Author/Editor
Steve McDonald
Publisher
Oxford Club
Description
Newsletter focusing on corporate bonds — usually investment grade or nearly, and relatively short term. Follows same strategy as his previous letter from another publisher, The Bond Trader.
Overall Rating
Rating: 3.2/5. From 18 votes.
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3.3
Rating from 90 votes
If you’ve subscribed to Oxford Bond Advantage, please click the stars below to indicate your rating for this newsletter, and please share any other feedback about your experience using the comment box below.
Investment Performance
Rating from 34 votes
Rating: 2.8/5. From 34 votes.
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Quality Of Writing/Analysis
Rating from 19 votes
Rating: 3.9/5. From 19 votes.
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Value For Price
Rating from 19 votes
Rating: 2.8/5. From 19 votes.
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Customer Service
Rating from 18 votes
Rating: 3.2/5. From 18 votes.
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While I have no problem with you putting an ad like this on your newsletter (we all have to make a living), it would have been nice if it was a text ad rather than making us sit through 30 minutes of a sales pitch to find out his newsletter promotional rate is $995. The product could be easily guessed at in a minute or two even without a thinkolater. It didn’t however address the issue (for me at least) as to how easy it is to buy these products in Canada when you only have a Canadian brokerage account.
I agree this seems to be all geared to the American market.
I think that they should keep the $995 prcie especially for smaller users like myself with only $7000 to invest. Although Steve’s picks for bonds can easily make back the $995, I don’t think $4995 for normal subscription is a reasonable price. I will keep this service as long as it is $995 a year. I have worked with his Bond Trader in the past with great success and made about $2000 in profits with a starting investment of $5000 so now I have $7000. Steve keeps you informed of the general markets and keeps you up to date with… Read more »
About 7 years ago I paid $5k to be a “chairman’s circle” member of the oxford club so all the VIP newsletters are now included in a $125 annual renewal. This latest, the Bond Advantage, is one of the best. This give me the opportunity to make very good money with quite low risk. I’ve bought most of his recommendations so far, all at par or a discount with the expected return on these short term bonds averaging about 8%. That is great in this environment. I like their perpetual income portfolio and the momentum trader as well and also… Read more »
Hey, moneypenny: Are you really bragging about 8%? Seriously? Wow! I can beat that wth an index fund. And, it didn’t cost me $125 yearly to find out how to do it, either.
You hit the nail on the head.
how does an index fund work?
I like Steve McDonald and I like his newsletter. Just do as he says and buy small positions and you’ll do well. For stocks I like James Stack’s Investech for getting me through all the scary times. He has called all the major trend changes and he helps me ride the rough patches that amount to nothing more than corrections. For stock picks I subscribe to The Dividend Machine and I am making money with this. I believe these are the only three newsletters any investor needs.
Hey Oxford Club employee (read TROLL), I mean bvigorda,
Is moneypenny your alter ego? By the way, small positions = small money. Bonds don’t pay much to begin with. That’s why they’re safer than stocks. If Mr. McDonald’s recommendations were all as successful as you suggest they are, provide proof, if you can. Sorry, but your comment doesn’t pass the smell test.
Beware of guarantees. Seems self-evident but really, beware!! New to bonds I believed the professorially delivered advice that “the MEAR is guaranteed.” Unfortunately, neither the MEAR nor the bond is guaranteed when you buy junk. A single bond default can quickly negate any amount of 5% yields. So, for my 3 – 4 year committment to Mr McDonald I have a net 0% yield. Bonds my *ss.
Hey daddyovb, Thank you for your honest review. Mr. McDonald’s claims to have made such returns. But, we only have his word that he achieved the stellar performance he proclaims to have received in his portfolio. Where is the proof? Hey Mr. McDonald: either put up or shut up. Sorry, but I need more than his say-so to believe it. I don’t know him from Adam. But, hey. I get it. He has to sell subscriptions if he wants to keep his job at The Oxford Club. So, if he can sell one of of every 100 suckers who read… Read more »
I have been a subscriber since 2013. He started out well, however his picks in the Coal and Energy industries have mostly turned out to be duds. 6 of his picks have all gone bankrupt. Losing 100% of your money on 6 recommendations, when the other 20 or so recommendations pay you roughly 7% ….means you need about 5 years …just to break even! So I am not that happy with the service.
