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Mrs. Watanabe meets European insurance companies

Since the early 2000’s the name ‘Mrs. Watanabe’ has been used to describe yield seeking Japanese retail investors, who were forced to increase their offshore investment risk taking in response to ultra-low interest rates back home.

Compensation for credit risk is poor

Following the sharp sell-off in Q4 2018, credit markets globally have performed strongly in 2019. Having seen a big dip, followed by a quick rebound, how are we now left?

Stellar bond returns … what’s driving them?

2019 has so far been a stellar year for bond returns globally. Even a simple passive exposure to long dated bonds has delivered handsome profits that far exceed the average yield of those bonds.

Bonds don’t always diversify equity risk

With global bond yields back near the low end of recent ranges, it’s an opportune time to revisit a theme that’s relevant to portfolio construction today – the bond vs. equity correlation.