Rewards

Potential rewards are the dividend or coupon and the upside potential of an investment. In terms of equities, in addition to dividends, it is the potential for a company's sales, earnings, and cash flow to come in better than expected which would, theoretically, move up the price of its stock. For bonds, it is the coupon income and capital appreciation either from improving credit quality or from dropping interest rates in general, which causes bond prices in general to rise. These are the general rewards; however, there are numerous other rewards, such as a large coupon bond passing a call (thus, being outstanding longer than most expected, so the owner gets that large coupon longer than anticipated), that would take a huge volume of space to explain.