Category Archives: Fixed Income
Bonds get no respect
Last week was remarkably good for many investors, but you’d never know it from the headlines. While big losses in the equity market got all the attention, bond prices surged. Bond reached new highs last week as investors couldn’t seem … Continue reading
Posted in Fixed Income
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Pimco: If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em
Give credit to the active investment management powerhouses. Having watched more than a trillion dollars flow out of mutual funds and into exchange traded funds (ETFs), the largest active mutual fund managers had to do something. Several have taken the leap … Continue reading
Tortoise 1, Hare 0
When the legendary “bond king” Bill Gross completely abandoned treasury bonds in his Pimco Total Return Fund earlier this year, he was applying decades of bond market experience and knowledge. Unfortunately, he guessed completely wrong on the health of the … Continue reading
Do they know something we don’t know?
What can we learn from fund flows – the movement of money in or out of securities? Do the recent outflows (see the Bloomberg article “Fund Outflows Top $75 Billion,”) signal a falling tide for equities, or an opportunity to … Continue reading
Posted in ETFs, Fixed Income, Risk
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Where are the bond vigilantes?
At the department store when a product is perceived as overpriced or of questionable long-term value, sales typically decline. Shoppers vote with their feet and go to a different aisle or a different store. But that’s not happening in the … Continue reading
Posted in Fixed Income, Risk
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Faith-based investing, as in “full faith and credit”
I can hardly wait for Wednesday morning, August 3rd. By that date at the latest we will know what Congress has decided to do about raising the United States debt limit. The “full faith and credit” of the United States … Continue reading
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Breaking the Money Market Buck
When the Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Sheila Bair says money markets funds are “highly unstable in a crisis” it gets your attention. At the same May 5th meeting, former Fed chief Paul Volcker called for a “floating … Continue reading
Posted in Fixed Income, Investment Strategy, Risk
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John Tierney and the end of tax-free bonds
Many Boston locals know John Tierney, our popular Democratic Congressman representing Massachusetts’s 6th District who was recently re-elected for the eighth time. Congressman Tierney is introducing a bill to make all municipal bonds taxable – proposing to demolish this last … Continue reading
Posted in Fixed Income
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When the Music Stops
Markets hum along to their own beat and rhythm, until they don’t. From time to time, the music suddenly stops. It might be Libya, devastation in Japan, or potential bankruptcy in Greece that triggers a sudden silence and jarring price … Continue reading
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Would you lend money to the governor?
When you buy a Massachusetts general obligation municipal bond, that’s what you’re doing – lending money to Governor Deval Patrick and our other elected officials. Of course they promise to pay you back, with regular interest payments along the way. … Continue reading
Posted in ETFs, Fixed Income, Risk
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