speaking of which, how do bonds work? value goes down, but the yield goes up… huh?

if the bond is higher yielding, why does the value actually go down?

if i buy a bond today at 5% and rate goes up next year to 6%, is my bond’s rate also increased? if not, i can see how my bond might be less valuable if i sold it before maturity, but if i held it to maturity, it would be exactly as described?

if tbill rates are going up, does that reflect inflation? if so, then my 5% bond is losing value vs inflation as well.

so i guess the questions are: are rates fixed on bonds and are immature bonds the bonds in question relating to price?

collary q’s: if people dump bonds, are rates automatically adjusted by the market? and how can you be a bear/bull on bonds when they have a fixed rate of return?