In a typical year, the bond market doesn’t attract much interest. That is by design. The role of bonds in a portfolio is to serve as a bulwark against the unpredictability of stocks. They’re supposed to be boring. All that changed this year. Owing to rising interest rates, the most common total [...]
A buyer’s guide to bonds
At the mutual fund company where I once worked, the stock and bond teams liked to poke fun at one another. Bond managers viewed the stock-pickers as overpaid storytellers. Meanwhile, the stock-pickers saw the world of bonds as stultifying. “Playing for nickels and dimes” is how one of them put [...]
Five numbers to beware of
Last week, I described investing as a task that can be maddening. It’s not just investing, though. Many other questions in personal finance can also drive us crazy. Why is that? One reason is that often the stakes are high. Mistakes can be costly. A second reason is that all data, by definition, [...]
The designated driver of your portfolio
A while back, a Tel Aviv woman named Anat decided to surprise her elderly mother with a gift. Noticing that she had been sleeping on the same worn out mattress for decades, Anat replaced it while her mother was out one day. She then took the old one out to the curb. It wasn't until the next [...]
Bear Market Field Guide, Part V
In his most recent annual report, Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett described an event that occurred at a Berkshire subsidiary last year: Late one night, a fire spilled over from a neighboring business, resulting in significant damage to the Berkshire facility, forcing it to shut down. [...]
