I've had a thought recently that bonds are quirky in that - unlike other investments - they behave like a utility. I've just seen that expressed in your comment

I've had a thought recently that bonds are quirky in that - unlike other investments - they behave like a utility. I've just seen that expressed in your comment. You didn't say you were chasing a particular return, but that you were chasing safety. Bonds have a special property in that they combine being very flexible and are considered to be very safe. I think this creates a demand for them due to that combination, rather than due to their return on investment. I don't see the evidence that they are that safe. Certainly, history shows many examples of governments which have spiraled into debt and inflated or defaulted. But so long as there's a population that acts along this logic, it would seem that bonds will function as a nice, flexible store of value. > ETFs make it relatively easy now. I suspect some of them are vulnerable to the same flaws as the financial system. For example, some ETFs don't keep physical holdings of the asset they represent, and have positions that are exposed to counterparty risk. For example, I read about an ETF that allowed people to borrow its stock for shorting. If I was investing in that sort of ETF, I'd be concerned about upside. Holding commodities can be nice in a black swan event. But ETFs with counterparty risk may themselves fall over at such a time.