Calamos' Bush: Convertibles haven't delivered on their promise, yet

Robert Bush, senior vice president and director of closed-end products at Calamos Investments, says that convertible securities -- a hybrid product built to give investors the best of stock and bond performance -- have not been giving investors their cake and letting them eat it too this year, underperforming both stocks and bonds, but he says that positive returns to the end of the third quarter and the way convertible funds have held up relative to fixed-income funds suggests that convertibles should deliver better on their purpose moving forward. Bush also discusses two of the firm's funds, comparing a long-short strategy to a total-return fund and discussing how they have fared -- and what has happened to their discounts -- this year.