Central banks have used different types of forward guidance, where the forward guidance horizon is related to a state contingency, a calendar date or left open-ended. This paper reports cross-country evidence on the impact of these different types of forward
S&P Dow Jones Indices has been the de facto scorekeeper of the ongoing active versus passive debate since the first publication of the S&P Indices Versus Active Funds (SPIVA) U.S. Scorecard in 2002. The SPIVA Europe Scorecard measures the performance
Strategy Espresso The European high yield market has continued to rally following a challenging end to 2018. In this week’s Espresso we highlight some key reasons for the recovery and why we foresee continued near-term support for the asset class. In
What, Exactly, Is a Factor1 ? According to BlackRock, as of June 2018 there was $1.9 trillion invested in factor-based strategies—a figure expected to grow by nearly 80% to $3.4 trillion by 20222 . There is no question that these
As business leaders manage the ever-changing economic, political, and technological landscape they face a significantly magnified exposure to risk and uncertainty. This creates a highly complex portfolio of potential risks that, if managed poorly, can lead to lost opportunities that
Index Investment Strategy European equities got off to a strong start in 2019, as the first quarter of 2019 began with a bullish bounce, recovering from the late 2018 pullback. The S&P Europe 350 gained 13% in Q1. All of
Fees are under pressure faster than market expected – is asset management no longer a growth sector? C-Suite must define a growth agenda to regain stock multiple. For alpha growth, look to China and Alts. Wholesale banks must restructure and
The first quarter of 2019 began with a bullish bounce back as better-than-feared earnings reports combined with a new dovish tone at the U.S. Federal Reserve to set markets on their way to recovery. With macro concerns at the fore
How can pension trustees prepare for new requirements on the fnancial materiality of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors? ‘ESG considerations’ mean many things to many people – not least regulators, who are now viewing them as core to the
Strategy Espresso Bloomberg has confirmed that it will add Chinese CNY-denominated bonds to the Global Aggregate, Global Treasury and Emerging Market Local Currency Government indices starting in April 2019. The announcement marks another milestone in opening up and attracting further investment
Weekly Digest Last week I listened to a prominent psychologist talk about how people perform everyday tasks. Contrary to popular belief, there are very few things people can do automatically without devoting some thought to them; try reading a book
Executive summary Applying a universal approach to property allocations can offer investors an opportunity to achieve superior risk-adjusted returns throughout the property occupancy cycle. The unique characteristics of the real estate asset class, combined with visibility on the underlying cash-flow
Yale’s Endowment generated a 12.3% return, net of fees, in fiscal 2018. Over the past ten years, the Endowment grew from $22.9 billion to $29.4 billion. With annual returns of 7.4% during the ten-year period, the Endowment’s performance exceeded its
I am pleased to be writing this foreword to NN Investment Partners’ annual responsible investing report. It has been more than 20 years since we started integrating environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria into our investment processes and launched our
Weekly Digest Whenever you do any kind of planning, there are some decisions that are more important than others. Planning for holidays, for example; selecting the destination and the time of travel might be the key drivers that will determine
Change is inevitable in the asset management industry. The fact that fund managers will move companies or retire is well established. The key is how manager transitions are dealt with, which will have an important bearing on the effect on
With the increased availability of non-cap-weighted indexes, investors can now make more efficient allocation decisions by more precisely mapping their investment goals and constraints to the strategies used to build their portfolios. This requires a deep understanding of their investment
Among pension funds and other asset owners, the appetite for small cap appears to be on the rise. The past year has seen notably greater interest in small cap equity strategies – either regional or global – from institutional investors
At Research Affiliates, our winning formula focuses on mission, culture, and team. We believe a corporate culture that supports the development of its employees will in turn contribute to the long-term success of clients, partners, and the firm itself. We
This report examines the impact of fees on the performance of mutual funds and institutional managed accounts across equity and fixed income categories, using gross- and net-of-fees returns. Fees may negatively affect managers’ performance regardless of the type of investment
Elevated trading volumes in U.S. equities, coupled with December’s usual decline in liquidity, produced a five-year high in both monthly index volatility and average constituent correlations for the S&P 500®. We report above-average volatilities and correlations in a majority of
Until recently it would have seemed far-fetched that a climate scientist would be the opening keynote speaker at a conference of central banks and financial sector regulators. But earlier this year Dr. Emily Shuckburgh of the British Antarctic Survey found
As 2018 draws to a close, the marketplace has become increasingly littered with yearsin-review and return forecasts for the new calendar year. But forecasting is hard and forecasting market returns for a 12-month period is even harder. In their simplest
GEM equities is the firm favourite among Dutch fund selectors, joined by property, illiquid strategies, convertible bonds and developed market govvies. Absolute return and hedge strategies have finallly lost their appeal, sliding down to neutral, joined by EM bonds and
Strategy Espresso Rotation among factors has continued recently, with elevated volatility, as equity investors switch between optimistic and defensive positioning. These moves are not surprising, as it is common to see heightened levels of volatility in late economic cycles. Interestingly,
