{
  "id": 11595438,
  "title": "El atractivo de la renta fija flexible reside en la riqueza del mercado de bonos",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/03/el-atractivo-de-la-renta-fija-flexible-reside-en-la-riqueza-del",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-10-03T03:40:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "El Pais Economia",
    "slug": "el-pais-economia",
    "url": "https://cincodias.elpais.com/opinion/2026-10-03/el-atractivo-de-la-renta-fija-flexible-reside-en-la-riqueza-del-mercado-de-bonos.html"
  },
  "original_language": "es",
  "account": "The appeal of adjustable fixed income lies in the rich market of bonds. When an investor purchases shares of a company, the decision seems relatively simple – buy shares of Telefónica or Santander, for example. In fixed income, however, choosing the company is just the beginning. A single issuer can have numerous outstanding issues: two-year, five-year, ten-year or thirty-year bonds; senior or subordinate debt; euros or dollar-denominated bonds; bonds with fixed or floating coupons… and each responds differently to changes in interest rates, perceptions of credit risk, and market liquidity conditions. This diversity is one of the main advantages of fixed income, but also explains why active management is especially important. Floating rate notes, or FRNs, are a clear example of this. While traditional bonds pay a fixed coupon, floating rate bonds periodically adjust their interest based on market rates. If rates rise, so does their coupon – a feature that makes their price much less sensitive to interest rate hikes. Recently, this characteristic has been particularly valuable as interest rates have been rising. During the last few months, floating rate bonds have adjusted their compensation while their prices have remained relatively stable. Fixed rate bonds, on the other hand, have experienced price declines to align with the new level of expected returns demanded by the market. The comparison becomes even more interesting when comparing two bonds from the same issuer. In this case, the risk of the company being unable to repay its debt is essentially the same. What changes is the structure of the bond. We have seen clear examples in our portfolio: at the beginning of the year, a floating rate bond issued by one of the largest European banks was generating a return of 2.25%, compared to only 0.09% for a fixed rate issuance by the same company. However, active management precisely consists of understanding that the asset that has performed best so far may not necessarily offer the most value moving forward. After protecting portfolios during the interest rate hike, many floating rate bonds are currently trading near their redemption value. Their potential upside in price is therefore reduced, and if rates were to fall in the future, their coupons would also gradually decrease. Meanwhile, fixed rate bonds have moved in the opposite direction. Price declines due to rising market yields allow for the purchase of certain issuances at much more attractive levels today. They also offer the possibility of locking in these yields for several years and could potentially benefit from price if rates stabilize or fall again. Another peculiarity of the current moment is that credit spreads – the additional premium investors receive for lending to a company rather than to their government – accounted for about 40% of a bond's total return a few years ago. Today, that weight has dropped to around 20%. Most of the potential return is now linked to interest rate levels. This changes where the real risk lies, and where the opportunities are as well. When credit spreads are relatively stable and a large part of the potential return depends on interest rates, managing duration, the yield curve, and the specific structure of each issuance becomes even more important. This is why we view adjustable fixed income not as the constant pursuit of the bond with the highest coupon, but as a continuous exercise of relative value. Once we decide, based on monetary policies and macroeconomic aspects, which maturity and bond structure we find most attractive, we focus on analyzing the fundamentals of the issuers (companies or governments) and select the issuances that best fit this idea. Sometimes, it will be preferable to have a floating rate bond; other times, a fixed rate bond. It may make sense to reduce duration when the market does not sufficiently compensate for interest rate risk, and to increase it when price declines generate more attractive entry points. Even within the same company, it may be beneficial to sell an issuance that has fulfilled its purpose and buy another that offers a better risk-return relationship. Fixed income has something that often goes unnoticed to the individual investor: its investment universe is extraordinarily wide. The opportunity does not always lie in discovering a new company. Many times, it lies simply in choosing better among the various bonds that the same company already has in the market, and Paradigma Flexible Bonds dedicates a lot of time to this. In an environment where interest rates are once again playing a significant role in bond returns, this flexibility has ceased to be a complement. It has become an essential part of investment.",
  "summary": "Elegir bien entre las distintas emisiones que tiene una misma compañía pesa hoy tanto como escoger a quién prestar dinero",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}