Recent Bond Activities

sold 172967AZ4 $103.35 (see old post for bond details)

bought 02635PSK0 $85.50 Americdan General Finance 4% due 03/2011. S&P rating BB+

recent activities

sold:

• 172967CU3 at 103.843. net gain is 5% plus 7.25% interests for all these 6 months.

bought

• 254709AD0 at 90.999; Discover Financial 6.45% maturity 06/2017. BBB
• 013817AS0 at 97.75; Alcoa 6.75% 07/2018 BB+
• 984119AC1 at 90.50; Xerox 8% 02/2027 BB+
• 52107QAC9 at 99.25. Lazard 7.125% 05/2015 BBB
• 172967CQ2 at 91.499; CITI 5% 09/2014 A-

CIT finale

It turned out that CIT did not file for bankruptcy and it redeemed my bond. this is my first redemption. E*trade just put the face value ($1000 per bond) to my account, no commissions. it recorded it as an investment gain. wow, a gain after all this! almost 7% in over 8 months, i.e. over 11% APY. not bad.

Recent Investment activities

1, Sold some AAPL at 164.0;

2. bought American Express Floating Rate bond at 98.95. maturity date 03/2010. Just want to test how this works; the rate is 1 month libor + some (forgot, but probably than 10) BPS.

3. bought bond issued by American General Finance Corp. (Part of AIG) at 98.25, maturity date 10/1/09. only two months to go. i think i can get full principle back and some. again this is a test of this kind. couple rate 3.88%

yet bought another bond

A CD is maturing so bought a (relatively) short term bond since CD rates are so low...

37247XAC6, Genworth Global Fdg Trs Fr (not sure what the abbrivations are...), coupon 5.125%, Maturity 3/15/11, non-callable. S&P Rading A and Moody's Rating A2. bought at $98.00 so yeilding 6%...

bought another longterm bond 620076AH2

issued by Motorola, coupon 7.5%, maturity 5/15/2025, Baa3 by Moody's. bought at 71.1.

my first non-callable bond.

bought another bond 125509AH2

Recently i discovered to my surprise that many bonds that sold at a large discount have gained in value. it is now harder to find them cheap. so in order to find those issued by a reliable company, i have to go easy on maturity date.

just bought a long term bond. issued by Cigna, coupon $7.65% which is very high, maturity date 3/2023. bought at $88. The rating is BBB (not very high) by S&P.

sold a bond over par

JUST sold a bond 060505AG9 at 100.751. it is above the par. although it pays a good interest rate, i can still find something similar i think.

frankly i thought i would hold it until maturity. but above the par, just can't resist.

actually two of my other bonds are being sold near par too...

long term corporate bonds

recently i have found some bonds from some good companies (i.e. companies that unlikely file bankruptcy in the foreseeable future) have some bonds availiable for a nice return. Wonder if i should try some of these. Example,

1. 211327AB7 from Continental Corp pays 8.375% trading at about $90 yielding over 12%, maturity 8/15/12. I am sure Continental Corp. can survive 3.5 years. Moody/S&P rating Baa3/BBB-
2. 316773CH1 from Fifth Third Bank pays 8.25% trading at around $65 yielding over 12.5%. well this one has the maturity in 30 years. rating Baa2/BBB+
3. 984119AC1 from Xerox pays 8% trading at about $70 yielding over 10%. it has two callable dates at or above par. not sure which bonds will be called and which won't. maturity in 18 years. rating Baa3/BB+
4. 925524AH3 from Viacom pays 7.875% trading $66 yeilding over 12%. maturity in 21 years. Baa3/BBB
5. 260543BJ1 from Dow Chemical pays 7.375% trading $70 yeilding near 11%, maturity in 20 years. Baa1/BB-