Fixed Income Portfolio Management

Managing fixed income portfolios has never been more complex. In addition to understanding the interest rate and currency risks inherent in a global fixed income portfolio, managers now need to grasp the intricacies of credit spread risks. They must monitor the tradeoff between risk and return by integrating their bond, derivative and currency strategies across developed and emerging markets. The sheer size of the investable universe of securities, and the growing number of indexes used to measure performance, have also created unprecedented management challenges.

To make portfolio analysis more meaningful, managers must be able to view each portfolio from their own strategic perspectives. They must be able to drill down to the detail that is most useful to them, from the portfolio level down to single securities.

Barra Cosmos System is a comprehensive fixed income toolset that allows managers to monitor, evaluate and control risks in their portfolios. Barra Cosmos accommodates individual investment styles while allowing users to identify and manage underlying risk.

With the Barra Cosmos tool, fixed income managers can incorporate return expectations into portfolio construction. They can flexibly "slice-and-dice" portfolios by measures, such as sector-dollar duration exposures, and they can perform functions, such as currency hedging. Barra Cosmos provides a view of the most concentrated or diversifying positions and a picture of the impact of entering into various types of bond swaps. Learn more about the Barra Cosmos System.