Revisiting Yield Products

This blog started in 2004 and back then markets were functioning normally (mostly). Equities were mostly moving higher even if returns were lumpy, and there was no speculation about which would be the next country to need a bailout. It was not a riskless environment, but the risks confronted were rather pedestrian compared to what they have been since 2007. Back then I used to write a fair bit about what I'll refer to as yield products. My take on these was that owning one or two types of products in moderation was a good way to kick up the yield of the portfolio, and if something horrible happened then a modest allocation would not devastate the portfolio. We owned two of these in a very modest weight, like 2% each: a call writing fund and an infrastructure trust. Both of them worked for a very long time, as did... Read more