Typically investors think about bonds as being the stable safe part of their portfolio. Over the past 18 months or so this hasn’t been the case and bond prices have seen some of their sharpest falls in history. This is a good news and bad news story. While the market value of bonds has fallen, for investors who plan to own them to maturity these “losses” on bonds aren’t permanent – they will still receive the same interest on their investment and be repaid in full when the bonds mature. Furthermore, those investors reinvesting their money today will receive a higher return going forward.