Gyroscopic Investing

InsuranceGuy wrote: ↑Sun Jun 03, 2018 11:06 am

D1984 wrote: ↑Sun Jun 03, 2018 5:47 am I can try and copy them from my Excel spreadsheet to post here but I'd rather just post the whole spreadsheet and let everyone download it. Is it possible to actually attach a small .XLS file on this forum or do I need to have it hosted somewhere else?

I'd be interested in your pre-1970 International findings by scraping Morningstar. I don't believe you can post an excel spreadsheet but you could paste the results in google sheets and post a link to that. You can only PM an excel spreadsheet I believe.

D1984 wrote: ↑Sun Jun 03, 2018 5:47 am Now I am only missing one more thing to complete the backtest: Monthly intermediate-term Treasury bond returns so as to simulate an intermediate-term bond fund. Morningstar has the Ibbotson Intermediate-Term Government Bond and Ibbotson Intermediate-Term Corporate bond monthly returns back to at least 1962 monthly and 1926 annually but subscribing to their Encorr or Principia or corporate memberships cost thousands of dollars which means I don't have access to them. I do have daily 5-year Treasury yields back to 1-1-1962 so if someone could create and post a spreadsheet that can compute monthly returns based on changes in interest rates over the month then that would give as a fairly accurate approximation of an intermediate-term government bond fund monthly return series. I am aware that I could just use Treasury bills as the "switch into when stocks haven't outperformed T-bills over the past twelve months" asset but that would be kind of cheating since this was a time of rising rates and thus intermediate bonds would have done slightly worse than T-bills and I want the backtest to fully reflect that (plus Mr. Antonacci's backtest on the GEM webpage used intermediate-term bonds and I want to replicate his methodology as closely as possible).

Can someone please help with the bond returns data? Thank you.

To synthesize Intermediate-Term Government Bond returns I just assumed every day I bought a bond with the 5-year Treasury yield then sold it the next day. The formula is messy so I created an easy google sheets doc here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

The results match very closely to all of the big names out there: Compustat, Ibbotson, Portfolio Visualizer, etc.

ochotona wrote: ↑Fri Jun 29, 2018 6:59 pm No change to the portfolio for July 2018. Still 100% in S&P 500 stocks.

My cautious 45% GEM, 10% gold, 20% cash, 25% bond (duration 4 years) portfolio is up 1% for the year.

ochotona wrote: ↑Sat Jun 30, 2018 4:58 am I follow Kathy Jones' advice. She is the bond strategist at Schwab. She advised a long time ago to go to 3-5 year durations. Now she's thinking about adding more duration. Follow her @kathyjones on Twitter.

HappyMan wrote: ↑Sat Jun 30, 2018 7:12 am Great! Thanks for the reference. When I talked to Schwab about treasuries and ask for an advice, they basically told me to come back when I have at least a half of a mil. How often does she tweet an actual advice?
Do you hold to expire or sell/buy every once in a while?

ochotona wrote: ↑Sat Jun 30, 2018 9:08 pm
Here's the actual page where bond advice is posted: https://www.schwab.com/resource-center/ ... d-insights

I used to own only ETFs, but now I'm buying individual bonds and holding them to maturity. Short-term Treasuries and high quality corporates. It has been a good experience.

jhogue wrote: ↑Sat Jun 30, 2018 1:23 pm Talk to someone else at Schwab.

I buy both LTTs and STTs through my Fidelity brokerage account. Fidelity's minimum bond purchase is $1,000. The Bond Desk will talk to you over the phone if you have questions. I think Vanguard has roughly the same deal. Even though Treasury bonds are liquid and can be sold at any time, I aim to hold them until maturity.

I also recommend that you read Gumby's tutorial on the Bond board before buying bonds online at Fidelity.

jhogue wrote: ↑Sun Jul 01, 2018 7:40 pm See "Treasury Bond Buying Tutorial," the first thread under "Bonds"

or:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1670

jhogue wrote: ↑Sun Jul 01, 2018 7:40 pm See "Treasury Bond Buying Tutorial," the first thread under "Bonds"

or:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1670

ochotona wrote: ↑Tue Jul 03, 2018 5:57 pm Marilyn Cohen, "The Little Bond e-Book"

jhogue wrote: ↑Wed Jul 04, 2018 1:04 pm Let the buyer beware! Marilyn Cohen is promoting the sale of municipal and corporate bonds in this book. These are not suitable for the HBPP.

1. Anyone tempted to buy munis because they are free of federal, state, and local taxes should read up on Puerto Rico and Chicago or ask pug chief for a tutorial on fiscal finance in the Land of Lincoln.

2. As for corporate bonds, about 20 years ago, I took Marilyn Cohen's advice (she writes a bond column for Forbes) and bought some really neat GMAC zero coupon bonds with a coupon of 7.65%. They tanked during the 2008-2009 recession, and while I eventually got out at a profit, it was a wild ride while GMAC was being bailed out by TARP and then converted into Ally Bank. Trust me, you don't want to go for that ride. Bonds should be boring, not exciting.

jhogue wrote: ↑Wed Jul 04, 2018 2:19 pm Yeah, I know.

My caveat emptor about munis and corporate bonds applies to holders of VPs as well as more orthodox holders of the HBPP.

Are you recommending investors buy munis and corporate bonds?

ochotona wrote: ↑Sat Jul 28, 2018 7:24 pm FYI, this is where I am now:

10% cash (90 day T-Bills, Ally Bank)
10% gold
10% TIPS (I put I-Bonds in the TIPS bucket)
25% core bonds with 4 year duration (Treasuries, Total Bond Market, Short Term High Quality Corporates - no junk, no EM, no preferreds)
45% GEM

This is sleep well at night portfolio for sure.