Know the risks & rewards of your bond ETFs

Article Excerpt

In Best ETFs for Canadian Investors, we mostly focus on funds that hold equities, although we have on occasion covered ETFs that focus on savings accounts, preferred shares, commodities, and alternative investments. In this supplement, we look at the pros and cons of holding government and corporate bonds in your portfolio. Stocks beat bonds over time We’ll first take a look at readily available data from U.S. studies to analyze the long-term performance track record and the risk profiles of various asset classes, including government and corporate bonds. The annual growth rate for U.S. stocks over the past 92 years has been 10.0% (see table below). This was significantly higher than the 2.9% rate for inflation and 3.3% return on cash. On the other hand, long-term corporate bonds returned 5.9% per year, slightly higher than government bonds. Both were well ahead of cash and inflation. Note that while this data indicates how the various asset classes performed over a long period; shorter-term returns can vary substantially. Bond…