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iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond Fund (ETF)

  • Pros and Cons Of Investing in Gold

    By Nur Tarkak - May 13, 2013 | Tickers: TLT, GLD

    Investing in gold (NYSEMKT: GLD) was one of the safest things to do under volatile economic conditions. But that all changed when gold took a plunge last April. Now, people are aware that even gold is subject to volatility. It is like the stock market where there are highs and lows; it will not remain bullish all the time.

    For the past 10 years, gold was generally upbeat. Those who more »

  • 3 Reasons Investors Should Stick with Bonds

    By Robert Baillieul - May 12, 2013 | Tickers: TLT, IEF, HYG

    "Bond crash dead ahead: tick, tick ... boom!" - MarketWatch

    "Bonds worst investment of a generation" - Financial Post

    "Waiting for the bond bubble to pop" - CNN

    The headlines in the financial media are clear: bonds are on the verge of collapse! When interest rates return to their historical averages, popular funds like the iShares Barclays 7-10 Year Treasury ETF (NYSEMKT: IEF) and the iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (NYSEMKT: TLTmore »)

  • Forget the Great Rotation, the Great Repatriation Could be Bigger

    By Jordan Wathen - April 15, 2013 | Tickers: TLT, SPY, VIG

    The year 2013 was supposed to be the start of a “Great Rotation” from fixed-income to equity investments as investors shun low yields for better equity earnings yields. So far, fund flows show no signs of a serious rotation.

    In fact, investors who snapped up long-dated bonds in the second week of March would be up more than 5.5% on a rally in the most prominent US Treasury ETF more »

  • Forget the Great Rotation, the Great Repatriation Could be Bigger

    By Jordan Wathen - April 15, 2013 | Tickers: TLT, SPY, VIG

    The year 2013 was supposed to be the start of a “Great Rotation” from fixed-income to equity investments as investors shun low yields for better equity earnings yields. So far, fund flows show no signs of a serious rotation.

    In fact, investors who snapped up long-dated bonds in the second week of March would be up more than 5.5% on a rally in the most prominent US Treasury ETF more »

  • Forget the Great Rotation: “Great Repatriation” Could be Bigger

    By Jordan Wathen - April 12, 2013 | Tickers: TLT, SPY, VIG

    The year 2013 was supposed to be the start of a “Great Rotation” from fixed-income to equity investments as investors shun low yields for better equity earnings yields. So far, fund flows show no signs of a serious rotation.

    In fact, investors who snapped up long-dated bonds in the second week of March would be up more than 5.5% on a rally in the most prominent US Treasury ETF more »

  • Why Treasury Funds Are Dangerous

    By Timothy Green - March 28, 2013 | Tickers: SHY, TLT, IEI, IEF

    Over the past 30 years or so US treasury bond yields have been in an almost constant decline. Since bond yields and bond prices move in opposite directions this decline has led to ever-increasing bond prices and a multi-decade bull market in bonds.

    30-Year Treasury Bond Yield data by YCharts

    But what happens if interest rates begin to rise again? Clearly bond prices would decline, but by how much? Warren more »

  • Time to Sell Bonds?

    By Greg Czech - November 23, 2012 | Tickers: TLT, MBB, HYG, HYD

    Despite the stock market rally over the past three years, investors have pulled billions of dollars from equity mutual funds.  And where has most of that money gone?  Bond funds.  Corporate, municipal and mortgage funds have benefited from the equity fund outflow.  Most have had spectacular runs over the past three years.  But it might be time to take profits. 

    With the looming fiscal cliff, it seems bond investors are more »

  • The Bankers' Bull

    By Mohamed Mounir - September 16, 2012 | Tickers: F, TLT, MCD, TBF

    The S&P 500 closed at 1432 points one week ago, that's a 4 year high, it's now at 1465.  The S&P has risen by 16% this year and if it continues this upward momentum it could easily have its third best year in terms of performance since  2000. That would only be  after 2009 and 2003, the rebound years of the last decade.  In fact, Tobias more »

  • The Emergence of Emerging Market Bonds

    By Peter Pham - September 7, 2012 | Tickers: FXE, TLT, IEI, EMB, PCY

    One of the advantages of working in a frontier market like Vietnam is that one can see first-hand the growth that is occurring here.  It also gives you a sobering look at the amount of potential risk you face as well.  While equity markets locally are often thinly traded and extremely volatile, bonds offer a completely different way to play the growth story of an up-and-coming country, without having to more »

