A Great Choice in the Nontraditional Bond Category

Karin Anderson: MetWest Unconstrained Bond is a great choice in the nontraditional bond category. Like most funds in this group, it is absolute return-oriented and aims to downplay interest-rate risk.

Most funds in that category have some combination of credit, perhaps a lot of high yield and a non-U.S. exposure and perhaps non-U.S. currency risk. This one is very focused on credit, and that's a good thing because that's what this team has really done well over the long term, both here and on their flagship fund, MetWest Total Return Bond.

In this fund's case, they focus more on nonagencies, for example, and more on credit and high yield overall. That's led to greater returns over the long term. The team has also done a nice job navigating various stress periods for credit and rate risk since they launched this fund in 2011.

That's why we think this makes this fund a very good choice in nontraditional bond.