More US bond investors are seeking out new ways to hedge against the risk of a sharp rise in interest rates in case growth in the world’s largest economy picks up and the Federal Reserve starts to wind up its current stimulus policies. 更多美国债券投资者正寻求新的方式以对冲利率飙升的风险，以备全球最大经济体增速加快，美联储(Federal Reserve)开始退出目前的刺激政策。

The US central bank is expected on Wednesday to maintain its current level of bond purchases, which have pushed up bond prices and kept rates low. However, some investors are taking positions in exchange traded funds and leveraged loans that are designed to profit if market interest rates spike higher. 预计美联储周三会维持其目前的债券购买量，迄今这一政策推高了债券价格并将利率维持在较低水平。然而，一些投资者已经开始购买旨在获利于市场利率飙升的交易所交易基金(ETF)和杠杆贷款。

More money has flowed into leveraged loan mutual funds in the first 10 weeks of this year than in the whole of 2012, according to the latest data from Lipper. Loans have floating interest rates and can be used as a hedge against sharply rising rates. 理柏(Lipper)公司最新的数据显示，今年前10周流入杠杆贷款共同基金的资金已经超过了2012年全年。此类贷款具备浮动利率，可用来对冲急剧上涨的利率。

Inflows into junk bonds, which pay a fixed rate of interest and whose value will therefore fall when market rates rise, have proved more volatile after their strong performance last year. 经历了去年很好的表现之后，流入垃圾债券的资金已变得更不稳定。垃圾债券的利率固定，因此在市场利率上升的时候其价值会下降。

Lipper said $12.4bn has flowed into leveraged loan mutual funds so far this year, compared with a total of $11.9bn for all of 2012. 理柏称，今年迄今已经有124亿美元流入杠杆贷款共同基金，高于2012年全年的119亿美元。

Carl Eichstaedt, a senior portfolio manager for Western Asset Management, said that he now prefers bank loans to junk bonds. “Because short term rates have been so low for so long, bank loans have been the step child of high yield,” he said. 西方资产管理(Western Asset Management)高级资产组合经理卡尔•艾希施泰德(Carl Eichstaedt)表示，与垃圾债券比起来，他现在更加倾向于银行贷款。“因为短期利率在这么长时期内这么低，银行贷款成了高收益率的‘继儿’。”

Mr Eichstaedt also said that due to the policies of the Federal Reserve “short term rates will stay lower than they otherwise should, given the cyclical recovery, but five to 10 year rates could go higher”. He said that he was not expecting an immediate move, “but we don’t want to be the last one left at the party”. 艾希施泰德还说，由于美联储的政策，“考虑到周期复苏，短期利率可能维持在偏低的水平，但5到10年的利率可能会升高。”他并不预计马上会有变化，“但我们不想成为派对上的最后一个人。”

As well as loans, some investors have also sought out rare floating rate bonds. Earlier this month, General Electric issued $500m in floating rate debt that matures in 10 years, the first such issue this year. Only about $5bn of such notes have been sold since 2008, according to Dealogic. 除了贷款之外，一些投资者也在寻求稀少的浮动利率债券。本月早些时候，通用电气(General Electric)发行了5亿美元的10年期浮动利率债券，这是今年首个浮动利率债券。Dealogic统计显示，2008年以来仅发售了大约50亿美元的此类债券。

Meanwhile, a record volume of bets have been laid against the value of the two largest junk bond ETFs. There has been a 50 per cent increase in the level of so-called short interest in the iShares iBoxx High Yield Corporate Bond ETF in the past month, according to IndexUniverse. 与此同时，两大垃圾债券ETF的卖空押注总额突破记录。IndexUniverse统计显示，过去一个月里iShares iBoxx高收益公司债券ETF(iShares iBoxx High Yield Corporate Bond ETF)所谓的短期利息水平上涨了50%。

And speculators have borrowed record 26.34m shares in the SPDR Barclays Capital High Yield Bond ETF, the equivalent of 4.85 days’ trading. When traders short such a security, they sell borrowed shares, hoping to return the equivalent to the lender later after buying them more cheaply. 投机者还借入了创纪录的2634万股SPDR巴克莱资本高收益债券ETF(SPDR Barclays Capital High Yield Bond ETF)股票，相当于4.85天的交易量。当交易商做空这类证券的时候，他们会卖出借来的股票，以期稍后以更低价格购入同样数量的股票，还给出借者。

Edward Marrinan, head of macro credit strategy at RBS, said short selling ETFs is a less expensive, and less than permanent, way to bet on rising rates and falling bond prices. 苏格兰皇家银行(RBS)宏观信用策略主管爱德华•马里南(Edward Marrinan)指出，卖空ETF是押注利率上涨、债券价格下跌的一种较为廉价、非永久的方式。

“It takes a long time to build a bond portfolio,” he said. “You don’t want to dismantle your portfolio, given you killed yourself to build it, so what you do is use a lower-cost, more liquid instrument to hedge it.” 他说：“构建一个债券组合需要很长时间。因为你花费了大量精力构建起这样一个投资组合，你肯定不想拆除它，因此你所做的就是用一个成本较低、流动性较高的工具来对冲。”

Michael Kastner, a principal at Halyard Asset Management, said US Treasury yields look vulnerable if economic data surprises positively. Halyard资产管理公司(Halyard Asset Management)董事经理迈克尔•卡斯特纳(Michael Kastner)表示，如果经济数据优于预期的话，美国国债的收益率看似脆弱。

“Traders and real money investors are looking to lessen their interest rate sensitivity, and are looking at floating rate notes and short dated bonds,” he said. 他说：“交易商和富有投资者都在寻求降低对利率的敏感性，因而关注浮动利率债券和短期债券。”

Michael Hasenstab, who oversees $170bn in global fixed income investments for Franklin Templeton, said: “I fear most people are not well positioned for higher rates.” 掌管富兰克林邓普顿(Franklin Templeton)公司1700亿美元全球固定收益投资的迈克尔•哈森斯塔布(Michael Hasenstab)说：“我担心的是，大部分人对利率上涨都没有做好充分的准备。”

He said that the conventional wisdom has been that a bond fund tracking a broad index is considered low risk, but “while this may have worked to dampen risk in the last decade, it is unlikely to work in the next when interest rates rise”. 他指出，传统观点认为，追踪广泛指数的债券基金风险较低，但“尽管在过去10年这或许能够用来抑制风险，未来10年利率上涨的时候它可能就不会奏效了。”