Hey, A.S., Were you able to get your subscription fee refunded? All the online sales material I’ve seen state that refunds are offered if sought within the prescribed review period. Also, did you follow up Mr. McDonald’s research with your own? Or, did you just blindly follow his recommendations because you were either too busy or didn’t have either the energy or the desire to research said recommendations? I only ask because I would never blindly follow anybody’s advice without conducting my own due diligence. Anybody can make a recommendation. And, if, like Mr. McDonald, one makes enough of them,… Read more »
No Michael,
I did not try and get my money back. I also did not do my own research, but I did blindly follow Steve’s advice. I also probably overloaded a bit on the coal sector (Peabody, Arch Coal, Walter Energy…) and did not diversify as much as Steve recommended. Even though, I did not expect so many companies to go bankrupt….
He leaves out one critical detail from the income examples he cites in his promotional video: Over what period of time are the examples given? 42.96% is NOT impressive if it is over a period of 42.96 years. I don’t need to waste $995 (let alone $4,995) for information on how to earn 1% yrly. I can beat that with the lowest-paying CD sold by my bank. Since he doesn’t tell us what time period he’s referring to, it could be anything. The fact that he leaves out said info. from what is an obvious promotional sales video is very… Read more »
I’ve noticed it usually happens within a year or two. Any corporate bond is going to return capital gains if bought at a discount to par, but those types of large double digit gains are usually from rebounding after a market or industry selloff or the company calling (buying out) the bonds. So it works like this… if you buy bonds when everything is frothy you’ll get the yield income; if you buy after the a serious correction, you’ll rack up the capital gains in addition to the yield. The trick is to avoid the garbage.
Buy $1K bonds, and make $63K guaranteed by federal law, well alright sign me up, $1.2K out of my own pocket no problem I make that back and more. I’m feeling good and riding the wave. Hmmm, it says up to $63K, well my account is not huge but if I can get 10% of the $63K of that it’s still $6.3K, that still not so bad, I’ll be $5.1K on the plus side, besides its guaranteed by federal law, I’m still feeling good, No problemo. Wait a minute, This is over a period of 2-3 years to make the… Read more »
Very funny. Yes, its unfortunate that you need a lot of capital to play in the corporate bond sandbox, both for adequate diversification (20+ issues) as well as to afford yearly subscription fees. You can buy 1 or 2 bonds online at Vanguard and usually can get just one if it says otherwise if you call the bond desk. There are also mini-bonds at $100 par starting to become available. but it’ll be a long time before a lot of companies issue that. Is any of this fair? Of course not. But that’s how the cookie crumbles. What you’re really… Read more »
At eTrade also sometimes one can get 1 or 2 bonds. A lot of 5 is commonly available, 10 almost always. If the offer requires buying too many bonds, you can solicit a bid for the number you want. It takes about 10 minutes and the offer appears. There has been no need for me to open a special account just to buy Steve’s recommendations.
I was a fan of Bond Trader and Oxford Bond Advantage until he picked some bonds that went into default. I made some money on the older bonds with a $10,000 portfolio which went up to $14,000 under the old Bond Trader with a net gain of $3000 considering the fact I had to subtract the $995 fee for the service. But then under the coal company collapse several of his bonds collapsed and then some of his other bonds collapsed from other industries. A total of 7 out of 16 of my bonds defaulted and I lost the gains… Read more »
PLEASE END MY SUBSCRIPTION to this service! Where do I return the DOCUMENTS you mailed to me? I am 87 years old, almost deaf and cannot perform as I would need to for this service.
I like the Oxford Bond Advantage and Steve McDonald’s picks. The interest payments on the bonds are a welcome site when they hit your portfolio. The only problems I had was loading up too much on the cheap coal bonds. Lost a bunch on those. Keep purchases small and follow the percentages recommended for each rating and you will do ok with low risk.
I basically like bonds. My stock portfolio now has a bunch of growth stocks that don’t pay dividends; I have capital gains I don’t want to take right now for tax reasons. My bond portfolio gives cash flow. Steve does find some good ones. However one, clearly labelled speculative, bought at 20c on the dollar, defaulted before paying a single interest payment to me, although it had been paying for 3 years previously. After a couple days, however, I was able to get out with a small profit. However, Steve made the exorbitant claim based on incorrect arithmetic. When I… Read more »
I have bought a few of these services Oxford as well, and they all upsell you to buy, But the part that gets me meaning pisses me off is that they always have some other pitch not included buy this and get that info sounds great ill try then buy this for other info why am I not getting this info with my first subscription it’s coming from the same company and it’s only 1 or 2 picks. I have not made the kinda of money the sales pitch claimed. I have made a few dollars but I can’t buy… Read more »