Shorting Treasury STRIPS

Does it ever make sense to short treasury strips? The only time I can think it would be advantageous would be if you’re expecting interest rates to rise drastically in a short amount of time. I had a guy at work that shorted 30M of treasury strip (2028 maturity) for $7,325 (YTM = 5.755%) back in January 2004. At that time the fed funds rate was 1.00% About 2.5 years late, June 2006, when the fed funds rate was at 5.25%, the value of those 30M treasury strips were $9,350. So even when rates rose by 4.25% and the duration on the bond at the time was roughly 22 (2028-2006), the bond actually gained in value… Just trying to get a grasp on why this would be done…