February 10th Weekly Market Update
It was 1964, 50 years ago, that the film Goldfinger debuted. It is the quintessential James Bond film and the first one to win an Academy Award. In Goldfinger, Q — the head of the gadget-making “Q-Branch” — presents Bond an alternative to the traditional car. It can emit an oil slick and has a battering ram, a pop-up rear bulletproof screen, and even an ejector seat. These gadgets helped Bond make the best of some risky situations. Now, 50 years later, bonds are facing a risky situation — and alternative investments may help to make the best of it.
Although not part of the overall bond market measured by the Barclays Capital Aggregate Bond Index, the high-yield and municipal bonds we favor for 2014 are considered traditional investments. As your “Q-Branch,” LPL Financial Research would like to present you with some alternatives to traditional investments that may be helpful in 2014 as faster growth may lead to higher interest rates and flat returns for the bond market: bank loans, business development companies (BDCs), real estate investment trusts (REITs), and master limited partnerships (MLPs).
For the full article: Add More Bond — James Bond — to Your Portfolio