Bonds

Bonds

This article reflects the opinions of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. Is it time to buy bonds? I have personally been a huge sceptic of bonds and hence a sceptic of the 60/40 model of equities to bonds put forward by many financial advisers as a model for many investors with medium risk appetite. Bonds have had a 40-year bull market, but all that came to an end when interest rates went up from 0.25% to around 5% as QE was ...

Asset Allocation

This is the personal view of Cliff Weight and does not represent the views of ShareSoc. Cliff Weight is not authorised to give financial advice and nothing in this  article should be interpreted as advice. The 13 year Quantitative Easing* experiment has finished. Between March 2009 and June 2022, the Bank of England bought 57% of the £1.5trillion of gilts sold, according to the FT see https://on.ft.com/3xcx6mL I feel more comfortable. The laws of economics I was taught at university in the 1970’s ...

Bonds, Insider Trading and New Business Secretary

The risks inherent in open-ended property funds have received a lot of media coverage of late - see my blog post of the 5th July which simply said they should be avoided. With many such funds closing so that investors could not take their money out, the risks inherent in providing liquidity to investors when the underlying assets (namely buildings) are highly illiquid have become apparent. Paul Killik had an article published in Saturday's FTMoney (16/7/2016) that made some highly intelligent comments ...

Where Bonds are Concerned, Trust No-One

The news that the holders of Lloyds bonds (ECNs) have lost their legal battle in the Supreme Court reinforces the message that when it comes to investing in bonds, you should trust nobody - not the issuer of the bonds, your friendly stockbrokers and wealth managers who advise you, or the FCA to protect your interests. The bondholders won their case initially in the lower courts, that Lloyds should not be able to force redemption of these bonds at par. But after ...