Risk management for investors

For the past four years, investors have had but one thing on their minds: how to generate returns. Listless equity markets, low interest rates and a relentless squeezing of credit spreads have ensured that the search for yield has remained priority number one.

In the blink of an eye – at least, in the time it took for news of General Motors and Ford’s downgrade to junk status hit the wires – all that has changed. Credit spreads surged in the aftermath of S&P’s May 5 announcement, with the Dow