Portfolio investment process

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The ultimate aim of the portfolio manager is to reduce the risk and increase the return to the investor in order to reach the investment objectives of an investor. The manager must be aware of the investment process. The process of portfolio management involves many logical steps like portfolio planning, portfolio implementation and monitoring. The portfolio investment process applies to different situation. Portfolio is owned by different individuals and organizations with different requirements. Investors should buy when prices are very low and sell when prices rise to levels higher that their normal fluctuation. Portfolio investment process is an important step to meet the needs and convenience of investors. The portfolio investment process involves the following steps: 1. Planning of portfolio 2. Implementation of portfolio plan. 3. Monitoring the performance of portfolio.

1) Planning of portfolio: Planning is the most important element in a proper portfolio management. The success of the portfolio management will depend upon the careful planning. While making the plan, due consideration will be given to the investors financial capability and current capital market situation. After taking into consideration a set of investment and speculative policies will be prepared in the written form. It is called as statement of investment policy. The document must contain (1) The portfolio objective (2) Applicable strategies (3) Investment and speculative constraints. The planning document must clearly define the asset allocation. It means an optimal combination of various assets in an efficient market. The portfolio manager must keep in mind about the difference between basic pure investment portfolio and actual portfolio returns. The statement of investment policy may contain these elements. The portfolio planning comprises the following situation for its better performance: (A) Investor Conditions: - The first question which must be answered is this What is the purpose of the security portfolio? While this question might seem obvious, it is too often overlooked, giving way instead to the excitement of selecting the securities which are to be held. Understanding the purpose for trading in financial securities will help to: (1) define the expected portfolio liquidation, (2) aid in determining an acceptable level or risk, and (3) indicate whether future consumption (liability needs) are to be paid in nominal or real money, etc. For example: a 60 year old woman with small to moderate

saving probably (1) has a short investment horizon, (2) can accept little investment risk, and (3) needs protection against short term inflation. In contrast, a young couple investing couple investing for retirement in 30 years has (1) a very long investment horizon, (2) an ability to accept moderate to large investment risk because they can diversify over time, and (3) a need for protection against long-term inflation. This suggests that the 60 year old woman should invest solely in low-default risk money market securities. The young couple could invest in many other asset classes for diversification and accept greater investment risks. In short, knowing the eventual purpose of the portfolio investment makes it possible to begin sketching out appropriate investment / speculative policies. (B) Market Condition: - The portfolio owner must known the latest developments in the market. He may be in a position to assess the potential of future return on various capital market instruments. The investors expectation may be two types, long term expectations and short term expectations. The most important investment decision in portfolio construction is asset allocation. Asset allocation means the investment in different financial instruments at a percentage in portfolio. Some investment strategies are static. The portfolio requires changes according to investors needs and knowledge. A continues changes in portfolio leads to higher operating cost. Generally the potential volatility of equity and debt market is 2 to 3 years. The another type of rebalancing strategy focuses on the level of prices of a given financial asset. (C) Speculative Policies: - The portfolio owner may accept the speculative strategies in order to reach his goals of earning to maximum extant. If no speculative strategies are used the management of the portfolio is relatively easy. Speculative strategies may be categorized as asset allocation timing decision or security selection decision. Small investors can do by purchasing mutual funds which are indexed to a stock. Organization with large capital can employ investment management firms to make their speculative trading decisions. (D) Strategic Asset Allocation: - The most important investment decision which the owner of a portfolio must make is the portfolios asset allocation. Asset allocation refers to the percentage invested in various security classes. Security classes are simply the type of securities: (1) Money Market Investment, (2) Fixed Income obligations; (3) Equity Shares, (4) Real Estate Investment, (5) International securities. Strategic asset allocation represents the asset allocation which would be optimal for the investor if all security prices trade at their long-term equilibrium values that is, if the markets are efficiency priced. 2) Implementation of portfolio plan In the implementation stage, three decisions to be made, if the percentage holdings of various assets classes are currently different from the desired holdings as in the SIP, the portfolio should be rebalances to the desired SAA (Strategic Asset Allocation). If the statement of investment policy requires a pure investment strategy, this is the only thing, which is done in the implementation stage. However, many portfolio owners engage in speculative transaction in the belief that such transactions will generate excess risk-adjusted returns. Such speculative transactions are usually classified as timing or selection decisions. Timing decisions over or under weight various assets classes, industries, or economic sectors from the strategic asset allocation. Such timing decision deal with securities within a given asset class, industry group, or economic sector and attempt to determine which securities should be over or underweighted. (A) Tactical Asset Allocation: - If one believes that the price levels of certain asset classes, industry, or economic sectors are temporarily too high or too low, actual portfolio holdings should depart from the asset mix called for in the strategic asset allocation. Such timing decision is preferred to as tactical asset

