When restless New York City hedge fund manager Robert Fairchild watches the Baltic Dry Cargo Index plunge 97%, registering an all-time high and a 25-year low within the span of just six months, he decides to buy a ship.
During the same time frame high-yield bonds slumped 26% and bank loans fell 24%, while 5-year Treasuries gained 16%, according to our research (municipal bonds, another high-quality fixed income asset class, returned 9% over the same time span, as measured by the BarCap 5-year Municipal Bond Index).