Singapore
FIXED income is no longer an asset class, said Salman Ahmed, chief investment strategist at Swiss private bank Lombard Odier.
An asset class should comprise assets which investors buy into under the assumption of positive returns, he said. But investors buying and holding negative-yielding bonds are losing money with certainty.
"Central banks do not treat fixed income as an asset class. They treat it as a policy tool to generate growth and inflation," Mr Ahmed said in an interview with the The Business Times last Friday evening.
Lombard Odier is reassessing the role of fixed income in its portfolios, he added. This is because as interest rates go lower, the market risk of holding on to...