Bonds / Certificates of Deposit

Cool Knowledge about Bond

• The largest securities market in the world - U.S. bond market! Average Daily Trading Volume - Year to June 2010:
  U.S. Bond Market - US$873.9 billions (Source: SIFMA) vs NYSE - US$1.27 billions (Source: Bloomberg)
• Bond is the ONLY main category of investment with positive return in HKMA's Exchange Fund for the First Half of 2010

  		1H 2010 (HK$ bn)
  	Gain/(Loss) on Hong Kong equities ^	(7.7)
  	Gain/(Loss) on other equities ^	(10.2)
  	Exchange Gain/(Loss)	(24.3)
  	Return from bonds #	40.8
  	Investment income / (Loss)	(1.4)
  	^ Including dividends # Including interest

  
  (Source: HKMA)
• What to include in a balanced portfolio? Different asset class definitions are widely debated, but five common divisions are stocks, bonds, real-estate, commodities and cash.
  Even Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hataway maintains a bond portfolio valued at about US$32 billion !!!!
  (Source: Bloomberg)