Investment Conundrums: Aviva CIO and head of multi strategy on protecting against 'worst-case scenario'

Taking advantage of opportunities from "short-term market dislocations"

Stock and bond markets are not yet pricing in the "worst-case scenario" of an 18-month to two-year recession, according to Aviva Investors' CIO Peter Fitzgerald and head of multi strategy Mark Robertson, despite the sell-off that risk assets in particular have suffered over recent weeks as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to ravage the global economy.

Year to date, the MSCI World index is down 15.7%, with most of these losses occurring over the last month as increasingly draconian lockdown measures have been rolled out across the globe. Rothschild: 'Markets may have overreacted' to coronavirus pandemic Meanwhile, the Bloomberg Barclays Global Aggregate Corporate Bond index has broadly flatlined and is up 80 basis points at time of writing (1 April), according to data from FE fundinfo. Fitzgerald, who is also a portfolio manager on Aviva's Multi Strategy Target Income and Return funds alongside Robertson, said the mispricing of a...