INVESTMENT STRATEGIES

BlackRock is a leader in active fixed income investing

Meet Rick Rieder: Morningstar’s 2023 Outstanding Portfolio Manager

Rick Rieder, Chief Investment Officer of Global Fixed Income, has been awarded the 2023 Morningstar Award for Investing Excellence, Outstanding Portfolio Manager. Rick Rieder’s consistent approach to managing strategies, like Strategic Income Opportunities and Total Return Fund, has helped funds stay the course in volatile markets.

Explore fixed income solutions Explore fixed income solutions

Why BlackRock for active fixed income?

Our active fixed income platform leverages a disciplined investment process that puts us in a position to deliver attractive returns in various market conditions.

$1.1

Trillion dollars in active fixed income solutions across mutual funds, ETFs, and separate accounts¹

540

Global fixed income research analysts with deep market knowledge across sectors

30

Years of managing fixed income portfolios on behalf of global institutions and individual investors

¹ Source: BlackRock. Assets under management as of 31 December 2022. All figures are represented in USD.

Active fixed income

Boost your portfolio with an active approach

Breadth of Insights

Deep Market Expertise

BlackRock’s active fixed income portfolio strategies stretch across a range of investment styles and segments of the fixed income universe.

With 21 primary investment centers worldwide, our investment teams employ an investment process which is research driven, blending disciplined portfolio construction with regular risk and performance review.

Robust Operating Platform

Fundamental risk-managed framework

BlackRock features a data-driven approach to active fixed income that combines the insights of our people with a quantitative research platform to source new alpha opportunities.

Our approach integrates global trading, portfolio management and strong in-house research capabilities, enhancing execution quality and reducing operational risk.

Trading Expertise

Engineered for an investment edge

In an environment of reduced liquidity where corporate bond inventories at primary dealers are sharply below where they were several years ago, our capital market teams work with investment banks to source bonds directly from issuers.

Global trading capabilities provide access to opportunities and liquidity that can result in cost efficiencies.

INVESTMENT STRATEGIES

Explore our range of fixed income strategies

We offer diverse fixed income strategies to help meet our clients’ needs. Our approach is to continuously adapt to changing market conditions and search for new alpha sources globally. The platform’s investment philosophy is backed by leading technology, risk management, and deep market insights.

Related Materials-1,Related Materials-2

Related Materials-3

Related Materials-4

Multi Column Teaser-1,Multi Column Teaser-2

Active fixed income strategies

The breadth and depth of our platform puts us in a strong position to potentially deliver attractive returns in various market environments. With a focus on alpha generation and risk management, the team uses top-down view from lead portfolio managers and bottom-up expertise from our sector specialist.

Unconstrained

BlackRock’s unconstrained fixed income strategies navigate across sectors to optimize for yield, while managing downside risk.

Total Return/Core

BlackRock’s Multi-sector Core and Core Plus strategies are designed to seek consistent, attractive active returns across all market cycles via a dynamic multi-sector approa...

Short Duration

BlackRock’s Short Duration strategies employ a fundamental, diversified and relative-value approach focused solely on the front end of the yield curve.

US Investment Grade (IG Credit)

The strategy seeks to provide diversification by focusing on relative value assessments in a process to help limit downside exposures.

US Mortgage-Backed

Founded as a mortgage-focused firm in 1988, BlackRock has invested heavily in the teams and processes required to effectively manage the asset class.

Municipals

BlackRock’s municipal bond team manages a diverse set of portfolios including national and state specific mutual funds across the credit spectrum.

Inflation-Linked Bonds (ILB)

The strategy employs a fundamental, diversified, relative-value approach that focuses on real and nominal sovereign bonds.

Emerging Markets

The dedicated Emerging Markets platform strikes to help clients efficiently capture opportunities, while muting downside volatility.

Securitized Assets

BlackRock’s Securitized Assets platform employs an investment process focused on analytics, and ongoing surveillance at both the borrower and portfolio level.

Leveraged Finance

Spanning global high yield bonds and bank loans, we use a flexible approach to seek top-down and idiosyncratic opportunities across sectors.

The performance quoted represents past performance and does not guarantee future results. Investment return and principal value of an investment will fluctuate so that an investor's shares, when sold or redeemed, may be worth more or less than the original cost. Current performance may be lower or higher than the performance quoted. Standardized performance and performance data current to the most recent month end may be obtained by clicking on the fund names above.

An investment’s environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) strategy limits the types and number of investment opportunities available and, as a result, may underperform other investments that do not have an ESG focus. An investment’s ESG strategy may result in investing in securities or industry sectors that underperform the market as a whole or underperform other investments screened for ESG standards.

