This High-Yield Fund Stays Out of Trouble in Down Markets

Cara Esser: Eaton Vance Income Fund of Boston (EIBIX) is a Silver-rated high-yield bond fund built on the firm's topnotch credit reputation.

The fund is run by a deep and experienced team of managers and analysts. Following a bad run in 2008, they added a more-conservative stance and a macro overlay to the process. That conservative stance led the fund to avoid more cyclical names in 2015 and also led the team to focus more on the deep fundamentals of their energy names. In fact, their energy-bond selection was additive to returns in 2015 despite a market weight to the hard-hit sector.

Investors can expect this fund to underperform when the high-yield-bond market rallies, but it tends to hold up better when the high-yield-bond market falls. In all, it's a less-volatile option for investors looking to add high-yield bonds to their portfolio.