Fixed Income Portfolio Management
Managing a bond portfolio requires balancing yield, duration, credit quality, and liquidity across changing interest rate environments. These articles cover portfolio construction strategies like laddering, barbells, and bullets, along with techniques for immunization and performance attribution in fixed-income portfolios.
Rebalancing Rules for Bond Allocations
Calendar vs threshold rebalancing methods, with specific rules for duration drift, credit migration, and tax-efficient execution.
Core vs. Core-Plus Strategy Design
How to structure fixed income allocations between stable core holdings and opportunistic core-plus satellites.
Incorporating Inflation-Protected Securities
How to size and time TIPS allocations using breakeven inflation rates, with practical guidance on tax treatment and portfolio integration.
Integrating ESG Screens into Bond Portfolios
How to apply environmental, social, and governance screens to fixed income—and the tracking error tradeoffs you'll face.
Credit vs. Rate Risk Budgeting
How fixed income managers allocate risk budgets between interest rate exposure and credit spread exposure to optimize portfolio construction.
Operational Considerations for SMA vs. Fund
Choosing between separately managed accounts and mutual funds or ETFs for fixed income allocations based on cost, tax efficiency, and customization needs.
Portable Alpha Concepts in Fixed Income
How institutional investors separate market exposure (beta) from excess returns (alpha) to optimize fixed income portfolios through derivatives and specialized strategies.
Overlay Strategies with Futures and Options
How portfolio managers use derivative overlays to adjust duration, manage currency exposure, and implement tactical views without disturbing underlying bond positions.
Monitoring Counterparty Risk in Derivatives
How institutional investors monitor and manage counterparty exposure in interest rate swaps, futures, and other fixed income derivatives.
Glossary: Portfolio Management Terms
Essential terminology for fixed income portfolio management, covering duration, risk metrics, strategy types, and operational concepts.
Hedging Duration with Treasury Futures
How to use Treasury futures for efficient duration adjustment - with BPV hedge ratios, contract specifications, and practical examples.
Using Interest Rate Swaps in Bond Portfolios
How institutional managers use fixed-for-floating swaps to adjust duration, manage rate exposure, and navigate clearing requirements in modern bond portfolios.
Reporting Standards for Fixed Income Clients
Understanding GIPS compliance, performance attribution, and benchmark selection requirements for institutional fixed income reporting.
Measuring Tracking Error for Bond Managers
A pension fund's fixed income manager drifts 40 basis points above her tracking error budget for two consecutive quarters. The investment committee doesn't notice until the annual review, by which time realized volatility has compounded into a $12 million shortfall against the liability benchmark...
Global Diversification for US Investors
Why and how US investors should consider international bonds—plus the currency decision that can dwarf your bond returns.
Cash Flow Matching for Institutional Needs
How pension funds, insurance companies, and other institutions construct bond portfolios with cash flows precisely aligned to known future liabilities.
Liability-Driven Investing Basics
How pension funds and insurers match assets to liabilities - with the 2022 UK crisis as a cautionary tale.
Managing Liquidity Buckets
A tiered framework for segmenting fixed income holdings by time horizon, with stress-tested sizing rules and refill protocols.
Barbell vs. Bullet vs. Ladder Approaches
Misallocating bond maturities across a portfolio doesn't just underperform -- it creates liquidity crises at the worst moments, duration drift that amplifies rate shocks, and reinvestment timing that systematically destroys income. During the 2022 rate cycle, investors holding concentrated long-d...
Performance Attribution Frameworks
How to decompose fixed income returns into duration, sector, and security selection effects—and why the math matters more than you think.