The firm said that the strategies can offer investors the potential to generate returns even when markets are in decline, making them ideal for portfolio diversification in times of market volatility.
Rod Aldridge, head of UK retail distribution at
Barings said: “In these uncertain times it is proving extremely difficult for investors to plan rational strategies while markets are behaving irrationally. Against a background of rising risk aversion and uncertainty, some traditional investment strategies face the possibility of underperformance. In this environment we would encourage investors to consider an absolute return fixed income strategy which is designed to generate absolute returns uncorrelated to the returns of other asset classes.”
Barings cites the performance of its
Directional Global Bond Trust, which the firm claims offers investors the potential to deliver positive return in all investment conditions.
According to
Financial Express Analytics, in the past twelve months the Directional Global Bond Trust has outperformed the sector, generating a return of 11.56% compared to the UT Global Bonds TR benchmark return of 7.27%.
Colin Harte, manager of the Trust said: “We aim to be on the right side of moves in the fixed income government bond and currency markets. The fund can be ‘long’ of markets and currencies when they are rising and, importantly, has the ability to be ‘short’ of markets and currencies when they are falling, creating the potential to profit from falls in markets and currencies.”
Harte continues: “We have recently become more cautious on the outlook for global bond markets as the flight to quality, with investors selling equities in favour of safe-haven assets, has pushed government bond yields down to extreme levels. We have built a sizeable short position in government bonds, predominantly US Treasuries.
"We believe that the policy stance of the world’s monetary authorities, which have stepped in to support financial systems and stimulate economic growth, will prove expansionary, pushing inflation higher and eroding the value of bonds."