The barbell strategy itself is fairly straightforward. It essentially involves balancing a high-risk investment with a low-risk counterpart. Traditionally, this means avoiding investments that offer a middle ground in terms of risk.  For fixed income, one classic combination is to barbell short-term bonds with long-term counterparts. In theory, this strategy offers good yield while blunting some of the downside risk.  That being said, there’s plenty of other ways to use a barbell strategy in fixed income. Given the flexibility of the ETF structure, many fixed income funds can be positioned as barbell investments.