Bondsavvy will present new corporate bond recommendations April 4, 2024 at 5:00pm EDT during The Bondcast, a financial webinar available exclusively to Bondsavvy subscribers.
We founded Bondsavvy to empower individual investors. The Bondcast simplifies the 9,000-bond corporate bond universe to a select number of easy-to-understand investment recommendations. It puts individual investors in control of their fixed income portfolios.
This fixed income blog post provides answers to FAQs for The Bondcast and the Bondsavvy investment service.
1. How have Bondsavvy's corporate bond recommendations been performing?
On March 15, 2024 Bondsavvy updated the investment performance of its 121 prior corporate bond recommendations. Please view our corporate bond returns page to see the total returns of our 55 exited recommendations, as well the 60+ bonds that remain either a buy or hold.
Performance of Exited vs. Current Recommendations
Our corporate bond returns page includes separate tables showing the performance of our exited and current bond recommendations. Of Bondsavvy's 55 exited recommendations, 41 (or 75%) have outperformed the benchmark iShares corporate bond ETF. This includes 18 recommendations where we outperformed iShares by at least 10 percentage points.
While the current recommendations we have made since April 6, 2022 have generally performed well, there are a number of earlier non-exited picks where much work remains to make recommendations successful for our subscribers.
Fixed income expert Steve Shaw founded Bondsavvy in 2017 to empower individual investors. We believe showing this level of performance transparency enables investors to evaluate the Bondsavvy service and the risks that can come with bond investing.
A 27.15% Return for the TransAlta 6.50% '40 Bond
During the March 7, 2024 edition of The Super Bondcast, we issued one sell recommendation: TransAlta 6.50% '40 (CUSIP 89346DAE7). We originally recommended the TransAlta '40 bond, on June 5, 2020, at a price of 97.33 (97.33% of the bond's par value). We recommended our March 7, 2024 sell at 99.20, which resulted in a total return of 27.15%. This was nearly 15 points of outperformance vs. the iShares HYG high yield corporate bond ETF, which returned 12.37% during the same period.
2. Why should I attend The Bondcast financial webinar?
Once investors understand the benefits of owning individual bonds vs. bond funds, they need to decide which among the 9,000 available corporate bonds to add to their portfolios. Without Bondsavvy, this is a daunting task.
Without Bondsavvy, investors must sift through thousands of bonds and rely on corporate bond ratings for financial analysis. The problem with this approach is that bond rating methodologies are flawed, and they do not speak to whether a bond is a compelling investment.
Bondsavvy recommendations do.
Bondsavvy's corporate bond research evaluates over 15 investment considerations when we make new bond recommendations. Not only do we evaluate the creditworthiness of a bond issuer, but we seek to understand whether a prospective bond investment represents a good value. Our goal is to identify bonds that pay high yields relative to their risk and offer compelling total return opportunities. Read our fixed income investing strategy post to learn more.
Bondsavvy Subscriber Benefit
Bondsavvy's objective, easy-to-understand bond recommendations put individual investors in control of their bond investments.Get StartedBondsavvy simplifies bond investing by taking a large universe of bonds and narrowing it down to a select list of recommendations we believe can outperform the leading bond funds and ETFs. Bondsavvy subscribers use our bond recommendations to buy bonds online and build bond portfolios.
3. Is The Bondcast a live event? How will I gain access?
Yes, The Bondcast is a live subscriber event we host on Zoom. Shortly before the live event on April 4, we will email Zoom details for The Bondcast. Should you not be available at 5:00pm EDT on April 4, you can access a recording of the live event by approximately 8:00pm EDT on April 4. Upon subscriber, you will see details for all current 60+ buy/hold recommendations as well as the presentations supporting each recommendation.
The Bondcast is interactive, as our subscribers post questions that our founder Steve Shaw answers throughout the webcast.
We kick off each edition of The Bondcast with a brief discussion of overarching investment themes. These themes help us narrow down the bond universe to certain sectors, credit quality, and maturity dates. Figure 1 shows a slide where we discussed key investment themes during a previous edition of The Bondcast.
Figure 1: Sample Slide from Previous Edition of The Bondcast
You'll notice a table of contents to the right of the slide. Once we post a recording of The Bondcast in our subscriber area, we append a table of contents so subscribers can click on the slides of greatest interest.
4. How often does Bondsavvy make new corporate bond recommendations?
Bondsavvy hosts The Bondcast each quarter so our analysis can reflect a bond issuer's most recent financial filings. Our April 4, 2024 edition of The Bondcast will reflect all of the financial reports filed by bond issuers by that date.
