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Trending: Top 3 California Municipal Bond Funds
Justin Kuepper
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Municipal bonds have been a safe haven within fixed income markets that have...
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“Even seemingly plentiful market liquidity can suddenly evaporate and lead to systemic financial disruptions,” stated the report’s authors in their warning to mutual fund investors. “Changes in market structures – including growing bond holdings by mutual funds and a higher concentration of holdings – appear to have increased the fragility of liquidity. At the same time, the proliferation of small bond issuances has likely lowered liquidity in the bond markets and helped build up liquidity mismatches in investment funds.”
The IMF highlighted China and Turkey as two economies that experienced the largest increases in corporate debt since 2007, with China’s debt jumping 27%, and Turkey’s debt increasing 24% over the time frame. On the whole, corporate debts in emerging markets surged to nearly $20 trillion in 2014 from less than $5 trillion in 2004. Mutual funds have been aggressive buyers of these bonds, given investor appetite for yield amid record-low interest rates.
Dollar-denominated bonds have been the fastest-growing subset of emerging market bond issuance, rising to $855 billion last year from $163 billion in 2003. With the U.S. looking to raise interest rates in December, the interest payments on these dollar-denominated bonds could become more expensive for companies generating revenue in foreign currencies. These dynamics could lead to a flight of capital away from these bonds.
Mutual fund holdings regularly are disclosed in Form N-Q and Form N-CSR filings with the SEC, which are accessible using the SEC’s EDGAR database. Since the disclosures are made quarterly and funds have a 60-day window to make the filings, the information disclosed isn’t especially timely in nature, but it does provide a good idea of a fund’s target asset classes. These filings also provide details into sector diversification and outline risk factors for investors to consider.
In addition to retrospectively looking at a mutual fund’s quarterly holdings, investors should carefully read through their prospectuses to ensure high-yield bonds don’t represent disproportionate levels of their overall focuses. Investors also may find some mutual funds are named in such a way that their focuses are obvious, such as the Buffalo High Yield Fund (BUFHX), which means that reading through prospectuses may not even be necessary.
Investors should take the time to assess their portfolios for risk right now by looking at Forms N-Q and N-CSR as well as prospectuses to see what they might consider selling.
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Download our free report
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“Even seemingly plentiful market liquidity can suddenly evaporate and lead to systemic financial disruptions,” stated the report’s authors in their warning to mutual fund investors. “Changes in market structures – including growing bond holdings by mutual funds and a higher concentration of holdings – appear to have increased the fragility of liquidity. At the same time, the proliferation of small bond issuances has likely lowered liquidity in the bond markets and helped build up liquidity mismatches in investment funds.”
The IMF highlighted China and Turkey as two economies that experienced the largest increases in corporate debt since 2007, with China’s debt jumping 27%, and Turkey’s debt increasing 24% over the time frame. On the whole, corporate debts in emerging markets surged to nearly $20 trillion in 2014 from less than $5 trillion in 2004. Mutual funds have been aggressive buyers of these bonds, given investor appetite for yield amid record-low interest rates.
Dollar-denominated bonds have been the fastest-growing subset of emerging market bond issuance, rising to $855 billion last year from $163 billion in 2003. With the U.S. looking to raise interest rates in December, the interest payments on these dollar-denominated bonds could become more expensive for companies generating revenue in foreign currencies. These dynamics could lead to a flight of capital away from these bonds.
Mutual fund holdings regularly are disclosed in Form N-Q and Form N-CSR filings with the SEC, which are accessible using the SEC’s EDGAR database. Since the disclosures are made quarterly and funds have a 60-day window to make the filings, the information disclosed isn’t especially timely in nature, but it does provide a good idea of a fund’s target asset classes. These filings also provide details into sector diversification and outline risk factors for investors to consider.
In addition to retrospectively looking at a mutual fund’s quarterly holdings, investors should carefully read through their prospectuses to ensure high-yield bonds don’t represent disproportionate levels of their overall focuses. Investors also may find some mutual funds are named in such a way that their focuses are obvious, such as the Buffalo High Yield Fund (BUFHX), which means that reading through prospectuses may not even be necessary.
Investors should take the time to assess their portfolios for risk right now by looking at Forms N-Q and N-CSR as well as prospectuses to see what they might consider selling.
Receive email updates about best performers, news, CE accredited webcasts and more.
News
Justin Kuepper
|
Municipal bonds have been a safe haven within fixed income markets that have...
Kristan Wojnar, RCC™
|
We are exploring the topics of virtual nonverbal communication, getting your blogs to...
Justin Kuepper
|
Let’s take a look at a few key pieces of advice to stop...
Find out why $30 trillon is invested in mutual funds.
Download our free report
Find out why $30 trillon is invested in mutual funds.
Download our free report
Find out why $30 trillon is invested in mutual funds.
Mutual Fund Education
Justin Kuepper
|
Let's take a closer look at how ESG investments have outperformed during the...
Mutual Fund Education
Daniel Cross
|
While CITs and mutual funds share many similarities, there are some key differences...
Mutual Fund Education
Sam Bourgi
|
The phrase ‘bear market’ has been thrown around a lot lately, but it...