When Stocks Crash Hard, the Rich Are Frenzy-Buying Bonds: A 20-Minute Guide to the Wealthy Hedging Play
Stocks crash 30% and your portfolio halves, while the rich enter to buy bonds during the crash. This isn't coincidence — it's the wealth logic they never tell you: bonds aren't a tool to make you rich; they're the moat that stops your wealth from being eaten by market volatility. The median Taiwanese office worker saves only NT$10K–15K a month, and a 30% TAIEX drop can vaporize two years of savings in days; the 2008 GFC took the index down nearly 60% and required nearly 10 years to recover. This article uses 3 underlying rules to unpack the inverse relationship between bond prices and interest rates (Taiwan's Central Bank hiked from 1.125% to 2% across 2022–2023, slashing bond fund NAVs by 15% to 20%), the hidden risk of duration (a 10-year duration bond loses roughly 10% in price for every 1% rate hike), and how the bond products sold to you by Taiwanese bank RMs differ from what the rich actually buy: direct US Treasuries via overseas brokers and low-fee short-duration Treasury ETFs like SHY and IEI. Includes 4 Taiwan-specific blind spots and a 3-step action plan.