Thinking About Buying Bonds? Don't Overlook This

When investors ponder the purchase of bonds, the prevailing thought that comes to mind is "conservative." While stocks can be volatile, bonds are much less so.

Less volatility generally means "less risk," and that is certainly the way academia describes it. The term volatility generally refers to the likely percentage move in value over the course of a year (up or down). There's even an index -- the VIX -- which measures investor expectations of volatility based on the price they are willing to pay for index options.

While most people are familiar with the stock market VIX, there is a bond market VIX out there as well.

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Source Fool.com