Sorry I'm late to the party but I don't think it's accurate to say that you necessarily want low convexity in a tapering (or rising yield) environment. It depends what side of the convexity curve your bond resides. For any given duration, you would want HIGH convexity if you are on the right hand (the flattening) part of the curve. The higher the convexity, the more the right side of the curve will be flattening. And the more the curve is flattening, the less the price will decline as yields rise. Bonds on the right side of the curve yield more than the coupon . In other words, in a tapering environment, lower coupon bonds (lower than the current yield) will outperform higher coupon bonds of similar duration.