On Friday I closed out my positions in the American Century 2030 Trust (ACTAX) which had been opened in late April. This mutual fund is a zero-coupon unit trust of Treasury strips maturing in 2030. It therefore has a 26-year duration, making it very sensitive to interest rate swings.

Immediately upon my entering this trade, to my surprise this fund was featured on CBS Marketwatch as “The Stupid Investment of the Week”. The conventional wisdom at the time was that interest rates were going steadily higher. This of course was not the case and I was fortunate enough to close this trade at an 8.2% profit in four months. Approximately 27% annualized. I need more stupid trades, please.

The moral of the story is that taking advice from financial journalists, whether print or television, is not wise. By the way, I switched into the American Century International Bond Fund (BEGBX) because I think the dollar rally is just about done. Comme dîner.