What You Can Do To Stay Calm

Simply look at your non-bond-market holdings, and see how much they moved, in aggregate. The point is that you can observe what your SENSITIVITY to the most important number is.

The sensitivity won’t be the same for every security or line item. It will not move with this same sensitivity every day, every hour, but you can get an idea of your specific sensitivity. Today was as good as it gets because there was no doubt, no back and forth, just interest rates directly higher, and then staying there, all day.

While we cannot determine or predict what will happen to the 10-year note yield, it is important to observe what has happened to your set of holdings, to determine your level of comfort and how the movement can affect your financial planning. This is very important so that you are not ‘over-alarmed’ or ‘under-alarmed’ when you see red numbers on your brokerage webpage.

I would call this very very orderly so far. If anything, TOO ORDERLY.