Weather
The Pine Tree, News for Calaveras County and Beyond Weather
Amador Angels Camp Arnold Bear Valley Copperopolis Murphys San Andreas Valley Springs Moke Hill/West Point Tuolumne
News
Business Directory
Weather - Roads
Sports
Real Estate
Photos & Video
Weekly Ads/Grocery Ads
Entertainment
Search
Life & Style
Columns
About Us
Supervisors
Calendar
Polls
Law Enforcement
Letters to the Editor
Frogtown USA

Coming Soon...
Monday, May 20
All Day Debtors Anonymous
All Day Overeaters Anonymous
07:00 PM Overeaters Anonymous
Tuesday, May 21
12:00 PM Arnold SIR luncheon
12:00 PM Senior Lunch Every Tuesday at Chapel in the Pines
04:30 PM Wine Maker's Night at Alchemy, Murphys - 209-728-0700
All Day Debtors Anonymous
All Day Overeaters Anonymous
Wednesday, May 22
10:00 AM Weekend Steam-Powered Excursion Train Rides
All Day Debtors Anonymous
All Day Overeaters Anonymous
Thursday, May 23
All Day Debtors Anonymous
All Day Overeaters Anonymous
Friday, May 24
09:00 AM Red Hot Yard Sale
11:30 AM Food and Wine Tours, Murphys
05:00 PM Lagorio's BBQ Fridays
All Day Debtors Anonymous
All Day Overeaters Anonymous
Saturday, May 25
08:00 AM Greenhorn Creek Community Garage Sale!
09:00 AM 35th Annual Arnold Spring Peddler's Faire
10:00 AM Weekend Steam-Powered Excursion Train Rides
11:30 AM Food and Wine Tours, Murphys
01:00 PM Guided Hike, Big Trees State Park - 209-795-3840
04:00 PM Concert - Winds in the Sequoias
All Day Debtors Anonymous
All Day Overeaters Anonymous
Sunday, May 26
Until 04:00 PM 35th Annual Arnold Spring Peddler's Faire
10:00 AM Weekend Steam-Powered Excursion Train Rides
All Day Debtors Anonymous
All Day Overeaters Anonymous

Search Announcements




Log In
Username

Password

Remember Me



Posted by: thepinetree on 03/06/2013 04:18 PM Updated by: John_Hamilton on 03/10/2013 06:45 PM
Expires: 01/01/2018 12:00 AM
:



The Inflation Investment You’ve Never Heard Of ~By Cory Burnell, MBA, CFA

Valley Springs, CA...Many investors are concerned about the risk of increased inflation in light of the Federal Reserve’s unprecedented balance sheet expansion from $900 billion to $3.1 trillion since 2008. This concern is warranted and begs the question how to invest to profit from inflation and protect one’s purchasing power. The most common answers are to invest in commodities such as precious metals, oil, gasoline, agriculture, etc., or Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS), and while these may be good answers are there any others? I’m glad you asked, because there’s one you’ve probably never considered. Senior secured floating rate loans (a.k.a. “Bank Loans”) have historically offered a relatively high correlation with inflation along with attractive returns. For example, in the 10-year period ended 9/30/2012 the Morningstar Bank Loan category had a 0.37 correlation with inflation while the DJ-UBS Commodity Index only provided a 0.24 correlation. Interestingly, U.S. Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS), typically purchased by investors to hedge inflation risks, only provided a 0.07 correlation with inflation.*

cbrung1
*Courtesy of DWS Investments



Senior secured floating rate loans offer a couple more advantages over the two more popular inflation hedges, commodities and TIPS. First, loan returns are historically less volatile than commodity returns and consequently investors have achieved better risk-adjusted performance with a 10-year Sharpe Ratio of 0.52 for the former versus 0.19 for the latter. Second, inflation will likely be accompanied by higher interest rates, which makes interest rate risk an important consideration. If interest rates rise, bond prices fall, and bond account values can lose significant value. Interest rate risk, or sensitivity to changes in interest rates, is measured by what’s called duration. One potential advantage floating rate loans possess over bonds is that their interest rates adjust every 30 to 90 days consequently increasing if market rates rise. This feature keeps their duration very low, only about 0.2. By contrast, the duration of the Barclays U.S. TIPS Index is about 8.7, and therefore far more likely to sustain losses when interest rates rise.

cbrung2
*Graphic courtesy of DWS Investments

So in summary, if inflation flares up, you can get exposure to profits with less risk by investing in senior secured floating rate loans rather than commodities and TIPS. However, floating rate loans have their own particular risks that investors should discuss at length with their financial advisor. Of course, prudent portfolio management involves diversification, and in that pursuit senior secured loans should complement your other investments rather than be your only holding.

Cory Burnell, CFA, is the Chief Investment Officer at BluePrint Wealth Partners< He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and is one of only 125 CFA Charterholders in California who advise individual investors.* Follow him online at www.coryburnell.com.

*Source: 2/26/13, CFA Institute’s online membership database lists 6,396 CFAs in California, 125 of whom are financial advisors.

The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. To determine which investment(s) may be appropriate for you, consult your financial advisor prior to investing. All performance referenced is historical and is no guarantee of future results. All indices are unmanaged and may not be invested into directly. Bank loans are loans issued by below investment-grade companies for short-term funding purposes with higher yield than short-term debt and involve risk.

Securities and advisory services offered through LPL Financial, a registered investment advisor, Member FINRA SIPC


Comments
The comments are owned by the poster. We are not responsible for its content. We value free speech but remember this is a public forum and we hope that people would use common sense and decency. If you see an offensive comment please email us at news@thepinetree.net

Mark Twain St. Hospital

Century 21 Sierra Properties
Bear Valley Real Estate Calaveras Transit
County of Calaveras
Bear Valley Cross Country
Cedar Creek Realty
Middleton's Furniture
Cave, Mine & Zip Lines
Bistro Espresso
Pinnacle Physical Therapy
Chatom Vineyards
Bear Valley Mountain Resort
Paul D. Bertini
Ebbetts Pass Scenic Byway
Sierra Logging Museum
Calaveras Mentoriing Jenny's Kitchen


Copyright © The Pine Tree 2005-2013