FYI: The U.S. equity market has had a bumpy start in 2019, coming off a year when both the S&P 500 and longer-dated Treasuries (as measured by the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT)) ended in the red. It’s no wonder asset managers everywhere are calling for some defensive investing.
De-risking a portfolio can be done in many ways, and traditionally, it has involved lightening up on some of your equity exposure, and adding in some high-grade bonds for safety—think huge funds like TLT or the iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (AGG).
But some are saying this year that playing defense in today’s market environment may require more creative thinking than simply upping your bond allocation due to correlations. To quote VanEck’s CEO Jan van Eck, there’s been an “interesting change” in the correlation between stocks and bonds.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.etf.com/sections/features-and-news/many-flavors-defensive-equity-etfs?nopaging=1
