All About Bonds, Bond Mutual Funds, and Bond ETFs is the key to understanding both traditional and new types of bond investments.This detailed but accessible introduction covers everything from basic bond characteristics to fixed-income investment techniques. You’ll gain a thorough education on such topics as yield, liquidity, duration, convexity, valuation, and emerging markets and find the answers to many questions a bond investor will ask, such as What percentage of my portfolio should be dedicated to bonds? What are the newest products and where do I find them? What are the risks involved with investing in bonds, bond mutual funds and bond ETFs and How can I use the Internet to my advantage?
This book includes information to assist bond investors to become more knowledgeable about their investments. Among the many changes to this edition are new chapters on foreign and emerging market debt, how to use duration and convexity concepts, and the inclusion of investing in bond exchange traded funds. Each chapter includes many new sections to provide both beginning and sophisticated bond investors with the tools to make more informed bond investments. Bond exchange traded funds are compared with bond mutual funds and investing in individual bonds.
The early chapters present information on the characteristics of bonds with the purpose of providing readers with an understanding of the workings of a bond, and their performance with regard to risk and return. The following chapters present the different types of bonds (Treasuries, government agency bonds, GNMA, FNMA, collateralized mortgage obligations, municipal bonds, corporate bonds, convertible bonds, zero coupon bonds, and foreign bonds) along with a comparison of the corresponding mutual funds and bond exchange traded funds. These chapters provide readers with the information to make their choices as to whether to invest in individual bonds, or bond mutual funds, or bond exchange traded funds. The last chapter provides the information to manage a bond portfolio.
Contents:
- What Bonds Can Do for You and Why You Should Consider Investing in Them
- Characteristics of Bonds
- Risks of Bonds
- Yield and Price
- Duration and Convexity
- The Economy and the Bond Markets
- Money Market Securities
- Treasury Securities
- Government Agency and Pass-Through Securities
- Corporate Bonds
- Municipal Bonds
- Convertible Bonds
- Zero Coupon Bonds and Zero Coupon Mutual Funds
- International and Emerging Market Debt
- Closed-End Funds
- Portfolio Management and Evaluation