10 Secrets for Successful Bank Bond Portfolio Investing
- Buy top-quality bonds and only invest once. (Target AA-rated bonds or better and keep your maximum investment in any one issue less than 2% of your portfolio.)
- Avoid bonds with call features. (With municipal bonds, keep the final maturity and call date as close together as possible.)
- You should always have a minimum of four security classes as diversification is one of the most important investment principles.
- Because mortgage-backed securities (MBS) can pay off/refinance at any time, follow the three point price rule. Never pay more than 103 or less than 97 as a dollar price on MBS issues and you will experience “truer” effective yields.
- Manage your bond portfolio’s average maturity and its duration to always be less than one year apart to create more stable returns.
- As a general rule, purchase your longest bonds only when they yield more (or are accretive) to your overall portfolio’s average yield. This is dollar cost averaging and it works for bonds and stocks.
- Buy your shortest bonds when they yield less than your portfolio’s overall yield (and are dilutive) and wait for the interest rate cycle to return.
- When the paper loss in your portfolio peaks, (chart the gain or loss each month) sell your lowest yielding bonds and write off the losses versus taxes and then purchase longer bonds than your portfolio’s average maturity without call features.
- When the paper gain in your portfolio peaks, harvest the gains in stages and repurchase your shortest maturity bonds. (A reliable cross check for numbers 8 and 9 is that you will be very tempted in both cases to do the exact opposite!)
- Make the review of your bond portfolio and its performance a scheduled and disciplined process each month.