With the equity markets off sharply for the week and the credit markets seizing, investors are being forced to relearn some of the basics forgotten during the private-equity, easy-credit, corporate-buyout boom of recent years.

Sales of the securities - used to pool bonds, loans and their derivatives into new debt - dwindled to $3.7 billion in the United States this month from $42 billion in June, JPMorgan Chase said Monday. The market is "virtually shut," the bank said in a report last week.

<p>Analysis ranging from the Bear Stearn&#39;s incident (and its future) to how the derivative market is tied in with the mortgage market, primarily subprime mortgage market.</p>

Prices of derivatives depend essentially on confidence; the lack of transparency surrounding the Bear Stearn&#39;s bailout raises concerns regarding the explosiveness of derivative trading.