Kames' McNeill: Investors' three choices when navigating bonds

Central bank action has reduced volatility

In investment management, as in sport and life in general, there is a time to be appropriately offensive and a time to be appropriately defensive, writes Kames' John McNeill.

While not always evident at the time, there are occasions when great value is revealed.  In early 2016, a three-year Glencore bond had a yield of close to 12%, the yield now is barely above 1.2% - a total return of over 30%.  A similar scale of opportunity existed in financial bonds at the nadir of the financial crisis in 2009, when many global systemically important financial institutions were priced for default. There was an appropriate time to be offensive. Kames' McNeill: Markets are too worried about the wrong thing Today, the landscape appears different and a more defensive...