Why did fixed income do so well in 2019?

Read a bunch of articles recently talking about how a lot of banks were boosted by fixed income trading in 2019, but none of them really explained why. Would really appreciate some help in understanding the reasons behind it!

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idk. the fed restarted large-scale asset purchases (remember, its not QE guys). perhaps that's a factor.

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de nada

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Three rate cuts in 2019 drove down rates and fueled reach for yield, increased liquidity drove down spreads. IG returned around 12% (duration and spread tightening drove rtns), HY 14% , Treasuries around 7% avg across maturities, and Leveraged loans around 6%. For bank props desks that run on near infinite leverage those returns are magnified many times over and so some traders generated 100s of millions in P&L if the had the right trades on. Credit Hedge funds as with most hedge funds by and large massively under performed the indexes.

 

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