The top-performing bond ETFs of the past 10 years

Bonds are supposed to be safe and boring, but their ugly losses last year were shocking and savage. So brutal, in fact, that by one economist's estimate, you could look back to 1772 — when Russia and Prussia conspired to undertake the First Partition of Poland  — and still not see lousier performance by fixed-income assets. 

"Even if you go back 250 years, you can't find a worse year than 2022," Edward McQuarrie, a retired business professor at Edward Santa Clara University, told CNBC earlier this month.

Blame seven consecutive interest rate hikes — with more likely coming down the pike in 2023. When interest rates go up, bond prices go down, and the increases, intended to combat the highest inflation in 40 years as the economy struggles through the pandemic, pummeled fixed-income securities everywhere. 

The Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index, a widely used barometer of Treasury securities, corporate bonds, mortgage-backed securities, asset-backed securities and investment-grade government and corporate bonds, slumped 13% last year. That's its worst performance since it began in 1976, according to J.P. Morgan.

Fixed income is supposed to be a safety net when stocks fall — that's the logic behind the classic 60/40 portfolio, in which the majority of investment dollars are in equity, and the rest in bonds, Treasury bills and certificates of deposit. But last year left investors in the red all around. Stock markets also had a wretched 2022, with the S&P 500 closing out the year down nearly 20%. 

Bonds returned on average 1.6% a year over 10 years starting in 2012, Bankrate calculated last August. Stocks swelled an average 13.8%.

But one truly miserable year can skew a decade's track record.

Scroll through our slideshow to see which exchange-traded bond funds had the best returns over the past 10 years. All data is from Morningstar Direct. One year-return data is for 2022; 10-year data is for Jan. 1, 2013, through Dec. 31, 2022.