PIMCO

Best Blogs of the Week #200

Posted by Anu Heda on Aug 25, 2015, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with , , ,

Four interesting posts (from last week, so no mention of Monday’s wild day for US equities) to share covering domestic and international issues.

 Wrestling with the Costs of Crumbling Infrastructure –Lord Abbett

“There is some talk that oil price declines have made room for a gasoline tax hike, but otherwise, infrastructure spending will remain hostage to the many other demands already straining federal, state, and local budgets,” said Milton Ezrati.

Macro Matters: China’s Currency Move –PIMCO

If China were merely to embark on aggressive currency depreciation without further domestic monetary easing and market reforms, this should be seen as bad news. Chinese exporters would gain a competitive advantage…

3 Things the European Investment-Grade Fixed Income Team Talked About Last Week –Pioneer (interesting post; rough title) –

“Perhaps the reason that global bonds initially rallied was that the Renminbi (RMB) move was seen as a global deflationary move. A weaker RMB (and other Asian currencies) should mean weaker commodity prices…”

 Thoughts from the China Beige Book –WisdomTree

“… the Chinese currency appreciated by over 20%. The rise in the dollar resulted in the yuan becoming far more expensive compared to its Asian neighbors, which corroded its competitiveness. Given this steep rise in the value of the yuan, the 3% devaluation is rather small by comparison.”

Best Blogs of the Week #193

Posted by Anu Heda on Jul 13, 2015, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Greece! Our industry’s bloggers are covering the potential Grexit like nothing ever before. At this (blogging) trajectory, I can only imagine the volume around our US 2016 Presidential election.

By my count, 14 firms dedicated at least 1 post to Greece. Here they are, listed from newest (hence most relevant) to oldest. Only two make an actual prediction on Greece leaving the Europe. Follow us on Twitter to see which two (or read all 14 posts).

Thought Leadership Arms Race Is On

Posted by Anu Heda on May 27, 2015, in Thoughts , tagged with , , , , ,

There’s omnipresent discussion (in the news, from asset managers, by wealth managers) of the 5-year long bull market in US equities. Reading this month’s Mixing It Up from Shefali Anand reminded me about the bull market. There’s another bull market. The asset management industry is experiencing a bull market in thought leadership. It’s easy to understand why: with so many investment options available to financial advisors, thought leadership becomes an important method of building brand recognition and becoming that coveted “trusted partner.”

Today, many asset managers are producing thought leadership in quantities never seen before. Let’s just look at 2015 volume to-date from five, well-known asset managers.

thoughtleadershiptableWhat are the obvious takeaways?

  1. Unless Marketing executives believe thought leadership to be a fad, standing on the sidelines is longer an option. Yet some firms continue to do so, publishing 1 or 2 thought leadership pieces per quarter.
  2. Introducing and populating a blog with multiple posts per week from different investment team members is no longer optional.

The Rarely-Seen Mano-a-Mano Marketing

Posted by Mike McLaughlin on Mar 22, 2013, in Thoughts , tagged with , ,

Check out the banner and whitepaper from Janus, which is smack in the middle of its landing page for Institutional Investors:

The hook is clear: with equities, it's Janus v. Gross.

The hook is clear: with equities, it’s Janus v. Gross.

The asset management industry almost always takes a live-and-let-live approach to marketing. Certainly there are competing ideas and products, but not often is that competition made so specific in public, especially in print. Count me as a fan of the bold (and certainly smartly-opportunistic) positioning by Janus here.

Are Firms Delivering an Inconsistent Message on Alternatives?

Posted by Mike McLaughlin on Jan 17, 2013, in Thoughts , tagged with ,

Ignites ran an op-ed (subscription required) from Jon Short at PIMCO about the firm’s promotion of liquid alternative investments. Sometimes in reading a piece like this, I look for the natural contrarian question to ask, and in this case I found it when I reached the following statement:

To be sure, liquid alternative funds are and should remain a portfolio complement rather than a core holding for most investors.

This position has become the stock position of many asset managers. To paraphrase: “Alternatives are great, but you shouldn’t use too much of them (or use them the way an institutional investor does).”

I find this take difficult to reconcile, with the obvious question being: why shouldn’t alternative strategies form the core of an investment portfolio? As it turns out, I’ve already asked a version of this question before. It also turns out that there are pockets of the investment community pushing for alternatives as the foundation of portfolios.

But Mr. Short’s piece makes me further consider the marketing implications of this issue. Consider how Mr. Short continues his thought process by citing that alternative strategies often:

  • Offer a go-anywhere approach to take advantage of the best investment opportunities
  • Have low correlation to traditional equity and fixed income strategies
  • Can be combined to customize a portfolio based on an investor’s goals and risk profile

These seem like the very things many investors are looking for. If alts are the best way to deliver these benefits, I’d expect some firms to be more aggressive in positioning how they should be integrated into some investors’ portfolios.

Of course, there may be data-driven research that confirms a cautious approach in allocating to alts (though I have yet to see firms cite it). And there are two very simple reasons why firms wouldn’t be more aggressive in positioning alts:

  • Self-Interest: the majority of existing assets are tied up in traditional strategies
  • Human Nature: gradual change is an easier story for people to accept than one centered on MAJOR upheaval

Even so, I ultimately think the discussion around alternatives and the types of roles they can play in portfolios needs to evolve from its current state. The current uniformity of the messages from most asset managers, and the disconnect between the substantial benefits of alts compared to the low recommended use of them, means there is a good opportunity for firms to have more differentiated, interesting discussions moving forward.