Your 2012 Bond Fund Resolution
I hope you made some good money in bonds last year, because it was not a good year for all bond funds. Through November, Bill Gross’s Pimco Total Return Bond Fund, perhaps the most widely held bond fund in 401(k)s, underperformed 90% of its peers, according to Morningstar. Morningstar estimates outflows... Read the full story
A Crucial Bond Fund Metric
When it comes to your bond money, you want to live to fight another day. To make sure you do, I recommend that you keep the duration short and the credit quality high. Duration measures a bond’s sensitivity to interest rates. It’s the predicted percentage change in a bond’s price given a 1% change... Read the full story
The Most Popular Bond Fund
When investors ask me to review their company’s 401(k) investment options, I can’t get over the lack of bond fund choices offered by the plans. More times than not, the choice is between a bond fund with a maturity too many years out for my comfort level, and one with credit risk that is far too... Read the full story
A Compulsive Liar
Meet the stock market: he’s a valuable economic indicator, but he also has a tendency to lie—even compulsively. The stock market misdirects, misleads, and misinforms. The only time to rely on the stock market is when he is accompanied by his more honest older brother. The stock market’s older brother... Read the full story
Inflation Expectations Surge
This is a scary looking chart. The chart shows the 10 year breakeven inflation rate. This is the inflation rate that investors are anticipating over the coming ten years. Expected inflation has surged over a full percentage point since the Fed started their second money-printing crusade. This is unsettling.... Read the full story
TIPS Yield: What You Should Know Today
With commodities prices surging and inflation pressures heating up in certain sectors of the economy, the financial press is loaded with articles offering advice on how to protect your portfolio from inflation. One of the more common recommendations is to buy Treasury inflation-protected securities (TIPS).... Read the full story
A Threat to the Muni Union
It turns out that not only is the adoption of a right-to-work (RTW) law in states good for business, but even the threat of passing a RTW law is good for business. This is great news for businesses in Wisconsin and the dozen or so other states trying to enact RTW laws and standing up to public union... Read the full story
106% Profits—in Bonds
With stocks rising virtually uninterrupted since the end of August and doubling from their March 2009 lows, you may be kicking yourself for not shifting more of your bond investments into stocks. Don’t. Some bonds have actually beaten stocks. Measuring from their respective cycle lows, the Merrill... Read the full story
Long Rates Breakout to the Upside
A Low-Risk Inflation Hedge
The conventional wisdom is that bonds are a terrible investment when inflation accelerates. The theory is that rising inflation causes interest rates to rise and bond prices to plummet. The financial media has been pounding the table on this thesis for months. Check out “Stop Gobbling Up Bonds—They’re... Read the full story
