The Tyranny of Bond Benchmarks
With interest rates at historic lows and the number of risk-free assets in the world shrinking, sovereign bonds are becoming an increasingly risky and complex asset class. In this environment, tethering portfolios to benchmark bond indices is fraught with problems.
read moreHigh-Yield Bonds: Are ETFs the Best Vehicle?
High-yield exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have been growing like gangbusters in recent months, despite continued weak performance relative to the indices that they track. While these instruments make sense for investors who make rapid, tactical trades into and out of the asset class, we think they’re a poor choice for those seeking to gain long-term exposure [...]
read moreHigh-Yield Bonds: Equity-Like Returns with Lower Risk
On the surface, high-yield bonds look a lot like their relatives in the fixed income world. But in some key respects, high-yield debt acts a lot more like equities than like other bonds. This has some often unappreciated implications for portfolio construction.
read moreDo “Risk-Free Assets” Still Exist?
The current sovereign-debt crisis in Europe is raising long-term questions about some of the bedrocks of finance and investment theory. Namely, are the concepts of a “risk-free rate” and “risk-free assets” still meaningful when the creditworthiness of so many developed countries is under threat?
read moreWhere Are US Treasury Bond Yields Headed?
US Treasury bond yields have crashed to record lows in 2011. Sovereign-debt worries in Europe, concerns about the slowing economy and the Federal Reserve’s commitment to low rates have all boosted demand for Treasuries, and thus depressed their yields. Can Treasury yields really go any lower? Or should we be worried about a rapid bounce off current, historically low levels?
read moreBond Strategies for the Age of Government Deleveraging
Hardly a day has gone by in 2011 without fresh headlines about the sovereign-debt woes of Greece and other developed countries. It’s still unclear which path governments will take to resolve their growing debt burdens, but one thing is clear: the path taken to fiscal rectitude will have great implications for fixed-income investors. In our [...]
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