allocation. As noted, TAA decisions could be made across aggregate asset classes, industry classifications (steel, food), or various broad economic sectors (basic manufacturing, interest-sensitive, consumer durables). Traditionally, most tactical assets allocation has involved timing across aggregate asset classes. For example, if equity prices are believes to be too high, one would reduce the portfolios equity allocation and increase allocation to, say, risk-free securities. If one is indeed successful at tactical asset allocation, the abnormal returns, which would be earned, are certainly entering. (B) Security Selection: - The second type of active speculation involves the selection of securities within a given assets class, industry, or economic sector. The strategic asset allocation policy would call for broad diversification through an indexed holding of virtually all securities in the asset in the class. For example, if the total market value of HPS Corporation share currently represents 1% of all issued equity capital, than 1% of the investors portfolio allocated to equity would be held in HPS corporation shares. The only reason to overweight or underweight particular securities in the strategic asset allocation would be to off set risks the investors faces in other assets and liabilities outside the marketable security portfolio. Security selection, however, actively overweight and underweight holding of particular securities in the belief that they are temporarily mispriced. (3) Monitoring the performance of portfolio Portfolio monitoring is a continuous and on going assessment of present portfolio and the portfolio manger shall incorporate the latest development which occurred in capital market. The portfolio manager should take into consideration of investors preferences, capital market condition and expectations. Monitoring the portfolio is up-grading activity in asset composition to take the advantage of economic, industry and market conditions. The market conditions are depending upon the Government policy. Any change in Government policy would reflect the stock market, which in turn affects the portfolio. The continues revision of a portfolio depends upon the following factors: 1. Change in Government policy. 2. Shifting from one industry to other 3. Shifting from one company scrip to another company scrip. 4. Shifting from one financial instrument to another. 5. The half yearly / yearly results of the corporate sector Risk reduction is an important factor in portfolio. It will be achieved by a diversification of the portfolio, changes in market prices may have necessitated in asset composition. The composition has to be changed to maximize the returns to reach the goals of investor

Bond Portfolio Management Strategies

Stock market investors will choose a particular risk level on the SML and invest at this point, choosing only those securities that lie on the SML (or above it). Stock investors have different levels of risk/return requirements

Bond investors will do the same thing. A young, aggressive bond investor may choose a high risk bond & is willing to risk his principal investment. A retiree may not be willing to take a risky bond investment and may, instead invest in conservative bonds.

Individual investors choose to invest in bonds. Also, pension plans, banks, insurance companies and other institutions invest in bonds. At any rate, all investors are interested in a bond investment strategy. There are three major types of strategies: 1. passive portfolio management strategies 2. active portfolio management strategies 3. matched-funding strategies In the 1950s the bond market was considered a safe, conservative investment. At that time a buy-and-hold strategy was sufficient. However, times changed, in the 1960s inflation increased, and interest rates became more volatile. Thus, with more volatile interest rates, there was a great amount of profit potential with bonds. Also, in the 1970s the Macauley duration measure was rediscovered. Not all investors viewed the rise in interest rate volatility as a good thing. The pension fund and insurance companies that invest in bond found their job much more difficult. Thus, strategies based on duration were developed to aid pension fund managers to match their liabilities with properly constructed bond portfolios. Passive Bond Portfolio Strategies There are two major passive strategies:

buy-and-hold indexing

Buy-and-hold Strategy

This strategy simply involves buying a bond and holding it until maturity. Bond investors would examine such factors as quality ratings, coupon levels, terms to maturity, call features and sinking funds. These investors do not trade actively to earn returns, rather

