They were priced to yield 10.121 percent, 495 basis points over the comparable Treasury.

Mortgages make up about 40 percent of the fund and yield about 1.8 percentage points more than comparable Treasuries.

First, the bonds pay higher interest rates, easily more than twice those of comparable Treasuries.

Indeed, prices of high-yield bonds, which have been yielding about 4.17 percentage points above comparable Treasuries this month, rose slightly yesterday.

And the zero is about twice as volatile as the comparable Treasury, meaning its share price moves drastically when interest rates change.

The three-year yield is about 36-hundredths of a percentage point higher than that of a comparable Treasury.

Its yield was 6.585 percent, 210 basis points over comparable Treasuries.

And $2 billion of 10-year notes were priced to yield 134 basis points more than a comparable Treasury.

When that ratio declines, the prices of muni bonds are rising more or falling less than comparable Treasuries.

Yet it had to pay just 1.18 percentage points more than was being paid on comparable Treasuries.