 |
Vanguard ETF: |  |
7.4%* |
|
Diversified Core: | |
8.1%* |
|
Six Core Asset ETFs: | |
7.3%* |
Articles on CORP
- US Intermediate Corporate Bonds Lead By VCIT
05/02/2011
Bonds are one of the major fundamentals of any investment portfolio. Due to the recent global crisis bonds have been under pressure and finding the right mix of fixed income is a key component to a successful portfolio. Bonds are classified into various categories of which intermediate corporate bonds are one.The outlook of the intermediate corporate bond looks reasonable as long as the treasury yield remain low. While the Fed’s QE-II initiative continues, treasury yields are likely to stick to their lows and returns of intermediate bond should benefit. Currently the most attractive risk-reward profiles in the marketplace are investment grade — bonds that have at least a Baa / BBB- rating from Moody's. These bonds are paying 5% to 7%, for those within the five- to 10-year maturity bracket.
This article highlights ETFs within this category that could strengthen your portfolio. The table provides a list of intermediate corporate bond ETFs.
Description
Symbol
1 Yr
3 Yr
5 Yr
Avg. Volume(K)
1 Yr Sharpe
Vanguard Interm-Tm Corp Bd Idx
8.29%
NA
NA
56
180.0%
iShares Barclays Credit Bond
6.1%
5.88%
NA
46
162.35%
iShares Barclays Intermediate
5.33%
5.5%
NA
229
157.7%
SPDR Barclays Cap Interm Term
5.61%
NA
NA
42
155.31%
PIMCO Investment Grade Corp Bd
NA
NA
NA
6
NA
VCIT is currently the best in terms of annual return, whereas CIU has longevity and volume. Please find the table of Distribution of credit quality† (% of fund) as of 02/28/2011.
VCIT
CIU
Aaa
1.3%
11.94%
Aa
13.2%
14.1%
A
43.3%
41.25%
Baa
42.2%
32.71%
Total
100.0%
100%
The average credit rating of both of these intermediate corporate bonds ranges from AAA to BAA.
Vanguard first traded VCIT on November 19, 2009. VCIT, holds both government and corporate bonds. The average yield to maturity is 5.2% and the average coupon rate is 6.4%. Average maturity is 7.8 years. All holdings mature within five to ten years. The ETF offers the flexibility and safety to gain profit from corporate bond yields that are higher than those available from government bond issuers. The expense ratio is very low at 0.15%. This is 84% lower than the average expense ratio of funds with similar holdings.
CIU average yield to maturity is 6.22% and the average coupon rate is 5.06%. Average maturity is 4.95 years. All holding matures within five to ten years except for 1% which are greater than 10 years. The expense ratio is higher than VCIT at 0.20%.
It will be very interesting to see what PIMCO (CORP) brings when we get some history there. They are introducing a managed ETF which could be effective in this area.
In the conclusion investment bonds provides stability but there are other risk factor involves such as credit, interest rate inflation. that the best option may be to consider both VCIT and CIU or CFT to provide returns and longevity in your portfolio.
Exchange Tickers: (NYSE: VCIT), (NYSE: CFU), (NYSE: CIU), (NYSE: ITR), (NYSE: CORP)
Symbols: VCIT, CFU, CIU, ITR, CORP
Disclaimer:
MyPlanIQ does not have any business relationship with the company or companies mentioned in this article. It does not set up their retirement plans. The performance data of portfolios mentioned above are obtained through historical simulation and are hypothetical.
- VCIT, CFT Lead the Way in US Corporate Bonds
04/26/2011
Bonds are one of the major fundamentals of any investment portfolio. Due to the recent global crisis bonds have been under pressure and the right mix of fixed income assets is a key component to a successful strategy. Bonds are classified into various categories of which intermediate corporate bonds are one.
The outlook for intermediate corporate bonds looks better as long as the treasury yield remain low. While the Fed’s QE-II initiative continues, treasury yields are likely to stick to their lows and returns of intermediate bond should benefit. Currently the most attractive risk-reward profiles in the marketplace are investment grade — bonds that have at least a Baa / BBB- rating from Moody's. These bonds are paying 5% to 7%, for those within the five- to 10-year maturity bracket.
