Barings goes dynamic with bond fund

Baring Asset Management has launched a dynamic absolute return fund, which aims to produce positive returns by using long and short strategies.

The fund will be managed by long/short specialist James Ind with the support of an experienced multi-asset team. It will build on Baring’s 13 years’ experience of running multi-asset strategies. The fund will use risk budgeting and volatility is expected to average around 7%. It will also use drawdown controls to limit downside over a given month. The fund is expected to hold around 10 to 20 market strategies at any given time. Ind commented: “Investment returns are under significant pressure, with a third of the sovereign bond universe offering negative yields. The need for alternative funds to diversify traditional growth assets is driving significant fund search activity. Using top-down investment models, the Baring Dynamic Absolute Return Fund will be agnostic as to overall market direction. Use of long and short strategies as well as derivatives will allow the fund to adapt to different market regimes.”