Portfolio strategists, pundits and investment company sales people have (for years) warned investors that, eventually, interest rates will return to normal. Bond Squad does not disagree. Portfolio strategists, pundits and investment company sales … [Read more...]
Is There Value In Municipal Closed End Funds?
In a recent article here on LearnBonds, I discussed why investors might want to consider municipal bonds. The short story on municipals is that they bring tax advantage, diversity, and stability to portfolios that may be overloaded with dividend … [Read more...]
Puerto Rico Municipal Bonds – Are They A Buy?
No discussion of the municipal markets would be complete without mentioning Puerto Rico. Other than the nightmare which is Detroit (where bondholders could be crammed down in favor of public employee pensions), Puerto Rico has been the dominant story … [Read more...]
Two Moderately-Aggressive Asset Allocations For Income-Focused Investors
In last week’s article, “A Conservative Asset Allocation For Income-Focused Investors,” I noted that the process of managing cash flows starts with the following calculations: 1. Calculate the annual amount of money you need to live. 2. Subtract … [Read more...]
Are You Missing Out On Municipal Bond Market Value?
A lot of people I have talked with recently are suggesting that if an investor is looking for more (after tax) yield these days that it might be a good idea to look at the bonds issued by state and local governments. States, cities, counties … [Read more...]
A Closer Look at Zero-Coupon Bonds
It has been a long time since I searched the inventory of available zero-coupon bonds. But given the dearth of investment articles on zero-coupon bond opportunities, I thought I’d write a bit about what I discovered when recently searching for … [Read more...]
Muni Bonds: A Case Study of Detroit’s Fiasco
My biggest concern with folks who buy muni bonds is that they don’t do the proper due diligence on a given municipality. It’s very easy to just assume that if a municipality or a city is big enough, there’s simply no chance of default. Given that … [Read more...]
How Will the Affordable Care Act Impact Municipal Bonds?
The Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, is unlikely to have much impact on the municipal bond market, and the ultimate impact may take years to discern. There are two primary ways the ACA may affect municipal bonds: 1) via direct … [Read more...]
Don’t Get Ripped Off by This Bond Market Shenanigan
In his book, The Big Short, Michael Lewis describes in the following way how Danny, the head trader for Steve Eisman, approached trades that seemed perfect. “When a Wall Street firm helped him to get into a trade that seemed perfect in every way, … [Read more...]
How to Find Opportunities in the Municipal Bond Market
Municipal bonds are interesting right now after the ‘taper tantrum’ that started at the beginning of May when the Federal Reserve telegraphed its intent to taper off their bond buying program known as quantitative easing. Actually, all bonds are a … [Read more...]