Article Bonds Brief: Third Quarter 2022 By Chris Keith — August 1, 2022 Even in the most difficult days, bonds continue to do their job. They produce income and balance risk. It did not always feel that way over the first half of the year, as the market value of individual bonds fell along with the major indices, but our bonds continued to earn and … Read Morekeyboard_arrow_right
Article Chart of the Week: How the Bond Market Prices In Fed Policy By Jeffrey DeMaso — July 29, 2022 Traders and investors spend a lot of energy trying to predict the Federal Reserve’s actions. The Fed also spends a fair amount of effort telegraphing what it is planning to do; an unwritten policy is to try to avoid “surprising” the market. The result? By the time the Fed acts, bond … Read Morekeyboard_arrow_right
Article Why Bonds, Why Now? By Chris Keith — July 28, 2022 The U.S. bond market was down 10.3% through the first half of this year. What’s worse, bonds fell in tandem with stocks, causing many investors to wonder if bonds had lost their power to protect portfolios and act as a dependable hedge against volatility. The good news for bond investors is that … Read Morekeyboard_arrow_right
Article Bonds Are Acting Like Bonds Again By Chris Keith — June 2, 2022 It’s amazing what a turnaround in performance can do for the value of your holdings…and for your peace of mind. That’s right, bonds started behaving more like, well, bonds again in May and investors breathed a sigh of relief. Clearly there’s been a change in market sentiment, which is something I touched … Read Morekeyboard_arrow_right
Article Your Bond Questions Answered By Chris Keith — May 11, 2022 Concerns about the state of the bond market abound—with good reason. This is the worst start to a year for bonds in decades. In our recent webinar, Pain, Promise and the Future of Fixed Income (click here to watch the replay), I addressed the state of fixed-income affairs. Since then, … Read Morekeyboard_arrow_right
Article Chart of the Week: I-Bonds vs. TIPS—What’s the Best Choice? By Jeffrey DeMaso — May 9, 2022 I-Bonds have gone mainstream—but are they the best option for fixed-income investors bedeviled by high inflation? As we discussed in our recent primer, I-Bonds are U.S. government savings bonds that pay a rate of interest that adjusts every six months based on inflation. Right now, that rate is 9.62%. Given … Read Morekeyboard_arrow_right
Podcast Your Questions Answered—Q1 2022 May 4, 2022 FEATURING Charles Toole, Jeff DeMaso and Steve Johnson You asked, we answered. During our recent webinars, we were pleased to receive a bevy of questions from participants—but there simply wasn’t enough time to answer them all. Now we’re back with our investment experts to tackle these pressing topics, including: Are I … Listen Nowkeyboard_arrow_right
Webinar Bonds in 2022—Pain, Promise and the Future of Fixed Income By Chris Keith, Elizabeth Laprade — April 27, 2022 The bond market is feeling the impact of rising interest rates—does this mean bonds can’t do their job in your portfolio? Our bonds specialists have the answer to that and much more as part of our candid discussion about market performance, strategies, and our outlook for bonds in the coming … Watch Nowkeyboard_arrow_right
Article Bond Outlook Q2 2022 By Chris Keith — Updated: April 18, 2022 Q2 Bond Market Outlook I won’t sugarcoat it—Q1 bond market performance was disappointing for most investors. Bonds are supposed to be the safety buffer in a portfolio, but they didn’t act that way to start the year. Instead, our portfolios got a flat tire during rush hour—making a frustrating experience even worse. … Read Morekeyboard_arrow_right
Article All About I-Bonds By Chris Keith — April 18, 2022 All About I-Bonds What are I-Bonds? Well, they won’t cure high inflation or reduce volatility in the stock market, but they have become a popular portfolio component of late. You just have to keep their limitations in mind. Here’s a quick primer: Like plain-vanilla Treasury bonds, Series I U.S. Savings Bonds (I-Bonds) … Read Morekeyboard_arrow_right