A bond-trading secret that helped one Indian bank beat its peers

Kamal Mahajan says he's being asked just one question: how did he make money as peers lost $4.4 billion during India’s worst bond-market rout in two decades?

The answer, according to the head of treasury and global markets at Bank of Baroda, goes back to a contrarian bet taken two years ago. As the Reserve Bank of India started an easing cycle in 2015, eventually cutting policy rates seven times, bond yields fell to levels not seen since the global financial crisis. While investors were lured into a one-way bet, Mahajan thought differently.

“Traders, however, experienced they are, tend to be carried