This article highlights ETFs within this category that could strengthen your portfolio. The table provides a list of intermediate corporate bond ETFs
Description
Symbol
1 Yr
3 Yr
5 Yr
Avg. Volume(K)
1 Yr Sharpe
Vanguard Interm-Tm Corp Bd Idx
8.29%
NA
NA
56
180.0%
iShares Barclays Credit Bond
6.1%
5.88%
NA
46
162.35%
iShares Barclays Intermediate
5.33%
5.5%
NA
229
157.7%
SPDR Barclays Cap Interm Term
5.61%
NA
NA
42
155.31%
PIMCO Investment Grade Corp Bd
NA
NA
NA
6
NA
VCIT is currently the best in terms of annual return, whereas CIU has longevity and volume. Please find the table of Distribution of credit quality† (% of fund) as of 02/28/2011.
VCIT
CIU
Aaa
1.3%
11.94%
Aa
13.2%
14.1%
A
43.3%
41.25%
Baa
42.2%
32.71%
Total
100.0%
100%
The average credit rating of both of these intermediate corporate bonds ranges from AAA to BAA.
Vanguard first traded VCIT on November 19, 2009. VCIT, holds both government and corporate bonds. The average yield to maturity is 5.2% and the average coupon rate is 6.4%. Average maturity is 7.8 years. All holdings mature within five to ten years. The ETF offers the flexibility and safety to gain profit from corporate bond yields that are higher than those available from government bond issuers. The expense ratio is very low at 0.15%. This is 84% lower than the average expense ratio of funds with similar holdings.
CIU average yield to maturity is 6.22% and the average coupon rate is 5.06%. Average maturity is 4.95 years. All holding matures within five to ten years except for 1% which are greater than 10 years. The expense ratio is higher than VCIT at 0.20%.
It will be very interesting to see what PIMCO (CORP) brings when we get some history there. They are introducing a managed ETF which could be effective in this area.
In conclusion investment bonds provides stability but there are other risk factor involves such as credit, interest rate inflation. that the best option may be to consider both VCIT and CIU or CFT to provide returns and longevity in your portfolio.
Symbols: VCIT, CFU, CIU, ITR, CORP
Disclaimer:
MyPlanIQ does not have any business relationship with the company or companies mentioned in this article. It does not set up their retirement plans. The performance data of portfolios mentioned above are obtained through historical simulation and are hypothetical.
- Tactically Manage An Income Producing Portfolio With Commodity Exposure
03/25/2011
Coming out of the great recession, governments around the world have adopted loose monetary policies to prop up the economies. These include U.S. central bank's QE2 (Quantitative Easing act 2) and Euro Zone's bailout of troubling peripheral countries like Greece. The current natural disasters in Japan and other countries can only add more demand for the stimulus. These policies resulted in commodity hoarding, especially in material hungry emerging economies such as China.
It is critical to have anti-inflation anti-currency devaluation component. In this article, we explore the feasibility of adding commodity exposure to an income producing portfolio. Commodity ETFs are effective tools to cope with the current situations. In a portfolio that is designed to preserve capital for retirement needs. However, because of volatile and somewhat dangerous nature of commodites, one needs to actively manage such a portfolio by adopting tactical asset allocation strategies.
Income producing ETFs such as high yield stock ETFs and bond ETFs can be used to build a lower risk portfolio for retirement income producing purpose. We study the two plans: one is without commodity exposure and the other one with the exposure.Retirement Income ETFs with Commodities plan is an extension to Retirement Income ETFs: adding extra commodity asset class with PowerShares DB Commodity Index (DBC) and GreenHaven Continuous Commodity (GCC). This plan consists of 37 funds. These funds enable investors to gain exposure to 6 major assets: US Equity, Commodity, Foreign Equity, Emerging Market Equity, REITs, Fixed Income. Compared with Retirement Income ETFs, this plan has two additional ETFs that represent the extra commodity asset class.
