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Country and currency diversification of bond investments: do they really make sense for Swiss investors?

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  • Nicola Carcano

Abstract

The inclusion of hedged or unhedged foreign currency bonds within a strategic asset allocation is a crucial decision which should be analyzed carefully. The goal of this paper is to provide a contribution to this analysis by focusing particularly on the time horizon of the investment. Results are analyzed from the perspective of a Swiss investor. We find that over the last 21 years, investing in bonds denominated in Swiss Francs has been clearly less efficient in terms of risk-adjusted returns than investing in a hedged global bond portfolio. For short-term investors, we find robust evidence against the hypothesis of investing in unhedged foreign currency bonds. The picture changes dramatically, however, when we consider an investment horizon of 6 years and the normal case of balanced portfolios including also equities and domestic bonds. In this case, the optimal strategy for the period we analyzed would have been to hedge only the exposure to US dollar bonds. Copyright Swiss Society for Financial Market Research 2007

Suggested Citation

  • Nicola Carcano, 2007. "Country and currency diversification of bond investments: do they really make sense for Swiss investors?," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 21(1), pages 95-120, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:fmktpm:v:21:y:2007:i:1:p:95-120
    DOI: 10.1007/s11408-006-0034-2
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. John Y. Campbell & Luis M. Viceira & Joshua S. White, 2003. "Foreign Currency for Long-Term Investors," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 113(486), pages 1-25, March.
    2. Kenneth A. Froot, 2019. "Currency Hedging Over Long Horizons," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 20(1), pages 37-66, May.
    3. Haefliger, Thomas & Waelchli, Urs & Wydler, Daniel, 2002. "Hedging currency risk: Does it have to be so complicated?," MPRA Paper 26451, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Nicholas Barberis, 2000. "Investing for the Long Run when Returns Are Predictable," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(1), pages 225-264, February.
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    Cited by:

    1. Fabio Filipozzi & Kersti Harkmann, 2014. "Currency hedge – walking on the edge?," Bank of Estonia Working Papers wp2014-5, Bank of Estonia, revised 10 Oct 2014.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bonds; Currency risk; Hedging; International diversification; Optimal portfolios; F31; G11;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F31 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Foreign Exchange
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions

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