they look for bonds with maturities or durations that match their investment horizon. There is also a modified buy-and-hold strategy in which investors buy bonds with the intention of holding them until maturity, but they still actively look for opportunities to trade into more desirable positions. [However, if you modify this too much it turns into an active strategy.] While the buy-and-hold strategy is a passive strategy, it still involves a great deal of work. Agency issues typically provide high quality bonds at a higher return than Treasury securities, callability affects the attractiveness of an issue, etc. Plus, you may want to develop a portfolio in which coupon payments are structured (and principal repayments). Techniques, Vehicles and Costs: Only default-free or very high quality securities should be held. Also, those securities that are callable by firm (allows the issuer to buy back the bond at a particular price and time) or putable by holder (allows bondholder to sell the bond to issuer at a specified price and time) will introduce alterations in the firm's cash flows, and probably should not be included in the buy-and-hold strategy. Also, those investors seeking to lock in a rate of return may choose a zero-coupon bond--good strategy for college tuition or retirement. The buy-and-hold strategy minimizes transaction costs and, if implemented astutely, can be highly productive. For example, if interest rates are currently high and are expected to remain so for an extended period of time, the buy-and-hold strategy will do well. Indexing Indexing involves attempting to build a portfolio that will match the performance of a selected bond portfolio index, such as the Shearson Lehman Hutton Government/Corporate Bond Index, Merrill Lynch Index, etc. This portfolio manager is judged on his ability to track the index. Techniques, Vehicles and Costs: The fixed income market is broader (in terms of security types) than the equity market. Also,

even though the Shearson Lehman Hutton Corporate Bond Index has over 4,000 securities, it only represents high quality corporate bond issues. Thus, a compromise must be made when selected among different indexes. Also, the strategy of buying every bond in a market index according to its weight in the index is not a practical one. However, a relevant subset is possible. We may choose to emulate a narrower bond index. Alternative Vehicles: We may choose to randomly select bonds from the universe of bonds, or, we may choose the stratified approach (segmenting the index into components from which individual securities are chosen). When choosing the indexing option, bond portfolio management cannot be considered entirely passive. Also, there will be transaction costs associated with (1) purchasing the issues used to construct the index; and (2) reinvesting cash payments from coupon and principal repayments; and (3) rebalancing of portfolio if the composition of your target index changes. Whereas full replication of the target index would work best, this is impractical. If you choose the stratified method, your performance will probably not mirror your target index. How many securities should you have in your portfolio if you use the random sampling approach? McEnally and Boardman (1979) have found that, once an index is selected, close replication is possible with perhaps 40 bonds (for the long term). Stratified Approach: Consists of analyzing the index to determine various stratification levels (what portion of securities that make up index are Treasury, Aaa Industrial, Baa Financial, of X years to maturity, of X% coupon rate, etc.). The next step is to select the securities for your portfolio. Typically, at selection and at the rebalancing period (usually once a month) one security is chosen from each category (there could be 40 categories). There's no requirement as to which security is selected from each class. Active Management Strategies These strategies require major adjustments to portfolios, trading to take advantage of interest rate fluctuations, etc. There are five major active bond portfolio management strategies:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Interest rate anticipation Valuation analysis Credit analysis Yield spread analysis bond swaps

In each strategy, the manager hops to outperform the buy-and-hold policy by using acumen, skill, etc. Interest Rate Anticipation This is the riskiest strategy because the investor must act on uncertain forecasts of future interest rates. The strategy is designed to preserve capital (lose as little as possible) when interest rates rise (and bond prices drop) and to receive as much capital appreciation as possible when interest rates drop (and bond prices rise). These objectives can be obtained by altering the maturity or duration of their portfolios. Longer maturity, or longer duration, portfolios will benefit the most from an interest rate decrease and vice versa. Thus, if a manager expects an increase in interest rates, they would structure portfolio to have the lowest possible duration. The problem faced with this type of strategy is the risk of misestimating interest rate movements. It is difficult (EXTREMELY) to predict (with accuracy) interest rate movements. However, if this is your strategy, you should be concerned with:

direction of the change in interest rates the magnitude of the change across maturities, and the timing of the change.

