(New York)

With stocks riding so high and anxiety building about a potential downturn, espousing and building a robust bond strategy is going to be more important than ever. With that in mind Barron’s has put out four bond funds picks for 2018. The picks are the Vanguard Tax-Exempt Bond Index, the Artisan High Income fund, the Prudential Short Duration Muni High Income, and the Dodge & Cox Global Bond.

FINSUM: The Vanguard fund really caught our eye. It has an expense ratio of 0.19% versus an average of 0.8% for its peers, and has more than $190 bn under management, with a lot of expertise managing it.