At last Friday’s close, S&P Dow Jones assigned a number of technology and consumer discretionary names into a new “Communication Services” sector classification. Relative to the old Telecommunication Services definitions, the sector has grown from 3 to 22 companies (not counting dual share listings) and is less concentrated in absolute terms. However, Communications Services remains Read more […]
In our earlier blog, “How Important Are Earnings Revisions Signals for Fundamental Factor Strategies in Asia?”, we discussed that the signals from earnings revisions were important for fundamental factor strategies applied across broad markets. They reduced the risk and enhanced the return of the comparable factor portfolios, across the majority of markets. In our research Read more […]
In our previous blog, “The Hunt for Value With High Earnings Expectations in Asia,” we discussed how a simple sequential earnings revision screen historically delivered positive return alpha over the value screen in the majority of markets. The value screen was constructed based on the average of three underlying factors: book value-to-price ratio, earnings-to-price ratio, Read more […]
Year to date, the S&P 500 Low Volatility Index® has underperformed its parent S&P 500, up 5.52% compared to a 7.55% (through Aug. 16, 2018 close) increase for the benchmark. Those who are familiar with low volatility strategies will recognize that this performance is consistent with the historical pattern of returns and in line with Read more […]
Despite both indices representing the U.S. small-cap market, the S&P SmallCap 600® has outperformed the Russell 2000 Index in 16 out of 24 calendar years, with an annualized excess return of 1.81%.[1] Prior research by S&P Dow Jones Indices[2] found that inherent differences in index construction drove the historical return differential. Notably, the profitability inclusion Read more […]
In a prior blog, we demonstrated that the S&P 500® Equal Weight Index was a more difficult benchmark to outperform than the S&P 500 over intermediate- to long-term investment horizons. In this blog post, we examine the underlying factor exposures of the S&P 500 Equal Weight Index to evaluate the performance of large-cap managers. As Read more […]
The world’s most prestigious cycling race, the Tour de France, begins tomorrow. The tour lasts three weeks and comprises a series of one-day stages. Although the main prize – the yellow jersey – is awarded to the rider that takes the minimum amount of time to complete the entire tour, there are plenty of races Read more […]
Small caps have materially outperformed large caps in 2018, with the S&P SmallCap 600 outpacing the S&P 500 7.80% to 2.58% between Dec. 29, 2017, and May 25, 2018.1 Below, I highlight what I believe to be the drivers of small-cap returns this year, and why I believe the trend could continue. Tax cuts have Read more […]
In the second blog of this series, we saw that the S&P 500® Low Volatility Rate Response generally achieved similar levels of volatility reduction as the S&P 500 Low Volatility Index. In our paper Inside Low Volatility Indices (published in 2016), the low volatility index historically outperformed the S&P 500 during severe market downturns (Exhibit Read more […]
In a prior post, we saw that during sharp rising interest rate periods, the S&P 500® Low Volatility Rate Response fared better than the S&P 500 Low Volatility Index, even though both indices generally underperformed the S&P 500. In this post, we examine if there is a relationship between the magnitude of interest rate changes Read more […]
