The New Home Run King!!
Barry Bonds is all the talk lately with his record setting home runs now at 756, 1 better than the great Hank Aaron. Barry Bonds now stands alone. Bonds set this record Tuesday night, 8/7/2007, in San Francisco against Washington.
Well, one Bond fund that doesn’t stand alone but ranks in the top 1/4 of all Corporate Bond funds is the Westcore Plus Bond Fund, symbol WTIBX. From our All About Bonds – Part 1 series we know that corporate bonds are higher risk and provide corporations to pay for large projects such as new plants, acquisitions and other major investments.
Another top notch Bond fund is the Loomis Sayles Bond Fund, symbol LSBRX. Manager Dan Fuss has done an excellent job with this bond fund.
These two Bond funds you would hold for down markets and is a smart part of asset allocation. When your equity (stock) mutual funds are reacting with big swings due to these market ups and downs both these funds in your portfolio will help balance it and provide you some peace of mind.
These Bond funds are going to hold their value when we have a down turn in the market but not go up as much when you see your equity (stock) mutual funds go up as if their on steriods. 
You’ll also see the value of your Bond funds rise as interest rates go lower, whenever that might be.
But again, even though these Bond funds are considered aggressive as far as Bond funds go, they also provide balance for our over all portfolio. If you own an all equity (stock) mutual funds portfolio and you get sick when you see the value of your portfolio plummet with these markets lately, then that means you should be looking at Bond funds to help give that non-sick feeling of the wild swings we experience in the markets.
Asset Allocation, Asset Allocation, Asset Allocation. I’ll provide a definition on this site soon.
Below are the stats on the Westcore Plus Bond Fund (Morningstar):
Below are the stats on the Loomis Sayles Bond Fund (Morningstar):
