2

I am interested in investing a portion of my portfolio in fixed-income investments, as anemic as they are lately. Conventional logic says that it might be smart in such a down market to use a laddering strategy, but frankly I'm too lazy to actively manage that.

Is there an investment vehicle such as a Mutual fund or ETF that does buys fixed income investments like bonds or CDs and automatically manages the laddering?

JohnFx
  • 52,979
  • 12
  • 134
  • 245
  • 2
    Aren't you just asking about a large number of bond or money market funds or ETFs? Some focus on what they invest in (municipal, corporate...), some focus on term (short, medium, long), some focus on risk level (short to junk). There could be thousands of funds. – mhoran_psprep Jan 19 '13 at 13:33
  • My understanding is that bond funds don't tend to hold securities to maturity. If so, it seems that they would have a higher risk profile than buying and holding the underlying bonds to maturity. – JohnFx Jan 20 '13 at 05:51
  • @JohnFx a couple of clarifying questions: 1) Are you interested in a specific type of fixed income security, e.g. US treasuries 2) Is your aim to not have to think about what type of ladder you want to build at all, or more to think of your requirements carefully up front and then have someone else implement it for you, i.e. are you trying to offload the "thinking" or the "admin" – thepassiveinvestor Jan 21 '13 at 19:22
  • @thepassiveinvestor I'm thinking I'd pick an asset class say CDs, Government Bonds, Corporate Bonds, etc. and then buy some type of investment that ladders in that particular type of investment. – JohnFx Jan 26 '13 at 16:24
  • @JohnFx I know some brokers offer a bond/CD ladder tool that will give you options for each rung, based on the parameters you specify, and allow you to quickly invest in the ladder at one time. I haven't used tools like this personally, and I'm not sure how they worked on a continuous basis, but the ones I've seen allow you to choose the first payment date, the number of rungs, etc. and they'll give you bond/CD options for each rung. – John Bensin Jul 03 '13 at 13:31
  • 1
    @JohnFx Maybe as part of the clean-up drive we have request you to anwer or close this question :) you have the choice to select the reason, Too Broad, Offtopic or Unclear ;) – Dheer Feb 20 '14 at 08:34

1 Answers1

1

Take a look at PowerShares PLW. This is a 1 to 30 year treasury ladder ETF.

MTRIG
  • 184
  • 6
  • This does not provide an answer to the question. To critique or request clarification from an author, leave a comment below their post - you can always comment on your own posts, and once you have sufficient reputation you will be able to comment on any post. – Dheer Aug 31 '14 at 15:47
  • I disagree. The person asked about ETFs or Mutual Funds that handle laddering. There are many funds that do so. I pointed out one ETF that does it as well. – MTRIG Aug 31 '14 at 20:00