So far, this year has been as grim for corporate bonds as it has been for equities. The iTraxx Crossover index, tracking the cost of protecting European non-investment grade credit against default, is up about 40 per cent since the turn of the year. The equivalent US index, the CDX, shows a similar spike.

That is not a reflection of actual default rates, which are yet to pick up from multi-year lows. Corporate bond prices are in free fall across the spectrum – from investment grade to high-yield – because bank trading desks, huge buyers of notes when debt was cheap and liquidity abundant, have no appetite for any kind of corporate risk. Having bought into segments they thought cheap a few months ago, and which then fell again, investors of every stripe are now shedding unwanted positions where they can.