Bonds for Canadians: How to Build Wealth and Lower Risk in Your Portfolio

Praise for Bonds for Canadians

“Andrew Allentuck is one of the premiere financial journalists covering fixed income markets from a uniquely Canadian perspective.  His knowledge of the bond market is second to none.”
—Randy LeClair, CFA, Vice-President & Portfolio Manager, AIC Investment Services Inc.

“Andrew Allentuck’s new book explains the complexities of the bond market to Canadians in an engrossing and deliciously entertaining manner. Superbly written, Bonds for Canadians is both a blueprint for financial prosperity as well as a delightful and often humorous look at the most misunderstood and idiosyncratic of markets. I wish this book had been around 26 years ago when I began my career.”
—Tom Czitron, CFA, Managing Director, Head of Bonds and Fixed Income, Sceptre Investment Counsel Ltd.

“Canadian retail investors are largely in the dark on how bonds work or how to incorporate them into their investment strategy…That is, until now. Deconstructing what is often considered the most cerebral of financial markets, Mr. Allentuck provides an engaging, entertaining and anecdote-laden account of what bonds are, how they work and why they matter more now than ever. This is the sort of book that every serious retail investor should carry around, dog-eared and rolled, in his back pocket.”
—Martin Cej, Investment Editor, The Globe and Mail  

“Bonds for Canadians shows how to escape the roller-coaster of risks of the stock market while generating a tidy fortune for retirement. It’s an important contribution to financial planning.”
—Daniel F. Stronach, Registered Financial Planner, President, Stronach Financial Group Inc.

More Praise for Bonds for Canadians

“In the midst of the most important secular shift in investing in several generations, a majority of Canadian retail investors are still stumbling blindly, unable to identify, analyze or manage what should be the cornerstone of every successful portfolio: bonds. Whether a failure of the mainstream financial press, or an unwillingness on the part of bond-market professionals to throw back the curtains on their own machinations, retail investors remain largely in the dark on how bonds work or how to incorporate them into their investment strategy.

That is, until now. Deconstructing what is often considered the most cerebral of financial markets, Mr. Allentuck provides an engaging, entertaining and anecdote-laden account of what bonds are, how they work and why they matter more now than ever. This is the sort of book that every serious retail investor should carry around, dog-eared and rolled, in his back pocket.”
—Martin Cej, Investment Editor, The Globe and Mail  

“Even readers with no interest in bonds will find Andrew Allentuck’s book interesting. He goes beyond the ordinary discussion of bonds, and skillfully turns a dull pudding of numbers into a wonderful soufflé of stories.”
—Caroline Nalbantoglu, Registered Financial Planner, PWL Advisors

“In a lively and engaging style, Andrew Allentuck explains not only how bonds work, but also when and why you should invest in bonds. He covers all the bases.”
—Tessa Wilmott, Editor, Investment Executive

“Bonds are essential in portfolio building, yet to many retail investors they still lack the sex appeal of stocks.  Bonds for Canadians may just change that notion forever.”
—Derek Moran, Registered Financial Planner, Macdonald Shymko & Co.

Bonds may not be as sexy as stocks, but they cannot be ignored as an essential part of any investing portfolio. While they may not be the way to immediate riches, the ability of bonds to retain their value in periods of massive stock market meltdowns makes them crucial portfolio insurance for everyone, and even lifejackets for some investors.

Estimated at over $30 trillion, the international bond market is now arguably the largest capital market in the world. Buoyed by a twenty-year slide in interest rates, the bond market has for a long time produced extraordinary returns for bond investors. However, those days of easy money in the bond markets appear to be over as interest rates are once again on the rise. In the coming years, investors will have to be very astute to make money in a much tougher bond environment.

Knowing one’s way around the bond market is essential for investors, but bonds remain a mystery to many. They can provide steady income and safer returns than stocks, but more exotic varieties of bonds can be extremely risky. As the bond market has grown to include bond futures, global bonds, and bond derivatives, the market has expanded and added huge amounts of risk as well as leverage. This book introduces you to all forms of bond investing, to Canadian debt markets and global bonds, the unique risks of bonds, and explains how to manage that risk successfully.

Bonds do have the potential to make investors rich and the capacity to destroy those who do not understand the risks they take in this most mysterious of financial markets. Award-winning financial journalist Andrew Allentuck pulls back the veil on bonds and reveals them for what they truly are: stable, predictable, reliable investments that are an essential component in any well balanced portfolio.