The following is the list of the candidate ETFs in the Retirement Income ETFs with Commodities:
The list of minor asset classes covered by Retirement Income ETFs with Commodities Commodities Broad Basket: DBC, GCC
Diversified Emerging Mkts: EEM, VWO, DEM
Emerging Markets Bond: EMB, PCY
Foreign Large Value: PID, IDV
Global Real Estate: RWX
High Yield Bond: HYG
Inflation-protected Bond: TIP
Intermediate Government: IEI
Intermediate-term Bond: CIU, CORP, MBB
Large Blend: VIG
Large Value: DVY, SDY, VYM, FVD
Long Government: IEF, TLT
Long-term Bond: LQD, VCLT
Mid-cap Value: PEY
Miscellaneous Sector: PFF
Muni National Long: MUB
Muni Short: SHM
Real Estate: IYR, ICF, VNQ
Short Government: SHY
Short-term Bond: CSJ, VCSH
World Bond: BWX, WIPAs of Mar 24, 2011, Retirement Income ETFs with Commodities investment choice is rated as and Retirement Income ETFs investment choice is rated as average based on MyPlanIQ Plan Rating methodology that was designed to measure how effective a plan's available investment funds are. It has the following detailed ratings:
The chart and table below show the historical performance of moderate model portfolios employing strategic and tactical asset allocation strategies (SAA and TAA , both provided by MyPlanIQ).
Performance chart (as of Mar 24, 2011)
Performance table (as of Mar 24, 2011)
Portfolio Name 1Yr AR 1Yr Sharpe 3Yr AR 3Yr Sharpe 5Yr AR 5Yr Sharpe Retirement Income ETFs with Commodities Tactical Asset Allocation Moderate 10% 79% 8% 68% 11% 83% Retirement Income ETFs with Commodities Strategic Asset Allocation Moderate 11% 97% 1% 4% 4% 20% Retirement Income ETFs Tactical Asset Allocation Moderate 7% 40% 8% 65% 10% 62% Retirement Income ETFs Strategic Asset Allocation Moderate 11% 69% 3% 14% 5% 17% Discussions:
1. Commodity ETFs are volatile. In fact, PowerShare DB Commodity Index ETF (DBC) lost 32% in 2008 while iShares S&P GSCI Commodity Index (GSG) lost a whopping 46% in the same year.
2. Simply adding commodity ETFs to a strategic asset allocation portfolio (buy and hold with regular rebalancing) did not improve the returns in the past five years. This is again due to the big loss incurred in commodtiy ETFs.
3. Adding commodity ETFs as fund candidates in a tactical asset allocation portfolio, however, can improve returns. In the past five years, Retirement Income ETFs with Commodities Tactical Asset Allocation Moderate had extra 1% annualized return over Retirement Income ETFs Tactical Asset Allocation Moderate.
In conclusions. commodity ETFs are effective tools to cope with the current situations. In a portfolio that is designed to preserve capital for retirement needs. However, because of volatile and somewhat dangerous nature of commodites, one needs to actively manage such a portfolio by adopting tactical asset allocation strategies.
Disclosure:MyPlanIQ does not have any business relationship with the company or companies mentioned in this article. It does not set up their retirement plans. The performance data of portfolios mentioned above are obtained through historical simulation and are hypothetical.
Symbols:DBC,GCC,GSG,EEM,VWO,DEM,EMB,PCY,PID,IDV,RWX,HYG,TIP,WIP,IEI,CIU,CORP,MBB,VIG, DVY,SDY,VYM,FVD,IEF,TLT,LQD,VCLT,PEY,PFF,MUB,SHM,IYR,ICF,VNQ,SHY,CSJ,VCSH,BWX,
Exchange Tickers: (DBC),(GCC),(GSG),(EEM),(VWO),(DEM),(EMB),(PCY),(PID),(IDV),(RWX),(HYG),(TIP),(WIP),(IEI),(CIU),(CORP),(MBB),(VIG),(DVY),(SDY),(VYM),(FVD),(IEF),(TLT),(LQD),(VCLT),(PEY),(PFF),(MUB),(SHM),(IYR),( ICF),(VNQ),(SHY),(CSJ),(VCSH),(BWX)
- Retirement Income Portfolio Building Using ETFs and Asset Allocation Strategies
11/12/2010
Building a steady and safe income producing portfolio is paramount to retirees. High yield stocks, preferred stocks, convertibles and bonds are the basic building blocks for such portfolios. Research results indicate that blue chip stocks with high dividends, unlike highly volatile and low dividend or no dividend stocks (such as many high tech stocks and small company stocks), have produced comparable or even slightly higher returns with less risk in long term.
