Comments on: Rethinking our bond exposure

By: pan

pan — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 04:14:11 +0000

Thanks for the tip on the asset mix calculator!

I know that you have discussed the various bond offerings from ishares before, with respect to yield and risk, but is there any easy way to get a (weighted) average rating for the bonds held in any of the bond funds? I’m curious to see just how risky something like XLB is versus XSB.

By: A Lap Of The Blogs : WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com

A Lap Of The Blogs : WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 03:05:40 +0000

[...] Capitalist discusses his personal allocation to fixed income and why he’s thinking of reducing [...]

By: Canadian Capitalist

Canadian Capitalist — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 02:57:34 +0000

pan: Check out the Stingy Investor’s Asset mix calculator:

http://www.ndir.com/cgi-bin/downside_adv.cgi

By: pan

pan — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:10:54 +0000

Does anyone use a backtester that they can recommend? Free would be nice. I’d like to try some different allocations.

By: TheProfitMaze

TheProfitMaze — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:02:31 +0000

I am also thinking of changing my RRSP asset allocation (TD index e-funds). I am currently at 20% in bonds and I am considering lowering to 10%. I have 25 years before retirement and now could be a great opportunity for max potential growth on the long term.

By: Forone

Forone — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 22:54:52 +0000

There are those who would say that the bottom can’t be in so long as you (and the countless others you’re a proxy for) can still sleep, so don’t count chickens. My own relative calm tells me things aren’t scary enough to buy big yet. Bonds may be good for capital gain so long there is a crisis ongoing, but as all the “cures” are inflationary and will take years to work through, the long term prospect is poor. However, there appear to be big discounts in US muni and corporates – assuming this isn’t Armageddon. They’re the only thing I bought Friday.

By: B.C. Doc

B.C. Doc — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 20:11:49 +0000

“My moves on Friday look brilliant today, but could be equally foolish tomorrow. 20 years from now I doubt I’ll have any regrets”

Well said Nurseb911! I’ve been sitting heavy in cash since the beginning of the year– I pulled out of lackluster mutual funds and am currently moving into an all-ETF portfolio. Every time indexes drop 10% or so, I’ve been averaging in. The velocity and depth of this drop is truly amazing!

My bonds are also holding up well– I’m 20% into bonds. I’m twenty years out from retirement so I will probably drop to 10% bonds as events get even more dire…

I expect more drop will come. Wall Street hasn’t quite woken up to the fact that its banks have just been partially nationalized with heavy regulation to follow. Nor have stocks priced in the brutal earnings and poor/negative growth which are sure to arrive in upcoming quarters.

By: Canadian Capitalist

Canadian Capitalist — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 18:24:58 +0000

DGI: I have to think about the specifics. There are a couple of ways of doing this. I can keep adding savings to stocks or rebalance. I hate to tweak asset allocation frequently, so I’m going to give serious thought to whether I should do this at all.

Brad: Exactly. I’m all for looking foolish in the short-term and smart in the long-term.

Sampson: I suppose a close to 50% fall qualifies as one of the worst bear markets. When we survive such markets, we can be pretty sure about our tolerance for risk.

By: Sampson

Sampson — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:57:42 +0000

I feel like I’ve been afflicted by a different beast. I have not wanted to increase the bond exposure in our portfolio (currently well below 5%), and I have not been tempted to sell anything. My problem is a willingness to pump the rest of my cash in now.

The silver lining of all this volatility is that its truly testing my appetite for risk , and we’ll all know our tolerance much better on the other side.

By: Nurseb911

Nurseb911 — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 14:36:10 +0000

Great minds think alike? It seems many investors have considered this topic and further investment into equities while many others have been fearful & running on emotion.

My moves on Friday look brilliant today, but could be equally foolish tomorrow. 20 years from now I doubt I’ll have any regrets