Did just check out treasury ETF's and yeah my perspective is changed dramatically. Thank you for this.
And TLT is definitely one that stands out. Up 20% on the year, a 1.75% yield, and a monthly dividend. 24 hour trading available to boot.
In general it looks like long terms are the way to go here. This is because current term interest rates are so low ya?
So I'm thinking these long term ETF's are not currently buying long term treasuries? Or at least very little, but instead are made up of treasuries that were purchased when yields were higher?
Thanks again, very helpful.
How a bond fund executes their strategy is something too complex for me to fully understand or discuss.
To keep it simple, the idea with something like TLT would be to ask yourself, "Do we see an interest rate environment over the next 5 years where interest rates remain low or go lower?" If the answer is yes, then you allocate risk to TLT (buy it).
TLT outperforms during crisis where money is looking to go to safe assets pushing yields down and (inversely) prices up.
And to answer your other question, yes the fund actively buys and sells treasuries. They need to sell some way before they mature (at a profit - as in now). If they hold them to maturity and do not re-balance, they would eventually not be a long term bond fund.
Lastly, you always need to be aware of the risk though. One way to look at this is by asking yourself this question - "Do I see LT interest rates going up 1% in the near term?" If the answer is yes you want to dump your TLT.
BTW, this is just my understanding of these instruments from listening to people who actually know what they're talking about (not CNBC).