Bond Gamblers?

Is not volatility in bonds unprecedented? Thank you FED!

Also, Bill Gross @ Pimco isn't such a Rock Star as the WSJ called him:

PIMCO Total Return Fund (PTRAX):

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4.65

10 year 6.17

Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund Investor Shares (VBMFX):

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84&FundIntExt=INT#hist=tab%3A15 year 4.97%

10 year 5.63%
Reply to
Yadda
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84&FundIntExt=INT#hist=tab%3A1> 5 year 4.97%

I am surprised by the success of Vanguard's fund above. They did a great job!

i
Reply to
Igor Chudov

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84&FundIntExt=INT#hist=tab%3A1>> 5 year 4.97%

Buy the market. Index it. No "genius" manager.

Reply to
Yadda

3 yr trailing std. dev: 4.79 *

3 yr trailing std. dev: 4.06 * [*] according to Morningstar, as of 5/31/09.

So not only has VBMFX beaten PTRAX over the last 5 years, it did so with significantly less volatility.

Not to mention the fact that unless folks have that Pimco fund load-waived in a 401k, most will also have to pay a hefty load to get in. Ugh.

Not to pile on Bill Gross - I do have a lot of respect for him and generally enjoy reading his views. But this was one of the worst calls of all time:

Barron's mid-year 2007 roundtable - wherein Bill tells everyone to buy EFA and PFN. In particular, it's the PFN call that I find so amazing - it's a floating-rate bond fund and within a few weeks of that article, it lost something like 20%, and a year and a half later, it was down 75% from when he suggested it. Nasty. Nastier than most equity funds. (I don't remember him ever saying to get out of it, either, but I could be wrong on that - anyone?)

Be careful out there with bond funds! Know what you're buying.

Reply to
BreadWithSpam

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