News Solactive joins forces with Sarasin & Partners LLP on the Sarasin Systematic Efficient Indices
Solactive AG is pleased to join forces with Sarasin & Partners LLP on Sarasin’s Systematic Efficient Approach Indices (SSEA Indices), a family of indices which seek to outperform the market-cap over the medium-long term and across multiple market (...)
|
Note EDHEC-Risk Institute publication shows that smart beta risks can be controlled while benefitting from smart beta performance
A new EDHEC-Risk Institute publication entitled “Risk Allocation, Factor Investing and Smart Beta: Reconciling Innovations in Equity Portfolio Construction,” drawn from the Amundi ETF & Indexing research chair at EDHEC-Risk Institute on “ETF and Passive Investment (...)
|
Strategy Risk factor investing explained
Risk factor investing is growing in popularity, but there’s a risk of getting lost in the factor “zoo”. In this Expert Opinion Thierry Roncalli, Head of Quantitative Research at Lyxor Asset Management, explains the concept of risk factors and distinguishes between facts and (...)
|
Opinion Smart Betas offer a new approach to bridge market bias
When Alan Greenspan spoke of "market exuberance" (i.e. the lightning-fast mood swings from optimism to an investment bubble popping) wasn’t he referring to what we could call a "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" syndrome?
|
Strategy Does a liquidity factor premium exist in the stock market?
Academic studies present ample evidence in support of the existence of four factor premiums in stock markets: Low Risk, Value, Momentum, and Quality. Factor investing puts these concepts into practice by enabling investors to allocate their capital explicitly to these (...)
|
Note Building Minimum Variance Portfolios with low risk, low drawdowns and strong returns
This paper provides an introduction to the STOXX Minimum Variance Indices and aims to achieve three things : i) an overview of minimum variance investing ii) the methodology for the construction and maintenance of the STOXX Minimum Variance Indices, highlighting the unique (...)
|
Opinion When Smart Is Not That Smart
Can Beta Become Smarter? Nobel Prize-winning economist William Sharpe introduced the notions of “beta” and “alpha” decades ago. Put simply, Sharpe defined beta as a measure of a portfolio’s sensitivity relative to the market. Under this definition, it is difficult to fathom how (...)
|
Strategy Why is smart beta a true revolution?
So what is “smart beta”? A mere revolt against traditional indices? No, Sir, it’s a true revolution – the factor investing revolution. The questioning of allegiance to traditional indices, which until now were used broadly despite some serious drawbacks, has only just begun, but (...)
|
Strategy A smart approach of Index Management
Two years ago, Ossiam entered the European market with ETFs based on two innovative investment strategies offering an alternative to traditional equity market cap-weighted indices: The Ossiam Equal Weight ETFs and The Ossiam Minimum Variance ETFs. Back to smart beta concept (...)
|
Opinion Psychology and smart beta
‘Smart beta’ sounds like an oxymoron. How smart can it be to continue using the same strategy in such fickle markets? A portfolio manager calling on all his skills (‘alpha’) in analysing market environments (the source of ‘beta’) should be able to outperform an unchanged (...)
|
Strategy Quality, the positive factor
Quality is positive: it is about good companies that are efficient at managing their businesses profitably, creating shareholder value and being rewarded with above average returns. Yet, quality is not always easy to recognise or measure. Here are a few pointers for avoiding (...)
|
Pedagogy BNP Paribas L1 Equity World Low Volatility
The Fund BNP Paribas L1 Equity World Low Volatility seeks to outperform the MSCI World Index over a full market cycle with risk reduction objective and limiting tracking error risk level. Absolute volatility is targeted to be lower than the MSCI World (...)
|
Pedagogy iSTOXX™ Europe Minimum Variance
The approach initiated by Ossiam’s research and management team intends to obtain an optimized portfolio that includes a selection of stocks where volatility is among the lowest in the investment universe
|
Strategy Controling investment risk in commodities investment
Commodities exhibit unique characteristics including low correlations with bonds and equities and inflation-hedging abilities. These have made commodities an attractive addition to diversified portfolios and have generated growing interest in commodity (...)
|
Strategy From Smarter Beta to Smart Alpha
Unlike cap-weighted indexes, smart beta strategies are not buy-and-hold: they require trading and rebalancing to maintain their respective exposures. This can have a surprising impact on long-term performance, and may also provide a cause for concern in the shorter (...)
|