Elwood Blues

How Safe are Bond ETFs?

I got stopped out of AGG at the very bottom of that spike down in October. Lessons learned: during a period of high volatility like we went through, cash is king. Having a stop loss on a bond fund when the mkt seized up was not a smart move. Bond ETFs are less stable than bond mutual funds since the ETFs rely on the market makers, which have now proved they are unreliable.

What's Best for the Economy: Monetary Policy, Government Spending or Tax Cuts?

prudentinvestor, I agree with your analogy and would take it a step further... for years the gov's watched kids running around breaking windows and then papa Greenspan wakes up from a long nap and says he can't believe his beautiful children would throw all those precious brics.

So now we're left trying to figure out what to do about all the broken windows. If I'm worried I may not have a job tomorrow, I may not opt to repair a broken window in my house, even with a government incentive. So short term demand could be limited. The gov, unlike me, has less concern about losing a job tomorrow, could opt to invest now for new windows in their buildings... with the hope that 4 yrs from now, those new windows will be saving on heating bills and creating some big demands at the glass factory where I work. Maybe even result in development of a new glass that people in Bric-land like and buy. And now that orders are looking good at the glass factory, it's about time I got some new windows, and we all live happily ever after. The moral of the story probably involves people in glass houses..

Largest Bond ETF Now Trading At a Massive Discount

Top Cat, you were definitely on top of it.. I'm out at $88, one of the bigger losses for the year in what I thought was a pretty safe place to be parked.

iShares ETF Tracking Error: Risks and Explanations

Jim W.. timely article, looking at the data on AGG up through 9/30 I'd conclude, ok, not bad.. then AGG totally blew up on Friday Oct 10. Any ideas why? I stopped out on a sizable holding. No more iShats for me, they may have a nice website but I think Barclays stole my hard earned money.