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The bizarre world of negative interest rates

Some central banks are pushing monetary policy into the upside down world of negative interest rates, but rather than success they are creating bizarre side effects.

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?

5 Key Risks Impacting Fixed Income for FY20

In this article, we will discuss five key risks to fixed income markets for FY20 and explain their relevance to those allocating to fixed income investments.

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.

Strange behaviour in option markets

Finance text books, reams of academic research and practitioner experience all point to the existence of a “volatility risk premium” (VRP), which is a foundational principal of option selling strategies.