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iShares Barclays 7-10 Year Treasury Bond Fund (ETF)

  • 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 »)

  • Deconstructing inflation

    By David Wattenbarger - April 18, 2013 | Tickers: IEF, TIP

    Inflation is one of those slippery concepts that comes up often in discussions around investment planning and market assumptions, but can present challenges for people seeking hard data for forecasting.  The United States Bureau of Labor and Statistics produces the commonly referenced Consumer Price Index data.  The monthly release of CPI data makes market headlines, as well as inspires commentary on whether the basic CPI accurately captures US inflation.

    An 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 »

  • The Dow Is Floating Toward 14k--Here's Your Next Move

    By Adem Tahiri - January 29, 2013 | Tickers: DDD, MO, ^VIX 130522C00025000, KO, IEF, MSFT, CRM

    Why won’t this rally die?

    As we pass through government turbulence and a mediocre earnings season, it seems investors are more willing than ever to float listlessly into the sun.

    Defying recent history

    This market is definitely defying recent history--and expectations.

    Since 2008 the stock market had been wildly volatile and earnings were largely undervalued. That’s changed, today the P/E ratio of the S&P 500 is more »

  • Buy These Top Dividend Stocks Now to Avoid the Next "Bubble"

    By Adem Tahiri - December 10, 2012 | Tickers: COH, KO, IEF, TIF, VIG

    Following the crash of 2008 and the “great recession” that followed, investors fled stocks in record numbers. Many moved their capital to the “safe haven" of bonds, the world’s largest market. In fact, according to Bloomberg, in the ensuing two years investors moved a record $480 billion into bonds -- a number that continued to rise until recently. With the Fed pushing bond rates even lower with QE3, savvy investors more »

  • The Case for Emerging Market Bon ETFs

    By Andrés Cardenal - November 8, 2012 | Tickers: IEF, EMB, EMLC, PCY, ELD

    Depending on the investor´s risk appetite and investment horizon, among other things, bonds can be an important part of diverse portfolios and investment strategies. Unfortunately, the current scenario of historically low interest rates makes bond investing a difficult task, in which the risk and return trade off doesn't look very convenient from a long term perspective. Emerging market bond ETFs could be a smart alternative to internationally diversify more »

  • The Updated Barbell Strategy

    By Jeff Stouffer - August 27, 2012 | Tickers: SHY, IEI, IEF

    Financial advisors and investors of fixed income strategies have for a very long time used a tried and tested method to “immunize” or protect a fixed income portfolio from interest rate changes.

    The Barbell Strategy basically has a portion of assets held in bonds that are of a certain credit quality placed between a portion that has a short term maturity and a portion that has a long term maturity more »

  • Billionaire Julian Robertson's 4 Amazing Stock Picks

    By Meena Krishnamsetty - July 27, 2012 | Tickers: AAPL, GOOG, IEF, MA, V

    Julian Robertson is considered by many market watchers to be one of the greatest investors in recent history. He produced 32% annual returns at Tiger Management between 1980 and 1998 -- a bull market, yes, but still a market-beating performance. The manager has also left his mark on the investment world by seeding a number of his former employees at Tiger, also known as “Tiger Cubs,” to start their own funds more »

  • Preferring Preferreds for Income

    By Michael Gayed - January 26, 2012 | Tickers: XLF, IEF, PFF

    “I prefer the folly of enthusiasm to the indifference of wisdom.” - Anatole France

    With low yields and the Fed's stated intention to keep interest rates depressed until at least 2014, its become a harder and harder environment for income-oriented investors to collect cash flow from their positions. As I have noted in prior writings on several financial websites, there appears to be the growing possibility that 2012 ends up more »