How your bond will be affected by changes in interest rates can usually be directly related to the security's duration. Thus, if you expect IR to drop, you should shift to high duration securities. Also, the timing as to when you expect the interest rate shift is important. You don't want to shift too early, because you may

compromise some return. Obviously, you don't want to wait too late. Scenario Analysis: Say, "what if" interest rates rise/fall by this much over the next month/year/etc. Analyze the individual bonds within your portfolio under each scenario and see how the returns are affected under each scenario. [See p. 8-30] The scenario analysis leads us to further analysis. Relative Return Value Analysis: We can calculate the overall expected return for each bond in our scenario (expected return under each interest rate scenario weighted by the probability of that scenario occurring) and the current duration of each bond in our portfolio and graph the relationship. Those bonds falling above a regression line (showing the general relationship) would be doing ok! Strategic Frontier Analysis: We can graph the bonds in our portfolio with the best case scenario (an interest rate decrease) on the vertical axis and the worst case scenario on the horizontal axis, as shown below:

Those securities which fall into Quadrant I represent aggressive securities--if the best case happens, they will do well; however if the worst case happens they will be the worst performers. Those securities falling into Quadrant II are superior securities--they will perform well regardless of which scenario occurs. Quadrant III represents defensive securities--they will do well under the worst case scenario, but perform poorly if the best case occurs. Quadrant IV securities are inferior as they will perform poorly regardless of the scenario. You should sell securities falling into Quadrant IV. Normally a few securities would fall into Quadrants II and IV, with most falling into Quadrants I and III. Valuation Analysis The portfolio manager looks for undervalued bonds--those bonds that have a computed value (according to the portfolio manager) higher than the current market price). This also translates to those

bonds whose expected YTM is lower than the current YTM. This strategy requires lots of analysis (continuous evaluations) and lots of trading based on the analysis. Based on your confidence in your analysis, you would buy undervalued bonds and sell overvalued bonds (or ignore them if they are not in your portfolio). Valuation Analysis: We can examine the term structure of pure discount bonds (zero coupon) and thus determine the value of US Treasuries, thus we can determine the default free characteristics of any other type of bond. Then we can attempt to determine the other factors that will affect bond yield by using multiple factor regression analysis (looking at things such as: quality rating, coupon effect, sector effect, call provision, sinking fund attributes, etc.) Using this factor analysis, we can determine the expected yield for the security (if the expected yield < current YTM then buy). However, there is some subjectivity in factor analysis. For instance, if there is some "event risk" (something affecting the financial stability of firm) missing from the analysis, or if there is any anticipation of a market upgrade... Credit Analysis Credit analysis involves examining bond issuers to determine if any changes in the firm's default risk can be identified. We try to determine if the bond rating agencies are going to change the firm's rating. Rating changes are prompted by internal changes within the firm as well as external changes. Various factors examined include financial ratios, GNP, inflation, etc. Many more downgradings occur during economic contractions [However from 1985-1990 downgradings increased substantially despite an economic expansion.]. To be successful in utilizing bond rating changes, you must accurately predict when the bond rating change will occur and take action prior to the change. The market does react to unexpected bond rating changes, however, it reacts quickly. Credit Analysis of High-Yield Junk Bonds. Junk bonds have a wide spread over bonds rated BBB and higher. Also, these yield spreads widen over time (during poor economic times the spread

widens). Altman and Nammacher point out that the net return of junk bonds (average gross return minus losses from bonds that defaulted) has been superior to higher-rated debt [Of course, they're of higher risk.] Other points to note: Even though the rating categories have not changed, the quality of bonds today that fall into, let's say, the A category, has lessened over time. "Specifically, the average values of the financial ratios that determine whether bonds are included in the B or CCC rating classes have declined over time." Thus, bond portfolio managers will have to involved themselves in detailed credit analysis to determine those bonds that will not default. Credit Analysis: The assessment of default risk. Default risk has both systematic and unsystematic elements. First, individual bond issuers may experience difficulty in meeting their debt obligations. This could be an isolated incident, and can be diversified away (or eliminated by effective credit analysis). However, if default risk is precipitated by adverse general business conditions, then this would require more macro-oriented analysis. Many fixed-income investors complement the bond ratings providing by bond agencies (Fitch's, Moody's, Duff & Phelps, S&P's) with their own credit analysis, citing reasons such as: more accurate, comprehensive, and timely analyses and recommendations. Yield Spread Analysis A portfolio manager would monitor the yield relationships between various types of bonds and look for abnormalities. If a spread were thought to be abnormally high, you would trade to take advantage of a return to a normal spread. Thus, you need to know what the "normal" spread is, and you need the liquidity to make trades quickly to take advantage of temporary spread abnormalities. Spread Analysis: Involves anticipating changes in sectoral relationships. For example, prices and yields on lower investment grade bonds tend to move together (identifiable classes of securities are referred to as sectors). Changes in relative yields (or the spread) may occur due to:

altered perceptions of the creditworthiness of a sector of the market's sensitivity to default risk changes in the market's valuation of some attribute or characteristic of the securities in the sector (such as a zero coupon feature); or changes in supply/demand conditions.

