BlackRock's Winship shorts gilts as yields hit Depression levels

BlackRock's head of UK fixed income, Ian Winship, is shorting gilts as yields have hit lower levels than those seen during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The manager, who oversees more than $40bn in assets for the group, said he is more interested in risk assets including high yield debt. He is shorting bunds and treasuries and playing the UK bond market through the long end of the yield curve in the view yields on these safe haven trades offer no value. Winship, who manages the £54m BlackRock Absolute Return Bond fund which launched in October last year, said: “The worst news has been priced in everywhere and gilt yields are lower than they were in the Great Depression. “I believe that 1.3% in bunds and 1.6% in gilts are levels at whi...