Strategy

Strategy The implementation of ESG in portfolios and the evolution of ESG reporting

We continue this series with Tomas Hildebrandt, Senior Portfolio Manager at Evli, and Janne Kujala, Head of Nordic Equity, to discuss implementation of responsible investments across funds and investment spaces.

Read article

Strategy Is 2021 going to be the year of a value rotation?

For some time now, we have been highlighting the wide valuation gap between the ‘value’ and ‘growth/quality’ ends of the market. Earlier in 2020, we suggested that the drivers of this extreme dispersion might be coming to an end and the 2020s could be the decade of the ‘cheap (...)

Read article

Strategy How do L/S Equity Hedge Funds position on the recovery?

The consensus now expects a supportive 2021 backdrop for risky assets. With vaccines rolling out and continued reflation policies, the normalization of the world economy would accelerate, amid lower geopolitical uncertainties, still ample global (...)

Read article

Strategy The EM FX carry trade is back

Read article

Strategy Five reasons why special situations outlook is brightening

Special Situations strategies have been under pressure in 2020, both on their event and credit arbitrage books. Due to their long structural market beta, managers have underperformed early this year. They have retraced most but not all they have (...)

Read article

Strategy Airports versus toll roads - A novel reversal

Following previous macro shocks – the gulf wars, 9/11, SARs and cyclical major economic downturns – global air traffic has bounced back rapidly in a sharp V-shaped recovery, while toll road volumes followed more of an (...)

Read article

Strategy Dollar depreciation helps CTAS

Since the U.S. presidential election on November 3 th, the USD has started a descent that may have legs under the new administration. The easing of trade tensions and an accommodative policy mix could put additional pressure on the DXY, which was down -1.7% since the (...)

Read article

Strategy Most L/S Equity emerge unscathed from factor rotations

Several hedge fund strategies have momentum biases, in particular L/S Equity, and CTAs. Considering the fact that this rotation took place in a bullish environment, most hedge fund strategies ended the week in positive (...)

Read article

Strategy A country divided

Abbie Llewellyn-Waters, fund manager, global sustainable equities at Jupiter, reflects on the meaning of the democrat victory and the implications for investors.

Read article

Strategy Hedge fund positioning ahead of U.S. Elections

If past elections provide any guidance, prospects for a Trump reelection look slim. History suggests that a second term reelection almost always requires strong growth. In most past election campaigns, polls did not materially shift after (...)

Read article

Strategy Our thoughts on the rally in momentum stocks

Momentum is a strategy which buys stocks trending higher and sells stocks on a downtrend within an index. It is systematic and has no considerations for earnings, valuation, or other fundamental metrics such as (...)

Read article

Strategy Are investors too confident?

With stock markets close to all-time highs at a time of very elevated economic uncertainty, the question arises if investors have become too confident. Today’s chart from The Yale School of Management Stock Market Confidence Indexes reveals how probable U.S. individual and (...)

Read article

Strategy Machine Learning : Choosing the best regime for you!

Machine learning and big data techniques have been developed making it possible to apply sophisticated mathematical models (hidden Markov switching models, which we will examine later) to financial data series in order to identify market regimes. All this has created scope (...)

Read article

Strategy Investment Style Rotations - Growth versus Value

Style rotations, where investors switch one type of investment style for another, are nothing new. At some point during most investment cycles different styles – such as growth, quality and value – will outperform at different points as investors rotate in and out depending on (...)

Read article

Strategy Should you care about biodiversity ? Investors have a role to play in habitat and species protection

Biodiversity is in the spotlight nowadays as previous international agreements expire, making 2020 a year of assessment and target-setting for politicians, legislators and businesses. What exactly is biodiversity and why is it (...)

Read article

Strategy Fixed Income : The Risk of Safety

The near-record lows now prevailing for sovereign bond yields reflect persistent anxiety about the outlook for growth around the world. Yet the global economy continues to expand — and inflation remains muted in the world’s largest economies. As a result, U.S. Treasuries — (...)

