white papers

Liquidity Risk

Imagine a crowded room with just one exit. If everyone suddenly had to leave, those close to the exit would be fine, but it would be chaotic for others. This is similar to bond liquidity, which is like the available exits. When bonds are highly liquid, investors can smoothly come and go without a hitch. But when liquidity is low, it's like many investors trying to exit through one door. This article delves into bond market liquidity and its effects.

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Municipal Bonds

Municipal bonds make up nearly 10% of the investment grade bond market. The $4 trillion in municipal debt is issued by government entities to cover expenses and finance projects that significantly benefit the public. This paper provides an overview of Municipal Bonds, highlighting their tax advantages, illustrating with examples, and exploring their intricacies.

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Credit Analysis

History has taught us that even highly-rated bonds can quickly experience deteriorating credit quality and wreak havoc on a portfolio. Naturally, credit quality becomes a focus in weakening market conditions, but the importance of credit research in all market conditions must be considered.

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Opposite Ends of Value: The Hidden Risks in Value Indexing

Morningstar’s push years ago to get our industry thinking in terms of the nine style boxes continues to provide a framework for differentiating investment options. However, if you dig deeper, it’s far more complex than just the nine style boxes. The constituents of a single style box can present vastly different investment prospects. This white paper proposes a style spectrum and discusses hidden risks in value indexing.

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Bond Concepts Series

Learn the nuances of fixed income investing, including the risks, opportunities, and investment styles.

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Yield To Maturity (YTM): The Yield That Matters

In fixed income investing, there are several different ways to measure an individual bond’s ability to produce income. Three of the most often cited measures are a bond’s coupon rate, current yield, and yield to maturity. Each measure has its place, but which matters the most?

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Active Management of Bond Risks

Building a bond portfolio with a desired risk-to-reward profile is more complex than simply buying bonds and holding them to maturity. Understanding the risks in fixed income can help an investor avoid pitfalls while optimizing opportunities in pursuit of long-term goals. An investor must determine the maturities, structure, sectors, and credit qualities appropriate for a given risk tolerance and consider how the bonds fit in an overall portfolio.

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Interest Rate Risk: Understanding Duration and Convexity

Most people look at the maturity of a bond to gauge the security’s risk. Maturity, however, only looks at the time until repayment of principal. To accurately measure a security’s risk, both principal and coupon payments must be considered. The use of two metrics better defines a security’s risk: Duration and Convexity.

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