5. If I subscribe to Bondsavvy, do I gain access to prior Bondsavvy bond recommendations?
Yup. From our first set of bond recommendations made September 26, 2017, Bondsavvy has made 121 corporate bond recommendations. We currently have 28 bonds on our 'buy' list and another 35+ corporate bonds rated hold. As a Bondsavvy subscriber, you gain access to our existing bond recommendations, as well as all new bond picks for as long as you are a Bondsavvy subscriber. View our corporate bond returns page to see the bonds we have previously recommended, including the bond names and CUSIPs for bond recommendations we have exited.
6. How long is The Bondcast and what's the agenda?
The Bondcast is a 60-minute presentation, which consists of i) Overarching investment themes and market conditions; ii) Pricing and financial ratios of our recommended bonds and bond issuers; iii) Historical bond prices and call provisions; and iv) Analysis of each bond issuer's business, growth, risks, capital allocation, capital structure, and recent financial performance.
Based on the investment analysis presented during The Bondcast, subscribers will be able to decide which bonds they want to add to their investment portfolios.
7. How many corporate bond recommendations will you make at each edition of The Bondcast?
Typically, between four and five. Our corporate bonds recommendations will all be at the individual bond, or CUSIP, level.
8. How are Bondsavvy recommendations split between investment-grade and high-yield corporate bonds?
Historically, we have had a fairly even split; however, based on market conditions, at certain editions of The Bondcast, it may skew slightly toward either investment-grade or high-yield corporate bonds. Of our last 25 corporate bond recommendations through January 11, 2024, we have recommended 14 high yield bonds and 11 investment grade bonds.
View our corporate bond returns page to see a breakdown of our investment grade and high yield bond recommendations.
9. What financial analysis does Bondsavvy conduct prior to making an investment recommendation?
We conduct corporate bond searches through online broker-dealers, where we narrow down lists of thousands of bonds into a smaller number based on our knowledge of different companies, relative yields, pricing, maturities and other available information. Once we have a focused list of potential corporate bond investments, we conduct in-depth credit and financial analysis on each company. Based on this analysis and the bond's yield, price, maturity, credit spread, and other factors, we further narrow down the list into the bonds we recommend during The Bondcast. Read our blog post further describing our bond investment analysis.
10. Am I going to have to do a bunch of work to make corporate bond investments?
No. Bondsavvy does the heavy lifting for you. During The Bondcast, we will provide you key pieces of information on each company and corporate bond we are recommending, boiling down each recommendation to two to three PowerPoint slides.
Along with additional color provided during The Bondcast, you will have the information you need to make an investment. All you'll need to do is copy and paste your selected bond CUSIPs to execute trades through an online bond trading platform such as Fidelity.com, E*TRADE, Schwab, Vanguard, or Interactive Brokers.
Bondsavvy Subscriber Benefit
Bondsavvy takes the guesswork out of corporate bond investing. Our founder, Steve Shaw, is the leading expert on evaluating investments in individual corporate bonds for individual investors.Get StartedThat said, investors must understand that investing in individual corporate bonds is not a "set it and forget it" investment strategy in the way bond index funds are. It is incumbent upon Bondsavvy subscribers to view our new recommendation and recommendation updates so they can make investment decisions.
International subscribers should look into which online brokerages support corporate bond trading in their areas.
11. What happens if a bond recommendation changes?
Bondsavvy updates its bond recommendations each quarter during The Super Bondcast financial webinar. During The Super Bondcast, we review each issuing company's updated financials, as well as each bond's update price, yield to maturity, and credit spread. We then discuss the rationale for each updated buy/sell/hold recommendation.
We complement The Super Bondcast with written recommendation updates we post in the Bondsavvy subscriber area.
12. Can I view prior editions of The Bondcast?
Yes, for as long as you subscribe to Bondsavvy,
you have access to recordings of all Bondsavvy financial
webinars, including The Bondcast and Super Bondcast.
13. Is Bondsavvy an SEC-registered trading platform, broker-dealer, investment adviser, or asset manager?
None of the above. Bondsavvy is not registered as an investment adviser under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, or the securities laws of any state or other jurisdiction, nor is such registration contemplated. Bondsavvy makes recommendations on individual corporate bond investments and charges a fee to customers. We do not hold customer assets, and we do not execute trades on behalf of customers.
14. Are Bondsavvy's corporate bond investment recommendations specific to my portfolio?
As Bondsavvy operates under the publishers' exemption of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, the investments discussed during The Bondcast do not take into account an investor's particular investment objectives, financial situation or needs. In making an investment decision, each investor must rely on his or her own examination of the investment, including the merits and risks involved. Please read the Bondsavvy general disclaimer.
While Bondsavvy does not provide personalized advice, we have published the How To Build a Bond Portfolio blog post, which provides some key considerations for investors constructing bond portfolios.
We hope to welcome you as a new Bondsavvy subscriber and that we'll see you on The Bondcast.
