Nir Kaissar, Columnist

Classic Safe Haven Hides in Plain Sight

Despite bonds' paltry returns of late, they're usually reliable when things turn wild.

April 5, 2018 at 6:16 PM UTC

Nir Kaissar is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering markets. He is the founder of Unison Advisors, an asset management firm.

1522950893_GettyImages-3427360 — Photographer: John Sadovy/BIPs/Getty Images

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Watch volatility spike, and then watch investors scatter for safety. Only this time, they don’t seem to know where to hide.

After years of calm, market turbulence has returned. The annualized daily standard deviation of the S&P 500 Index -- a common measure of volatility -- has been 18.6 percent from 1928 through March. But the market was much quieter from 2012 through January, with a standard deviation of 12 percent.