Quote Originally Posted by GTM 3442 View Post
At it's simplest, I buy at time of issue and hold until maturity. A buck goes in and a buck comes out. And I get paid interest along the way. And yes, I have some unrealized/paper losses along the way - which vanish like mist on a sunny Taranaki pasture come maturity.

As for the pathetic interest rates of recent history, there was money to be made selling LGF120 (1.5%) into the 2020/21 secondary market. And by buying OCA010 at >7% for about 83 cents on the dollar more recently.

Bonds are just as complicated as shares, but in different ways
Well, yes, I'm not afraid to admit you probably have far more experience with bonds than me.
Can you answer this question - when filling out form IR3K Sale or Disposal of Financial Arrangements, and one comes to step 7 where one has either a profit or loss and it says to include this figure in the other income box of your IR3 - does this really mean that the IRD will allow losses on bond transactions to be deductable for all? When in contrast losses on share transactions are only deductable for traders.