The Knowledge Vault Newsletter Sign-up >>>

 

Posts Tagged ‘bond math’

Correction Over Reexamined

October 27th, 2021 by Kurt L. Smith

No, I am not referring to recent stock market activity, but hopefully I got your attention. Since July’s letter “Correction Over” bonds have performed poorly, as expected. While the bond market’s poor performance has yet to rub off on other markets, it would be a mistake to ignore what is unfolding.

Interest rates are rising and not just a little. I continue to watch the bellwether US Treasury bond, the 2.375% of November 15, 2049, which traded at 113 back in July when I wrote “Correction Over” (yields and prices per Bloomberg). This past week the bond traded at 105 for an 8-point loss over three months.

The ten-year US Treasury note, the 1 ½% February 15, 2030, traded at 103.75 (1.04%) in July and 99.25 (1.60%) last week for a 4.5-point loss. But it was the five-year US Treasury note, the .25% of August 31, 2025, which really moved from .63% in July to a doubling to 1.25% last week. Those five-year treasuries traded over 100 in September 2020 and last week traded at 97 (1.04%). Originally buyers of this short, five-year note, have seen twelve years of income in market value evaporate over the past fifteen months. Thank goodness the note will mature at par, though in 2025!

(more…)

Portfolio Construction

November 18th, 2020 by Kurt L. Smith

With the crescendo of all US Treasury yields to trading below 1% in early March marking the high-water mark for bond prices, the need to revisit how portfolios are constructed has emerged. Is the traditional 60% stocks/40% bond model dead?

This may indeed be a worthwhile question to explore but it is the underlying assumption or the underlying narrative of a stock/bond mix that warrants examination. For decades scholars of portfolio management theory ran studies after studies showing how a mix of assets, even as simple as stocks and bonds, can lower the risk and improve returns of non-diversified portfolios.

With the advent of computers in investing and something as relatively simple as a pie chart, investors could “see” how they were invested. When stocks swooned in 2000 and 2007, yes, diversification worked as advertised…just look at the results!

(more…)

Time Marches On

August 7th, 2020 by Kurt L. Smith

Unfortunately, there is no finish line for investing. If there was, we could now declare stocks a winner, bonds a winner, gold a winner, real estate…well, you get the idea. But there is tomorrow to deal with, not to mention next year and years from now.

Investing is a longer period endeavor. Bond investors know this as every bond you buy reminds you with a maturity date. What will happen over the next year, or two, five or ten or more years? Bond investors confront this reality with every purchase.

Wherever you want to draw the line, financial assets have been winners. Year-to-date, last year or two, last five…they, for the most part, have been good times for you as an investor of financial assets.

All of that is in the past; investing is about the future. If investing were a race, it would be an endless one as time marches on. Decisions made can be worthwhile as well as decisions not made. Second-guessing can be debilitating and is to be avoided. That is why it is important to make sound decisions.

(more…)

NEWS FEED

Tweetomatic error: Could not authenticate you.