Mark Astley, manager of the £14.1m City Financial Strategic Global Bond fund, is feeling bearish. “This credit crisis is the worst in a generation, probably the worst since the second world war,” he says. “The unwind is going to have a ripple effect for years to come.”

Since City Financial moved the fund from Neptune Investment Management in September 2006 and outsourced its management to Mr Astley at Millennium Global Investments, the portfolio has consistently been 100 per cent invested in AAA-rated government bonds.