Lawrence Meyers, Author at LearnBonds.com

Why You Are Overweighted in Bonds

Last Updated: November 17, 2017

The fundamental concept behind fixed income investing, especially for retirement investors, is that you are trying to preserve capital while generating enough interest and dividends […]

It’s A Bond! It’s A Stock! It’s… Preferred Stock (Part 2)

Author: Lawrence Meyers

Last Updated: March 3, 2015

Preferred stock generally doesn’t yield capital gains, but that’s not always true. As I mentioned last time, during the financial crisis, many preferred stocks fell alongside their common stock counterparts. […]

It’s A Bond! It’s A Stock! It’s Preferred Stock (Part 1)

Author: Lawrence Meyers

Last Updated: February 26, 2015

Trivia question: what security trades like a bond, offers high yield like a bond, has just a little less safety than a bond but more […]

Why Greece Matters to Bond Investors

Author: Lawrence Meyers

Last Updated: February 13, 2015

Bond investors may have noticed that there’s something going on in Greece about the country being broke. […]

Understanding Bond Risk – Part 2

Author: Lawrence Meyers

Last Updated: February 11, 2015

Bonds are mistakenly considered a “safe” investment, because they usually don’t result in an investor losing his shirt. […]

Understanding Bond Risk – Part 1

Author: Lawrence Meyers

Last Updated: June 14, 2018

Many investors think of bonds as “safe”. That’s not really a good idea. Bonds are “safer” compared to some other investments, but not as safe as others. In a period of unprecedented market changes, where the bond market has been manipulated by the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing program, understanding bond risk is very important. In this short series of articles I will cover the five types of risk inherent in bonds. […]

Top 5 Concerns for Investors in 2015

Author: Lawrence Meyers

Last Updated: April 27, 2020

All investors face the same problem but with different attitudes: risk. Everyone has concerns over their investments, but our individual risk tolerance governs not only […]

Investing in Short Term Bond Funds – What You Need to Know

Author: Lawrence Meyers

Last Updated: January 2, 2015

Short term bond funds are an attractive investment option in uncertain investment climates, such as the one we are headed into. When you invest in high quality bond funds that have limited interest rate risk and credit risk, but you will like still enjoy attractive yields. As bond volatility correlates with maturity length, short term bonds are also less volatile. […]

Bond Funds are Holding Cash: Should Investors Follow Suit?

Author: Lawrence Meyers

Last Updated: December 19, 2014

The Fed is expected to increase rates in 2015 and that might result in both increased volatility in the bond markets, along with plenty of uncertainty. Fund managers who are preparing for these changes now prefer to hold cash. […]

Does Active Bond Fund Management Make Sense – Part 2

Author: Lawrence Meyers

Last Updated: December 12, 2014

In the second part of my series on bond fund management, I’m going to offer two more reasons to consider active management. Last time I discussed three important reasons to consider an active manager. This time, you’ll find two more reasons why holding on to passively-managed indices isn’t a great idea. […]