Best Blogs of the Week

Best Blogs of the Week #266

Posted by Anu Heda on Apr 03, 2017, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with ,

Two posts covering a range of topics, including the recent US equity slumber.

BlackRock – The seesaw relationship of volatility and momentum stocks – The relationship between volatility and momentum has actually strengthened in recent years. Since the end of the financial crisis and the advent of the current period of extraordinary monetary accommodation, the relationship has become much stronger

William Blair – E and S Themes Drive ESG Growth – McKinsey estimates that 1.6 billion people out of 2 billion without bank accounts—more than half of whom are women— could be assimilated into the system via digital finance.

slumber

 

Best Blogs of the Week #265

Posted by Anu Heda on Mar 27, 2017, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with ,

Two excellent posts this week that utilize data to support arguments frequently discussed and investigated. Russell does an excellent job simplifying (perhaps too simple?) an advisor’s value to an investor. Personally, I enjoyed the investor behavior component greatly (chart below).

Russell – 2017 Value of a fiduciary advisor: more than 4% – Instead, the technical and emotional guidance that only a trusted, human advisor (as opposed to robo-advisors, for instance) can offer to investors who are attempting to undertake the complex job of coordinating the accumulation, distribution and transfer of their wealth, is invaluable – particularly in an environment that is likely to deliver lower returns and higher volatility than investors have grown accustomed to recently.

SSgA – Look Beyond the Label: The Importance of How a Smart Beta Index is Weighted – As these examples demonstrate, understanding underlying index construction is crucial to achieving desired investment results when choosing a smart beta ETF.

value

Best Blogs of the Week #264

Posted by Anu Heda on Mar 20, 2017, in Best Blogs of the Week

Well two days into the tournament and my high active share bracket is busted (I took the orthogonal to market strategy of going with Seton Hall through two rounds.). Anyhow, two posts this week.

Russell – Multi-asset investing: the importance of seeking to manage the downside – … if a client’s portfolio suffers a -30% drop in value, a 43% rise will be needed to get the portfolio back to its starting point. That’s where a multi-asset approach that also emphasizes managing downside risk is so valuable, even if they don’t protect against all losses or guarantee a profit.

WisdomTree – Reflections on the Global Macro Environment – … thinks the Fed is way behind the curve in hiking interest rates and is likely to do three to four hikes in 2017.

Best Blogs of the Week #263

Posted by Anu Heda on Mar 13, 2017, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with , ,

Three robust posts from the last two weeks. The quality of charts in asset manager blog posts is dramatically improving as seen in all three posts. I want include the Van Eck and WisdomTree posts not only for the salient point each makes, also to show how product marketing is infiltrating some blogs. It’s an interesting trend occurring at a few of the firms we follow.

AB – Evaluating the Trump Effect on Global Equities – focusing a lens on potential policy outcomes is an increasingly important component for isolating select investment candidates that could deliver solid returns in highly unpredictable times.

Van Eck – Follow the Flows: Active versus Passive –  For the three year period ending January 31, 2017, passively managed funds have attracted over $1.4 trillion of new assets according to Morningstar. In that same period, actively managed funds have experienced net outflows of $475 billion.

WisdomTree – An Asset Allocation Study for a Moderate Portfolio – or those willing to alter asset allocations, we believe a continuous improvement in returns per unit of risk could be realized.

robust chart

Best Blogs of the Week #262

Posted by Anu Heda on Feb 27, 2017, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with ,

Only two posts this week (focused on inflation) and one question.

Franklin Templeton – K2 Advisors : Why We Like Activist Hedge Strategies – It could be said that activist managers in some ways represent the only strategy that generates alpha to some degree. While not always successful, activist funds seek to unlock “hidden” value in the companies they invest in.

William Blair – The Impact of Inflation – In other words, bonds were behaving more like equities. Now that inflation is becoming more apparent, I believe that repricing in the bond market has only just begun.

inflation

 

Question – do you think this chart proves that ETFs do not cause volatility? It seems to mash two things: ETFs are popular and volatility is low to make a point about causes of volatility. What do you think?