Read article

Strategy Disciplined bottom-up quality growth stocks outside of the usual suspects

The US bull market is officially the longest on record since World War II surpassing the 1990, 2000 and 2007 peaks. It is hard to imagine the music won’t skip a beat in the face of rising rates, shrinking central bank balance sheets, curtailing liquidity, trade spats, wage (...)

Read article

Strategy Investment Style Rotations - Growth versus Value

Style rotations, where investors switch one type of investment style for another, are nothing new. At some point during most investment cycles different styles – such as growth, quality and value – will outperform at different points as investors rotate in and out depending on (...)

Read article

Strategy Risk concentration stronger than risk perception

The risk concentration index (RCI) for a diversified portfolio had been on a downtrend since the start of 2014. The latest risk aversion spell has brought this to an end. This index, which measures the diversity of risk sources, peaked when markets were mainly guided by the (...)

Read article

Strategy Spread of dividends culture

Asian companies have changed in the last 10 years. Capital expenditure is more rational, and as a result cash generation compares favourably with companies in the US and Europe. This excess cash has been used to pay down debt to the extent that many companies have net cash (...)

Read article

Strategy A Full Quiver of Arrows

According to Yun Young Lee, Fund Manager, Japanese Small Cap at Schroders, there is a compelling case for investing in smaller Japanese companies despite economic uncertainties...

Read article

Strategy Focus on yield, quality and diversification as safe havens contract

Investors should focus on investments that offer yield, quality and diversification amid expectations that the global economy will avoid recession but experience fragile growth in 2012, according to Bill O’Neill, Chief Investment Officer for Europe, Middle East and Africa (...)

Read article

Strategy Despite DB Decline, U.K. Institutional Market to Provide Ample Opportunities for Asset Managers for Next 10-20 Years

Results of the Greenwich Associates 2012 U.K. Investment Management Study reveal that the U.K. institutional investment market should continue to expand over at least the next decade or two, but changing product demand will fundamentally shake up the source of revenues for (...)

Read article

Strategy Why we are taking our equity overweight to neutral for first time in five years

Mark Burgess, CIO EMEA and Global Head of equities at Columbia Threadneedle Investments, discusses the market reaction post Brexit, the impact of central bank actions and why Columbia has decided to reduce its equity exposure from overweight to neutral in asset allocation (...)

Read article

Strategy Gregory Guerrand : " Our Low Carbon 100 Europe Theam Easy UCITS ETF is a solution for investors who want to decarbonise their portfolio "

Gregory Guerrand, a specialist in index investments at THEAM, has agreed to answer a few questions about the Low Carbon 100 Europe Theam Easy UCITS exchange-traded fund (ETF).

Read article

Strategy Management of hedge fund portfolios during crisis periods: the contribution of systematic overlays

The implementation of systematic overlays can be considered as an alternative to short-term rebalancing of hedge fund portfolios, or as an active component of alternative allocations.

Read article

Strategy The index revolution (finally) comes to hedge funds

One common knock on factor models is that they “replicate only beta” – not the pure alpha gold that allocators seek. This critique pre-dates the appreciation of factor rotations. Outside of some ivory tower statistics class, no one questions the “alpha” generated by, for (...)

Read article

Strategy Protecting From the Crash With Private Infrastructure Assets

CEPRES today released an analysis demonstrating how Private (unlisted) Infrastructure can act as a Hedge for Corporate Bonds, whilst significantly outperforming on returns. Using PE.Analyzer to analyze thousands of privately held Infrastructure assets, CEPRES found (...)

Read article

Strategy Which strategies to privilege in an environment of extreme risk ?

A convex strategy seems to better correspond to long-term investors in terms of preference structures, potentially ready to give up some of their earnings to avoid losses that would be difficult to handle from an emotional point of (...)

Read article

Strategy Dividend stocks back in the spotlight

Dividend stocks are an essential element in any diversified portfolio. It is, after all, worth noting that no less than 70% of the return on stocks since 1970 can be attributed to dividends paid out.

Read article