The objective is to invest in the sector or sectors that will display the strongest relative price movements. Brokerage firms maintain historical records of yield spreads and are able to conduct specialized analyses for clients, such as measurement of the historical average, maximum, and minimum spread among sectors. Potential drawbacks of this method include the need to make numerous trades, the possibility of poor timing (how long will it take for the market to realize the abnormal spread), and the danger that overall changes in interest rates will dwarf these efforts. Matched-Funding Techniques The matched-funding techniques incorporates the passive buy-andhold strategy and active management strategies. The manager tries to match specific liability obligations due at specific times to a portfolio of bonds in a way that minimizes the portfolio's exposure to interest rate risk (the uncertainty of returns due to possible changes in interest rates over time). These techniques are meant to avoid or offset risk, and they typically require constant monitoring and many transactions to achieve the intended goal. Many of these techniques were developed in the 1980s (due to highly volatile interest rates) for pension funds (known obligations), individual retirement planning, college education, etc. These investors needed $x at x date. With interest rates that were highly volatile, at the needed date, bond prices could be down (substantially below the needed amount). Thus, many investors wanted techniques that would help them match future liability streams with bond portfolios that would provide the required funds without having to worry about where interest rates would be at the time.

Dedicated Portfolios Pure Cash-matched dedicated portfolio: most conservative method. Construct a bond portfolio with a stream of payments, sinking funds, and maturing principal payments to exactly match specific liability schedule. This requires estimating your future obligations (pension fund payouts, college tuition, etc.) You could choose zerocoupon bonds that had maturity dates exactly when you needed the funds. This is an entirely passive portfolio that requires no reinvestment (zero coupon bonds pay no cash coupon payment and matures the day you need the funds, so as soon as you receive your maturity payment, you would payout your pension money). Technically it is difficult to determine exactly WHEN your cash flow payouts will be due, so it is best to apply a somewhat conservative approach. Dedicated Cash-matched portfolio with reinvestment: Assumes that cash flows don't always come when needed (may come earlier) and will be reinvested. Therefore, will require smaller sums of initial funds to meet future goals. Portfolio Immunization Attempts to enable one to "lock-in" going interest rates and not have to worry about interest rate shifts. Developed by Fisher and Weil in 1971. Components of Interest Rate Risk: One of the major problems faced by bond portfolio managers is having the needed amount of funds at a specific date (the ending wealth requirement) -- your investment horizon. If interest rates never changed during your investment horizon, you could reinvest your coupon payments at the stable interest rate and earn the promised YTM. However, in reality, the yield curve is not flat and interest rates do change. Consequently, investors face interest rate risk. There are two components of interest rate risk:

Price risk: if interest rates change before the end of your investment horizon and the bond is sold prior to

maturity (you would "win" with an interest rate decrease and "lose" with an interest rate increase. Coupon reinvestment risk: The promised YTM assumes that all coupon payments are reinvested at the promised YTM. If interest rates change, this cannot be accomplished. You will "win" with an increase in IR and vice versa.

Immunization and Interest Rate Risk: Note that the "win" situation under price risk is exactly opposite the "win" situation under coupon reinvestment risk. Bond portfolio managers would like to eliminate these two interest rate risks. Fisher and Weil (because of the opposing effects of IR on price and coupon reinvestment risk) developed a precise immunization process to eliminate IR risk. Fisher and Weil argue that a portfolio has been immunized if its value at the end of the period is the same (or higher) than what it would have been if interest rates had not changed during the investment horizon. They assume that IR changes will affect all rates by the same amount (i.e. all rates will rise by .005 or fall by .005--long term bonds won't rise by .007 and short term by .005, both will rise by .005). If this is the case, then portfolio immunization can be achieved by holding a portfolio of bonds with a modified duration equal to the remaining investment horizon. "To obtain a given portfolio duration, you set the value-weighted average modified duration of the portfolio at the investment horizon and keep it equal to the remaining horizon value over time." Example of Immunization. Compare the results of choosing a bond with a maturity equal to the investment horizon vs. a modified duration equal to the investment horizon. Assumptions: investment horizon is 8 years, current YTM is 8% on 8 year bonds. If there is no change in yields, the expected ending-wealth would be $1000 * 1.08^8 = $1,850.90. This should also be the expected endingwealth for a fully immunized portfolio. There are two strategies for portfolio immunization: 1. the maturity strategy (term to maturity equal to investment horizon); and

