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Astoria wrote an article on ETF.com discussing the poor performance of bond funds this year. Astoria has long warned about the challenges that bonds face in an environment where valuations are expensive (i.e. there's no margin of safety), U.S. rates are rising, and U.S. inflation is trending higher. Astoria argued that 2018 would be quite different from 2017. Astoria presented at a Bloomberg Best Ideas Conference in Dec 2017 (click here) and went on Bloomberg TV in Dec 2017 (

The Bloomberg Barclays US Aggregate Bond Index is currently having its worst yearly return since 1994. To put 2018’s disappointing return into perspective, the Bloomberg Barclays US Aggregate Bond Index has registered only 3 negative total return years in the past 40. At Astoria, we are not surprised by this year’s disappointing US bond returns. We have long warned about the challenges that bonds face in an environment where valuations are expensive (hence, no margin of safet