Investors may be wary of the volatility hitting parts of the bond market right now, but they have an "historic" opportunity to grab attractive yields in high-quality credit, Rick Rieder, BlackRock's chief investment officer for global fixed income, told CNBC in an exclusive interview.
Hypothetically, it's now possible for investors to build a diversified portfolio that yields more than 7% with less than three years of duration and an average credit quality of A-, he said. Duration is a measurement of a bond's price sensitivity to fluctuations in rates, and issues with shorter maturities tend to have lower duration.
"Not only is it historic in that these yields are where they are, but the only time these yields are ever here is when there's some problem, like an economic problem or default problem," Rieder said in an interview about his fourth-quarter outlook, released Wednesday.
That isn't the case now, where the economy remains strong, he said. "So you don't really have to worry about defaults of any significance."
While Rieder didn't specifically identify the credits in the aforementioned portfolio, the iShares Aaa - A Rated Corporate Bond ETF (QLTA) has a 30-day SEC yield of 5.68% and an effective duration of 6.48 years — higher than Rieder's low duration focus.