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Bondsavvy To Present New Corporate Bond Recommendations January 11, 2024


Bondsavvy will present new corporate bond recommendations January 11, 2024 at 5:00pm EST during The Bondcast, a financial webinar available exclusively to Bondsavvy subscribers. This fixed income blog post discusses the benefits of attending The Bondcast and how it will make you a better bond investor.

1. How have Bondsavvy's corporate bond recommendations been performing?

Following a challenging 2022, Bondsavvy's recommendations finished up 2023 strong, with significant capital appreciation across many picks. The year-end 2023 bond market rally amplified the performance of our bond recommendations. View our corporate bond returns page to see the performance of all previous 117 Bondsavvy recommendations.

Recent highlights included:

  • Of the 63 bonds we rate buy or hold, 24 achieved capital appreciation of at least 7.50% between November 22, 2023 (the last trading day before Thanksgiving) and December 29, 2023.  Four achieved capital appreciation of at least 12.50%
  • In a challenging recent environment for bonds, 14 of our 27 most recent bond picks have achieved total returns of at least +8.00% since their pick date.  Twenty-five (25) of 27 picks achieved total returns of at least +4.25%
  • Total return highlights of our recent picks included: A 2033 bond issued by a communications company (+20.01% since its March 8, 2023 pick date); a 2029 bond issued by a homebuilder (+16.49% since its March 8, 2023 pick date); a 2029 bond issued by a manufacturing company (+15.29% since its November 16, 2022 pick date); and a 2031 bond issued by a technology company (+13.36% since its June 22, 2023 pick date)

All of the above performance figures are through December 29, 2023, the last trading day of 2023.

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 Subscriber Benefit
Bondsavvy's objective, easy-to-understand bond recommendations put individual investors in control of their bond investments.Get Started

Bondsavvy simplifies bond investing by taking a large universe of bonds and narrowing it down to a list of select 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?

Bondsavvy hosts The Bondcast on Zoom. Upon subscribing to Bondsavvy, you will gain access to your account where you will see a pop-up containing Zoom details for The Bondcast.  Should you not be available at 5:00pm EST on January 11, you can access a recording of the live event by approximately 8:00pm EST on January 11.

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

corporate-bond-investment-themes-2023.png

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 January 11, 2024 edition of The Bondcast will reflect all of the financial reports filed by bond issuers through the end of 2023. Since large issuers have 60 days to file their 10-Ks, for companies with a December 31 year end, our January 2024 recommendations will include Q3, but not Q4, financial information.

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 117 corporate bond recommendations.  We currently have 30 bonds on our 'buy' list and another 30+ 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 21 corporate bond recommendations, we have recommended 11 high yield bonds and 10 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 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 Started

That 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.

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