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A guest column at Amazon.com - and the world's tiniest picture of me
As I mentioned in the December issue, Amazon invited me to contribute a column to their new Money and Markets page.
It's about the bond market and was, tentatively entitled "It's time to go." We ended up negotiating the more-neutral "Trees don't grow to the sky." It has the virtue of being short.
Very concise and tightly organized. Just eyeballing, I get a tad under 750 words - not counting graphics. Curious if there was a word limit or parameter set by Amazon? (Your analysis is always compelling.) Nice job & thanks for sharing with us.
Reply to @hank: Amazon allowed 600-1000. The copy I first submitted was 1002 but Chip and Wendy, my academic department chair, very gently suggested that there was a fair amount of detail (Reams' record, lists of long-short funds) whose absence might strengthen the essay. Their argument was that if I wrote a shorter, inviting essay then people would feel encouraged to drop by here and would learn a lot. So, I trimmed.
Reply to @catch22: I was hopeful that folks might wander by and learn a bit. I can spot-check tomorrow; the Analytics program allows us to see where folks are coming from. While about 100 people a month go from here to Amazon, we've rarely noted the reverse.
As to bonds, I don't know about the timing but I can't find much attraction to them, and haven't for a while. My portfolios tend toward emerging markets and global debt, including high yield global, called bonds, some floating rate stuff, rather than simple investment grade debt. In the non-retirement stuff, I've got money in Matthews Asia Strategic Income (Ms. Kong was very persuasive), RPHYX, Northern Global Tactical Asset Allocation (successor to Leuthold with 12% in a broad bond index) and T. Rowe Price Spectrum Income.
Comments
Do you feel "It's time to go?"; relative to some bond sectors?
Take care,
Catch
Thanks for noticing!
David
As to bonds, I don't know about the timing but I can't find much attraction to them, and haven't for a while. My portfolios tend toward emerging markets and global debt, including high yield global, called bonds, some floating rate stuff, rather than simple investment grade debt. In the non-retirement stuff, I've got money in Matthews Asia Strategic Income (Ms. Kong was very persuasive), RPHYX, Northern Global Tactical Asset Allocation (successor to Leuthold with 12% in a broad bond index) and T. Rowe Price Spectrum Income.
David
good stuff,
rono
Roll on!!