Since the start of the year, yields for the 10-year TNote and Gilt have been more or less the same. At the same time, the yield spread between Bund and its UK and US counterparts has widened by 100bp, and is now not far off 150bp.

This has been a bleak month for the euro zone. A string of weak data releases, including flat region-wide GDP growth, and a contraction in Germany and Italy (the latter for the second quarter in a row, indicating recession), suggests the recovery not been sustained.

During the initial phase of the turnaround in high-risk American assets, equities and high yield moved very similarly. In contrast, since mid-2012, equities have been accelerating more quickly, outpacing the credit market by a decent margin.

Petercam's Peter de Coensel has increased his exposure to financial bonds as the asset class offers safety and value from a credit perspective, the manager said.

Penalised at the peak of the European debt crisis by highly correlated and non-trending markets, trend-following funds have retained their unrivalled ability to improve the efficiency of an investment portfolio. Better consideration of the issues associated with risk allocation will strengthen these strategies' potential going forward.