  • Corning: A Glass Darkly on the Global Economy

    By Peter Pham - July 30, 2012 | Tickers: AAPL, GLW, TLT

    Corning’s (NYSE: GLW) 2nd quarter results highlight the extent to which the global economy hit the wall in the 2nd quarter.  Among slowing LCD sales, which everyone expected, it is the slowing growth in the Specialty Glass division that is the most troublesome. Year over year revenue growth of just 5% for what is the primary growth engine for Corning is not something to write home about more »

  • Bet with Bernanke: The House Always Wins

    By Jonathan Yates - July 6, 2012 | Tickers: ^DJI, TLT, UUP, SPY, DIA

    Without question, the most significant development for the global economy from The Great Recession has been the emergence of the Federal Reserve under Ben Bernanke as the uber market maker of all time.  Market makers profit by matching buyers and sellers.  It is a very lucrative role as market makers, in addition to making a commission, are also positioned to know who is buying and who is selling at exactly more »

  • No Bubble with US Treasurys Anytime Soon

    By Jonathan Yates - July 6, 2012 | Tickers: TLT, KOL, SPY

    Marshall George Zhukov, the brilliant Soviet military strategist and architect behind the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, once remarked that, "Quantity has a quality all of its own."

    What Zhukov was noting was that sheer mass can impose its will in a variety of ways over qualitatively superior but numerically inferior counterparts.  When a certain level of competence is achieved, the numerically superior opponent can easily recover more »

  • Golden Explosion into Safety

    By Peter Pham - June 5, 2012 | Tickers: TLT, SPY, GLD

    For the past three months gold bulls have been wondering where the demand was?  Why wasn’t gold acting as the safe haven asset it should be as the markets began an epic flight to quality into U.S. and Japanese treasury bonds?  The short answer, of course, is that so much of the market is made up of people who cannot or will not buy gold.  CFO’s, pension more »

  • Marco Pivot Point

    By Peter Pham - June 4, 2012 | Tickers: FXY, TLT, NKY, BNO | Editor's Choice

    There are a number of advantages to having a strong currency but short-term export growth is not one of them.  Japan is at an interesting crossroads as the events in Europe play out.  The strong appreciation of the Yen versus both the U.S. Dollar and the Euro is obviously making it difficult for Japan to goose net exports via currency devaluation.   So far they have resisted further easing to more »

  • The Swiss Canary in the European Coal Mine

    By Peter Pham - June 1, 2012 | Tickers: FXY, FXF, TLT

    Since instituting a peg to the Euro of €1.20 to 1 in August of 2011, The CurrencyShares Swiss Franc ETF (NYSEMKT: FXF) has lost 37%.  The Swiss Franc has also lost 31% versus the Japanese Yen.  The Swiss were the first to blink in the game of chicken in who will print first to stave off the debt deflation emanating from the periphery of the Eurozone.  But, the Swiss more »

  • Rupee Devaluation Dangerous but Not Fatal

    By Peter Pham - May 30, 2012 | Tickers: TLT, BNO, EPI

    Since the beginning of March the Indian Rupee has lost nearly 17% in value versus the U.S. Dollar.  This has sent serious repercussions throughout the Indian economy as investors have exited the country. In April alone, U.S. and European fund managers pulled back $140 million from Indian investments exacerbating the pressure on the Rupee.  The Wisdom Tree India Earnings Fund (NYSEMKT: EPI) has fallen back 25% since its more »

  • Sterilize This!

    By Peter Pham - May 21, 2012 | Tickers: TLT, SPY, GLD | Editor's Choice

    Given the state of capital markets I thought it might be a good idea to review what the Federal Reserve is doing versus what we think is happening or is going to happen.  The never-ending question of whether or not the Fed will engage in another round of Quantitative Easing misses the point of what is happening right now.

    Because, right now, looking at the monetary statistics, the Fed has more »

  • Japan to Outperform the U.S. in 2012?

    By Michael Gayed - January 24, 2012 | Tickers: FXY, TLT, EWJ, IVV, TBT

    “The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That's real glory. That's the essence of it.” - Vince Lombardi

    I've been focusing more and more attention on Japan lately as the Nikkei appears to be recovering and as animal spirits return to equity markets. There appears to be a growing possibility that the markets are moving away from “risk-off” investments and into investments more »