Scott Thomson with DoubleLine

Bringing An Active Approach to Bonds

With their long history of active management, Thomson thinks its products have the capacity to stand out. “DBND, the DoubleLine Opportunistic Bond ETF, is an expression of our core fixed income solution for investors. It is actively managed. It is benchmarked against the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Index, and really we’re seeking to outperform over the cycle,” said Thomson. He continued, “That’s marrying the top down with the bottom up in terms of duration, credit, curve, sector, currency – really, we’re blending all of those together to find the most attractive relative opportunities.”

He noted that, in comparison, a passive strategy would not allocate to the most worthy but instead to the most indebted issuers. “That’s something we think investors should consider.”

Caping for CAPE

“CAPE is a natural extension of our existing partnership with Barclays and Professor Robert Shiller. It’s a pure expression of the Shiller-Barclays US Sector Total Return Index,” Thomson said.

According to Thomson, CAPE’s response from investors has been positive. Since its inception back in March, CAPE has generated 200 basis points of alpha and raised nearly $80 million.