In this article, we present a high income investment plan (Retirement Income ETFs) that is based on asset allocation strategies. Both MyPlanIQ Strategic Asset Allocation (SAA) and Tactical Asset Allocation (TAA) strategies are used to construct model portfolios.
This plan is designed for income producing purpose: high dividend (yield) stock ETFs are chosen for both US stocks and international stocks asset classes. We have decided to use general emerging market stocks ETFs (EEM or VWO) instead of some thinly traded high dividend emerging market stock ETFs. This situation will be changed once the high yield emerging market stock ETFs become more liquid and tradable.
The plan uses 34 ETFs that represent the following five key asset classes:
U.S. stocks: VIG, DVY, SDY, FVD, VYM, PEY, PFF
International stocks: PID, IDV
Emerging market stocks: EEM, VWO
Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs): IYR, ICF, VNQ, RWX
Fixed Income:- US Fixed Income: HYG, LQD, VCLT, CIU, CORP, CSJ, VCSH, IEI, IEF, SHY, TLT, TIP, MBB, MUB, SHM
- International Fixed Income: BWX, EMB, PCY, WIP
Notice that preferred stocks PFF is classified under U.S. stocks.
We compared the back tested performances of the SAA and TAA moderate model portfolios with the corresponding SIB (Simpler Is Better) five core asset ETF portfolios. As of 11/9/2010, the performance is:Performance table (as of Nov 10, 2010)
Portfolio Name 1Yr AR 1Yr Sharpe 3Yr AR 3Yr Sharpe 5Yr AR 5Yr Sharpe Retirement Income ETFs Tactical Asset Allocation Moderate 16% 105% 8% 57% 12% 84% Retirement Income ETFs Strategic Asset Allocation Moderate 14% 108% 1% 5% 6% 28% Five Core Asset Index ETF Funds Tactical Asset Allocation Moderate 15% 105% 8% 57% 16% 106% Five Core Asset Index ETF Funds Strategic Asset Allocation Moderate 19% 146% 4% 16% 10% 42% From the above chart, one can see that since the portfolio inception (12/31/2000),the Retirement Income ETFs Strategic Asset Allocation Moderate has outperformed its corresponding Five Core Asset Index ETF Funds Strategic Asset Allocation Moderate while in the meantime, the Retirement Income ETFs Tactical Asset Allocation Moderate has outperformed its corresponding Five Core Asset Index ETF Funds Tactical Asset Allocation Moderate. In fact, in the past ten years, the Retirement Income portfolios had lower standard deviation than the Five Core SIB. Please visit the corresponding portfolios for more detailed performance information.
Currently, the SAA Moderate Portfolio has the following holdings and yields:Asset ETFs Allocation Yield REAL ESTATE ICF (iShares Cohen & Steers Realty Majors) 11.96% 2.88% FIXED INCOME LQD (iShares iBoxx $ Invest Grade Corp Bond) 18.40% 4.80% Emerging Market VWO (Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock ETF) 13.31% 1.20% US EQUITY DVY (iShares Dow Jones Select Dividend Index) 5.92% 3.53% US EQUITY PEY (PowerShares HighYield Dividend Achievers) 4.87% 4.28% INTERNATIONAL EQUITY IDV (iShares Dow Jones Intl Select Div Idx) 16.50% 4.25% High Yield Bond HYG (iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bd) 16.47% 8.40% INTERNATIONAL BONDS BWX (SPDR Lehman Intl Treasury Bond) 12.57% 0.70% Total Yield 4% Compared with current sub-zero interests in a cash account, the above portfolio's yield is very attractive.
In conclusions, using effective asset allocation strategies (especially the tactical asset allocation strategy), one can build an income producing portfolio that is less risky and achieve higher returns. Retirees or anyone who needs supplemental income can benefit from learning more on these investment plans.labels:investment,
Symbols:VIG,DVY,SDY,FVD,VYM,PEY,PFF,SPY,IWM,PID,IDV,EFA,VEU,EEM,VWO,IYR,ICF,VNQ,RWX,HYG,LQD,VCLT,CIU,CORP,CSJ,VCSH,IEI,IEF,SHY,TLT,TIP,MBB,MUB,SHM,AGG,BND,BWX,EMB,PCY,WIP,
