Iggo’s six golden rules for yield investing
Yields have failed to rise in line with expectations, but bonds remain a crucial asset class for any investor building a yield-generating portfolio. As the chart below shows, the approximate level and direction of change of bond yields over time is related to long-term economic growth rates, which go a long way to explaining why bond yields remain low today. The improved macro trend of the last year or so suggests a bottoming out in the rate of nominal GDP growth and the consequent bottoming of bond yields. However, Chris Iggo, AXA Investment Management’s chief investment officer for global fixed income, warns against expectations of a massive rise in bond yields. ‘The consensus view is that yields are “too” low and that the tendency should be for them to rise, but by how much and driven by what? Sure, short-term considerations about synchronised global growth, the potential for fiscal stimulus in the US, the Fed’s tightening plans and higher headline inflation all point to high