Topic: How To Invest

Hi Pat: Could you give me your recommendation on the Dynamic Strategic Yield Fund? Thanks.

Article Excerpt

The Dynamic Strategic Yield Fund is a mutual fund that holds mostly high-quality stocks and real estate investment trusts. But it also holds 35.2% of its portfolio in bonds. We don’t generally recommend bonds right now. That’s because bonds are unlikely to perform as well in the next few years as they have in the last few, mainly because interest rates will likely hold steady or rise. That means the fund would only earn interest income on its bonds; instead of capital gains, its bond holdings could produce capital losses. The fund has 34.4% of its bond holdings in corporate bonds. As a general rule, the safest bonds are issued by or guaranteed by the federal government. Next are provincial issues or bonds with provincial guarantees. After that come corporate bonds. The risk on corporate bonds varies widely. Some corporates are almost as safe as government bonds, and offer only slightly higher yields. Some corporates are far riskier, but may not…