To obtain more information on the funds, including the Morningstar time period ratings and standardized average annual total returns as of the most recent calendar quarter and current month-end, please visit:

Strategic Income Opportunities Fund
Total Return Fund
Low Duration Bond Fund
Global Long Short/Credit Fund
Strategic Global Bond Fund
Inflation Protected Bond Fund
National Municipal Bond Fund
High Yield Bond Fund
Floating Rate Income Fund
Sustainable Total Return Fund
Sustainable Low Duration Bond Fund
Sustainable High Yield Bond Fund
Impact Mortgage Bond Fund
Impact Municipal Fund
Sustainable High Yield Bond Fund
Flexible Income ETF
Short Maturity Bond ETF
AAA CLO ETF
Floating Rate Loan ETF
Short Maturity Municipal Bond ETF
High Yield Muni Income Bond ETF

The Morningstar Rating^TM for funds, or "star rating," is calculated for managed products (including mutual funds, variable annuity and variable life subaccounts, exchange-traded funds, closed-end funds, and separate accounts) with at least a three-year history. Exchange-traded funds and open-ended mutual funds are considered a single population for comparative purposes. It is calculated based on a Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return measure that accounts for variation in a managed product's monthly excess performance, placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. The top 10% of products in each product category receive 5 stars, the next 22.5% receive 4 stars, the next 35% receive 3 stars, the next 22.5% receive 2 stars, and the bottom 10% receive 1 star. The Overall Morningstar Rating for a managed product is derived from a weighted average of the performance figures associated with its three-, five-, and 10-year (if applicable) Morningstar Rating metrics. The weights are: 100% three-year rating for 36-59 months of total returns, 60% five-year rating/40% three-year rating for 60-119 months of total returns, and 50% 10-year rating/30% five-year rating/20% three-year rating for 120 or more months of total returns. While the 10-year overall star rating formula seems to give the most weight to the 10-year period, the most recent three-year period actually has the greatest impact because it is included in all three rating periods.

Performance data quoted represents past performance and is no guarantee of future results. Investment returns and principal values may fluctuate so that an investor’s shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost. All returns assume reinvestment of dividends and capital gains. Current performance may be lower or higher than that shown. Refer to blackrock.com for most recent month-end performance.

BlackRock provides compensation in connection with obtaining or using third-party ratings, rankings, or data

View our latest fixed income insights

View latest market views and commentaries from BlackRock’s fixed income investors and strategists

What’s the outlook for inflation beyond the path we saw in 2022 and 2023?

Well, inflation's come down a fair amount, but it's likely to come down some more in 2024. We think mid-two’s is a reasonable expectation for core inflation by the middle of 2024. We have seen a lot of normalization in goods prices as supply chain issues have resolved. But importantly, services inflation remains somewhat high. We have had good supply developments on the services side, also through the labor market.

Wage growth is a risk to inflation going forward if it should hold up. So, the US is benefiting from these supply shocks. US improvement has been a little faster than some countries because of that labor market supply side improvement. But going forward there are still risks and the Fed is going to remain very vigilant.

After two years of rate hikes, what is the Fed’s main area of concern?

Well inflation is still somewhat high, and yet, real interest rates are also very high, so there's downside risks to the economy, but there's upside risks to inflation. And the Fed needs to get policy just right. It's a difficult challenge. Also, we've had a dynamic supply side recently with significant improvements in labor supply as well as the healing of the pandemic — good sector shocks. So, there's a lot of difficult things to judge for the Fed here.

Ultimately, you know, policy is just going to depend on hard data. The Fed has emphasized their data dependency, but there's a lot of judgment in this, and they're just simply going to watch. Is the economy going to be slowing sharply? And if they are, you know, then this hiking cycle will probably end.

Investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal. Fixed income risks include interest-rate and credit risk. Typically, when interest rates rise, there is a corresponding decline in bond values. Credit risk refers to the possibility that the bond issuer will not be able to make principal and interest payments.

Non-investment-grade debt securities (high-yield/junk bonds) may be subject to greater market fluctuations, risk of default or loss of income and principal than higher-rated securities.

This material is not intended to be relied upon as a forecast, research or investment advice, and is not a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or to adopt any investment strategy. The opinions expressed are as of November 2023, and may change as subsequent conditions vary. The information and opinions contained in this material are derived from proprietary and nonproprietary sources deemed by BlackRock to be reliable, are not necessarily all-inclusive and are not guaranteed as to accuracy. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. There is no guarantee that any forecasts made will come to pass. Reliance upon information in this material is at the sole discretion of the viewer.

Prepared by BlackRock Investments, LLC, member FINRA