At least in the 1970s it was clear what investors were hedging against - inflation.

至少在上世纪70年代，投资者明显是在对冲——通胀风险。

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"Investors are still hedging against an increase in inflation, but fewer are as focused on deflation," says Dean Curnutt, chief executive of Macro Risk Advisors.

“投资者仍在对冲通胀率的上升，但关注通缩的人减少了，”Macro Risk Advisors首席执行官迪安·科纳特(Dean Curnutt)表示。

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In this scenario, fixed income assets tend to suffer while inflation-hedging assets benefit from the currency devaluation.

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The result was a bubble in inflation-hedging hard assets (housing above all), followed by a bust that precipitated a financial crisis.

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Hedging against inflation or the next global economic crisis would be much more straightforward if it were possible to use the volatility in the markets to your advantage by investing in the VIX (a gauge of implied volatility).

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