Sector report: The challenges ahead for strategic bond managers

Strategic bond fund managers have had it easy so far this year. All the major components of their tool kits - sovereigns, corporates, inflation-linkers and the increasingly popular emerging market bonds - had all delivered positive returns in the year-to-date period approaching the end of summer.  As such, the vast majority of managers in the IMA Sterling Strategic Bond sector have duly delivered a positive return for their investors, with most funds churning out a mid-single digit return from January through August. Despite a summer of volatility in the bond market, 2014 could be the...