2. the duration strategy (set modified duration equal to investment horizon). Under the maturity strategy simply choose a bond with 8 years to maturity. Under the duration strategy, find a bond with a modified duration that equal 8 (or as close to 8 as possible). Now we'll work through the example assuming that interest rates decrease from 8% to 6% in year 4 and again from 8% to 12% in year 4.
From 8% to 6%: Results with Maturity Strategy Results with Duration Strategy

Year

Cash Flow 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 1080

Reinv. Rate .08 .08 .08 .08 .06 .06 .06 .06

Ending Value 80 166.40 259.71 360.49 462.12 596.85 684.04

Cash Flow 80 80 80 80 80 80 80

Reinv. Rate .08 .08 .08 .08 .06 .06 .06 .06

Ending Value 80 166.40 259.71 360.49 462.12 596.85 684.04 1845.75

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

1805.08 1120.64

From 8% to 12% Results with Maturity Strategy Year Cash Flow 80 Reinv. Rate .08 Ending Value 80 Results with Duration Strategy Cash Flow 80 Reinv. Rate .08 Ending Value 80

2 3 4 5 6 7 8

80 80 80 80 80 80 1080

.08 .08 .08 .12 .12 .12 .12

166.40 259.71 360.49 483.75 621.80 776.42

80 80 80 80 80 80

.08 .08 .08 .12 .12 .12 .12

166.40 259.71 360.49 483.75 621.80 776.42 1881.99

1949.59 1012.4

Notice that under the maturity strategy you would lose (from an expected value of $1,850.90 to an actual value of $1,805.08); whereas under the duration strategy you would still have an expected value of $1,850.90 and you would achieve $1,845.72 or $1,881.99 (depending on whether interest rates fell or rose). While we would have preferred the ending wealth achieved under the rise in IR scenario using the maturity strategy, due to the uncertainty of IR changes, it's impossible to know, before the fact, where interest rates will actually be. The duration strategy actually achieved the ending wealth closest to the expected wealth under both scenarios.
Implementing Immunization. While on the surface the immunization strategy may seem simple, even passive, in reality it is not (except zero coupon bonds face no coupon reinvestment risk or price risk--as its duration is its term to maturity). Most portfolios (non-zero-coupon portfolios) require frequent rebalancing to maintain the modified duration/investment horizon matching. You cannot initially set them equal and then ignore them after that. Duration is positively affected by term to maturity, so, as time passes as your investment horizon shortens, so does the duration of the bond portfolio (assuming nothing else has changed). However, duration changes at a slower pace than term to maturity. Also, duration is affected by changes in interest rates, etc. So, it takes constant rebalancing to keep track of duration matching immunization strategy.

Top 4 Strategies For Managing A Bond Portfolio

Posted: Apr 24, 2010 | Email

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RETIREMENT

Michael Schmidt
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For the casual observer, bond investing would appear to be as simple as buying the bond with the highest yield. While this works well when shopping for a certificate of deposit (CD) at the local bank, it's not that simple in the real world. There are multiple options available when it comes to structuring a bond portfolio, and each strategy comes with its own tradeoffs. The four principal strategies used to manage bond portfolios are:

Passive, or "buy and hold" Index matching, or "quasi passive" Immunization, or "quasi active" Dedicated and active Read on to find out how these four strategies are used. (For more on bonds, read out Bond Basics Tutorial.)

