income:

“medium term notes dominate issuance in the front end of the yield curve”

I take it this means that MTNs are more popular than short term bonds, but I thought they were also more popular than long term issues?

If anyone can rephrase or elaborate on this it would be appreciated.

Cheers

#2

I take it to mean that they cannot dominate the back end of the yield curve because they are medium and not long. But they are more popular than short term notes so they domonate short term notes of equal time to maturity in the front end.

#3

Medium-term notes can have maturities from 9 months to 100 years; they’re not really medium: they can be short, medium, or long.

#4

So I am obviously wrong with my interpretation, what do they mean?

#5

Thanks guys,

So are they saying that short-term MTN’s are the most popular new issues in that part of the curve and they are not the most popular in the back end of the curve? I guess Treasurys are more popular in the back end. This is really confusing.