Traditional bond ladders with intermediate lengths never lost money (year - to - year without adjusting for inflation) during the last century.
The thinking in
a traditional bond ladder was to buy many bonds, 10 to 15 for a good - sized portfolio, with different maturities.
Not exact matches
For long - term investors, a
traditional bond allocation (whether it's a
ladder or a broad - based ETF) will provide more protection when equity markets take a tumble, and that's the most important role of fixed income in a portfolio.
They had also been very creative in the way they built out their
bond exposures with the
traditional laddered approach, which was very appealing, particularly to advisors.