Please support our advertisers:
HSBC is one of the worst places to go for bonds - the pricing is awful and most of what is offered carries negative real yields.
Please support our advertisers:
Buying individual bonds is really for very wealthy people (minimum US$200,000) and even then the price is awful. Why not boy a bond ETF?
Please support our advertisers:
FWIW, I would rather buy a portfolio of shares with a yield of 3% than a portfolio of bonds or a bond fund yielding 2% (or less). At the moment, I think of bonds as a place to leave my cash reserves (better yield than bank deposits) and not as an investment.
Please support our advertisers:
corporate bonds are sold at 100k USD/bond.
bond etfs/funds trade default risk for principal risk, which is an entirely different product from a risk perspective.
hsbc (and other big banks) website does show bond products in values less than 100k USD, but these are not actual bonds, they are derivative products where the bank slices a bond into small pieces and sells it at a higher spread to its clients. Avoid these like the plague.
To buy bonds, get a specialized broker.
Please support our advertisers:
Reward. Don't forget, your capital is not guaranteed with bonds unless you hold them to maturity. If inflatio/rates rise, then the price of your bond could fall by quite a bit. For 1%-2% interest, it's just not worth it. You may as well just put it on deposit if you are expecting the the HK$ to repeg and you don't want to risk your capital. Scrabbling about for the last few beans usually ends up in a big financial mistake. Personally, I would back the Hang Seng Index Tracker Fund (2800) - which tracks the shares that make up the Hang Seng Index - and take the dividends. There is also a risk to capital here but it's pretty solid, low fees and I think the underlying shares are owned (ie it's not some derivative construct).
Please support our advertisers:
I have a Note: Yields 1% a month.
Has paid every month for 11 times, and I am now rolling it over
Please support our advertisers:
Not so risky as the yield would imply.
Here's the obligor:
http://www.tethyspetroleum.com/tethys/index.action
The deal they announced last week should bring them US$60 million, and cut the risk dramatically.
I do agree, that putting more than 5-10% of your investment funds in a single deal like this might prove unwise.
Please support our advertisers:
You must be logged in to be able to reply.
Login now
Copy Link
Facebook
Gmail
Mail