How Did Robin Wigglesworth Learn the Bond Market?

Robin Wigglesworth learned the bond market by covering Islamic bonds in his first job. Islamic bonds carry no interest rates in theory, yet each one walks, talks, and quacks like a fixed income bond.

The bonds are structured in a funky way. A buyer purchases the bond at a discount, the same way a zero coupon bond works, so interest is still there. The mechanism is a leaseback. A person wants a house. The bank buys the house and leases it at fixed payments for the next 20 years. At the end of the lease, the person owns the house.

Work after the first job moved into most of the rate space for Bloomberg, and Iceland was part of the beat. Iceland really blew up during the financial crisis. The country was completely wiped out, and people in Iceland had a terrible time.