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To: SpongeBrain who wrote (20440)	2/18/1999 7:19:00 PM
From: accountclosed	Respond to of 86076

cef's are closed end funds.

To: SpongeBrain who wrote (20440)	2/18/1999 7:33:00 PM
From: Bonnie Bear	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 86076

CEF is "closed end fund". Check out icefi.com for a tutorial if you want more info. Money market funds are great stuff right now. I sure don't like what I see in the Russell 2000, it looks like pre-bankruptcy sales. Bonds are bad if rates are about to go up. Corporate and mortgage bonds are also bad in a depression..companies and people default on bonds when they go bankrupt. But stocks are 20% overvalued relative to the ten-year treasury bond...so if the market takes a dump, the money is likely to go into the bond market and force rates down. Cash is just great stuff...back in the 70s, I'm told, something called an inverted yield curve was normal...that's when money-market gives you a higher return than bonds, it ALWAYS precedes a recession. We saw this --- briefly--- in the US and UK last year. If we get in this sorry state the feds will drop short-term interest rates so you will get less of everything except taxes. I stick some of my cash in something called a "bond index fund"..it's like the MDY of the bond market..it has laddered maturity treasuries, ginnie mae mortgage-backed bonds and a little bit of corporate and high-yield bonds. The average maturity is something like 8 years. It's insurance against the money market going to 2.5% in a recession. Any bond, even junk bonds, are safer than stocks, bondholders get their money back first in a meltdown. If you're worried about rates going back to 8% just stay away from 10-30 year bonds. Remember, all investments are dangerous. Even cash.