There are a number of rules of thumb and aphorisms that investors accept without investigating their merits based on the historical evidence. For example, many assume that buying individual bonds is safer than owning a bond mutual fund or ETF because it will shield them from interest-rate risk. The idea is that bond funds can fall in value but individual bonds will mature at par, so you don’t have to worry about losses when you hold them directly.
This misses the point that bond funds are simply the sum of the individual bonds they hold. Investors who hold individual bonds to maturity will still see losses in the meantime as their bonds are marked to market if interest rates rise substantially. By holding bonds to maturity, investors will get all of their money back, but if interest rates have risen, inflation has likely risen as well, meaning their dollar now has less buying power. Risk never completely goes away in the markets, so this strategy is really just trading risks.
