Short Term Bond Fund VFSTX

Here we took a look at one of Vanguard Bond Funds: VFSTX. Yield 4.41%; YTD return 10%; investment grade corporate bonds; average maturity 2.6 yr.

It suffered a 10% drop in price in 2008. The actual return was -5%, which was big in short term investment grade bond fund.

What was the cause of that big drop? Client redemption? Maybe considering credit crisis occurred last year. A few bond holdings went under? Maybe too. Had it owned Lehman Brother, for example.

It’s quite interesting that it has a unusual V-shape recovery after the drop. Obviously the relative higher yield has been attracting a lot of investors looking for better returns on their short term investment. Has it also attracted a lot of people who are basically using it as money market funds? Maybe.

Another reason for the recovery might be the valuation of its certain holdings has recovered since the credit crisis.

For comparison, here’s Fidelity FBNDX chart, which showed similar drop last year.

If you have owned similar fund, you probably want to pay closer attention to its price movement.

Dow Jones Industrials Retreated

It’s down more than 180 points. If the current uptrend line is broken, the first support is at 8000-8100 level, which could become a good base to build some long positions if the worst is over. Let’s watch closely as overall it’s oversold at this point. The V shape bounce needs some time to consolidate even we’re entering a new uptrend.

The next support is 7500, which is previous low before this last leg down.

Dow Jones Broke Down

Dow Jones Industrial has broken its major support around 8000. There’s no clear support but some round number at 7000 or 6000. 5600 is a support.

Where will the market go from here? Not sure but we can try to read the market and right now it’s going south.

Is the worst over yet?


Dow Jones Industrial Average has been up and down for the past many weeks but it appears that it has moved towards sideways. As recession has been officially announced and confirmed, how much has the market priced in all the bad news?

Certainly investors are looking for values after significant drops, but it’s not clear that if it will range bound between somewhere below 8000 and somewhere above 9000.

If it builds a long base above 8000 and consolidates the base, we may see more upside but we need to see the confirmation.