Fixed Income Investment Process

The fixed income market is more complicated than it seems, so managing a bond portfolio involves more than just forecasting interest rates or overweighting certain types of bonds. 

Our Fixed Income team members know the Canadian bond market very well, and they know what to look for when making investment decisions for FGP’s clients.

Just like a driver makes many decisions on the way to a destination – changing lanes, avoiding a pothole, merging onto highway traffic – our Fixed Income team members make many decisions on the road to continuously seeking to improve our clients’ fixed income portfolios:

• What’s the best duration?
• Where should our maturities be on the yield curve?
• How should we split the portfolio between federal, provincial, and corporate bonds?
• How should we allocate the portfolio among industry sectors?
• What average quality rating should the portfolio have?
• Which specific bonds should we buy?
• Does the yield reflect the risk we’re taking?

We often take contrarian views. If the market thinks one way about credit, duration or other factors, we will invest differently if we disagree with market sentiment.