Passive Bond Strategy The passive buy-and-hold investor is typically looking to maximize the income generating properties of bonds. The premise of this strategy is that bonds are assumed to be safe, predictable sources of income. Buy and hold involves purchasing individual bonds and holding them to maturity. Cash flow from the bonds can be used to fund external income needs or can be reinvested in the portfolio into other bonds or other asset classes. In a passive strategy, there are no assumptions made as to the direction of future interest rates and any changes in the current value of the bond due to shifts in the yield are not important. The bond may be originally purchased at a premium or a discount, while assuming that full par will be received upon maturity. The only variation in total return from the actual coupon yield is the reinvestment of the coupons as they occur. On the surface, this may appear to be a lazy style of investing, but in reality passive bond portfolios provide stable anchors in rough financial storms. They minimize or eliminate transaction costs, and if originally implemented during a period of relatively high interest rates, they have a decent chance of outperforming active strategies. (Need more insight on buy and hold strategies? Read Ten Tips For The Successful Long-Term Investor.) One of the main reasons for their stability is the fact that passive strategies work best with very high-quality, non-callable bonds like government or investment grade corporate or municipal bonds. These types of bonds are well suited for a buy-and hold strategy as they minimize the risk associated with changes in the income stream due to embedded options, which are written into the bond's covenants at issue and stay with the bond for life. Like the stated coupon, call and put features embedded in a bond allow the issue to act on those options under specified market conditions. (To learn more about options, read our Options Basics Tutorial.)

he public market; the bonds are completely sold out at issue. There is a call feature in the bonds' covenants that allows the lender to call (r

3% and, due to the company's good credit rating, it is able to buy back the bonds at a predetermined price and reissue the bonds at the 3%

Bond Laddering Ladders are one of the most common forms of passive bond investing. This is where the portfolio is divided into equal parts and invested in laddered style maturities over the investor's time horizon. Figure 1 is an example of a basic 10-year laddered $1 million bond portfolio with a stated coupon of 5%.
2 $100,000 $5,000 3 $100,000 $5,000 4 $100,000 $5,000 5 $100,000 $5,000 6 $100,000 $5,000 7 $100,000 $5,000 8 $100,000 $5,000

Dividing the principal into equal parts provides a steady equal stream of cash flow annually. (To learn more, read The Basics Of The Bond Ladder.) Indexing Bond Strategy Indexing is considered to be quasi-passive by design. The main objective of indexing a bond portfolio is to provide a return and risk characteristic closely tied to the targeted index. While this strategy carries some of the same characteristics of the passive buy-and-hold, it has some flexibility. Just like tracking a specific stock market index, a bond portfolio can be structured to mimic any published bond index. One common index mimicked by portfolio managers is the Lehman Aggregate Bond Index. Due to the size of this index, the strategy would work well with a large portfolio due to the number of bonds required to replicate the index. One also needs to consider the transaction costs associated with not only the original investment, but also the periodic rebalancing of the portfolio to reflect changes in the index. Immunization Bond Strategy This strategy has the characteristics of both active and passive strategies. By definition, pure immunization implies that a portfolio is invested for a defined return for a specific period of time regardless of any outside influences, such as changes in interest rates. Similar to indexing, the opportunity cost of using the immunization strategy is potentially giving up

the upside potential of an active strategy for the assurance that the portfolio will achieve the intended desired return. As in the buy-and-hold strategy, by design the instruments best suited for this strategy are high-grade bonds with remote possibilities of default. In fact, the purest form of immunization would be to invest in a zero-coupon bondand match the maturity of the bond to the date on which the cash flow is expected to be needed. This eliminates any variability of return, positive or negative, associated with the reinvestment of cash flows. Duration, or the average life of a bond, is commonly used in immunization. It is a much more accurate predictive measure of a bond's volatility than maturity. This strategy is commonly used in the institutional investment environment by insurance companies, pension funds and banks to match the time horizon of their future liabilities with structured cash flows. It is one of the soundest strategies and can be used successfully by individuals. For example, just like a pension fund would use an immunization to plan for cash flows upon an individual's retirement, that same individual could build a dedicated portfolio for his or her own retirement plan. (To learn more, read Advanced Bond Concepts: Duration.) Active Bond Strategy The goal of active management is maximizing total return. Along with the enhanced opportunity for returns obviously comes increased risk. Some examples of active styles include interest rate anticipation, timing, valuation and spread exploitation, and multiple interest rate scenarios. The basic premise of all active strategies is that the investor is willing to make bets on the future rather than settle with what a passive strategy can offer.

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