bond funds

[arubablue]

i own a blackrock muni bond fund and the value continues to drop should i hold or sell

[coffee]

i own a blackrock muni bond fund and the value continues to drop should i hold or sell

MY OPINION ONLY: Detroit is about to default on its muni bonds and some other places have gone bankrupt. Sell, take the loss and invest in something else.

[kv968]

i own a blackrock muni bond fund and the value continues to drop should i hold or sell

Which specific bond fund is it? Blackrock uses leverage in a lot of their closed-end muni funds and that might do some real damage if you have one of them.

[smk]

you need to look at the assets held by the fund. the performance of those assets drive the fund price. what are they rated? what is the maturity? are they fixed or floating rate? is there leverage used by the fund? is it open or closed end and what is the price relative to the underlying assets?

next you want to see what your overall financial plan calls for. perhaps those assets are required anyway. what did you plan to use the money for? if it is for retirement, how do your assets match up to your planned expenditures (inflation adjusted) in retirement?

then you want to determine whether you are going to make active or only passive decisions. if you have some sort of edge that suggests you can slightly outperform the market for a long period of time, active decisions may be appropriate. for example, perhaps there is a reason you think you can miss just the really big mistakes out there, but make the small ones and the big wins. otherwise, if there is no reason to expect you can do better by trading in and out, then doing something like this outside your plan is most likely to cause you to lose money.

as you can see, there are a lot of factors that should be considered before you jump in and buy mutual funds. with a good understanding of what you are doing, you will have the stomach to swing with the markets without getting rattled. you might consider reading "the behavior gap" by carl richards...

[jori]

I know a friend who has the same situation. he sold but I don't want to advice you because I'm not expert in this. I'm just telling you that my friend withdrew