With the Federal Reserve's next moves on interest rates uncertain, income-seeking investors are facing a challenging environment. Inflation remains above target, unemployment is at a healthy 4%, and opinions are split on whether a rate hike is needed to tame rising prices. The White House would prefer new Fed chair Kevin Warsh to keep rates steady or even cut them, though the odds of a cut were already slim when the Fed met on September 15 and 16. This uncertainty is fueling market volatility and putting income strategies in focus.
Historically, if the Fed raises rates, cash investments like savings accounts, money market funds, and new bonds pay more income, but older bonds and growth stocks could suffer. If rates stay steady, stocks might stabilize, but cash earnings stop growing. In such an unpredictable market, an actively managed ETF can adjust on the fly to help keep income flowing without taking on extra risk.
That is the approach of the Infrastructure Capital Bond Income ETF (NYSE: BNDS). BNDS is an actively managed ETF with a primary objective to maximize income and a secondary objective of capital appreciation. The fund invests at least 80% of its total assets in fixed-income securities, primarily corporate bonds, focusing on sectors and issuers with strong cash flows and pricing power. The management team uses a flexible mix of quantitative and qualitative analysis to evaluate relative value opportunities across fixed-income markets, then applies fundamental analysis to issuers, reviewing enterprise value, capital ratios, and operating metrics to assess financial health and ability to service debt.
What sets BNDS apart is its active management, which allows it to opportunistically employ an option-writing strategy to enhance income. While high-yield bond funds can be volatile, especially with Fed uncertainty, the fund's managers believe that adding options can turn volatility into higher premiums for option sellers, providing an additional source of income. Distributions are monthly, and the fund had a 30-day SEC yield of 8.01% as of September 9, 2026.
Actively managed ETFs may seem rare in the age of self-directed investing, but they can gain importance when market volatility and uncertainty are high. Individual investors can do their own research, but that requires time, knowledge, and skill—all of which the team at Infrastructure Capital can provide. BNDS is structured to seek and extract asymmetric income-generating opportunities, and the firm's decades of experience help it know what to look for and what pitfalls to avoid.
At the helm is Jay D. Hatfield, founder, CEO, and portfolio manager of Infrastructure Capital Advisors. With nearly three decades of experience across investment banking, hedge fund management, and portfolio construction, Hatfield has focused on income-generating securities and companies tied to real assets like energy infrastructure and real estate. Before launching Infrastructure Capital, he co-founded NGL Energy Partners and managed income-oriented portfolios at SAC Capital (now Point72) and Zimmer Lucas Partners. That background matters: Infrastructure Capital reports that Hatfield's career has been defined by identifying undervalued credit opportunities and structuring strategies to extract reliable cash flows. For BNDS, this translates into disciplined corporate bond selection combined with tactical enhancements like option writing.
To learn more about the Infrastructure Capital Bond Income ETF (BNDS), click here. Performance data quoted represents past performance and does not guarantee future results. Investment return and principal value will fluctuate so that shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost. Current performance may be lower or higher than the performance data quoted.
