You have to choose who will destroy your capital the least, i.e. "give me your capital and i will lose you 2% pa which is better then the next manager who will lose you 5%". As bigbum says if you buy bonds, like German or Swiss bonds you do know how much you are going to lose. This is negative rates. Picking the best loser. In the alternative just hold gold or cash but that brings its own problems. Gold is volatile (advocates say its the safest, you can always trade with gold) as for cash, you need to stash it and parley inflation risk?