How Low Volatility Works in Challenging Markets
When does low volatility tend to outperform and why? S&P DJI’s Craig Lazzara and Invesco’s Nick Kalivas take a closer look at low vol performance in periods of rising rates and inflation, and explore what happens to risk/return when low vol is combined with other factors.
Understanding the Low Volatility Anomaly
Take a deep dive into the low volatility anomaly as S&P DJI’s Craig Lazzara explains what the anomaly is, when and why it outperforms, and the role of dispersion in identifying potential opportunities.
A Stalwart Delivers
U.S. equities struggled again in the past three months. The last rebalance for the S&P 500® Low Volatility Index was in August 2022 and the S&P 500 has since declined 7.0%. The S&P 500 Low Volatility Index, which has historically moderated the performance of the benchmark, lost 5.1% in the same period. For the entirety…
Measuring Board Gender Diversity across S&P ESG Indices
According to numerous studies,1 having a gender-diverse board is a key indicator of good corporate governance.2 The gender diversity of a board of an investee company is also one of the mandatory sustainability indicators3 that financial market participants are required to assess and report on under the EU’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR).4 Using the…
Reversing the Entropy of Climate Change
According to the second law of thermodynamics, the state of disorder or chaos of a system, also known as entropy, increases over time, defining the so-called arrow of time. Applying this analogy to Earth, is the world headed into chaos as climate change unfolds? Not necessarily. Just as entropy can decrease if useful work is…
Tip of the Iceberg: Fixed Income ETFs in Times of Crisis
20 and 15 years after the launches of the first ETFs based on the iBoxx USD Liquid Investment Grade (IG) Index and iBoxx USD Liquid High Yield (HY) Index, respectively, ETFs are increasingly used to trade fixed income without the necessity of transacting individual bonds. The tradability of bond ETFs has been leveraged by a…
Examining Equal Weight
In this tumultuous market characterized by Fed rate hikes, elevated inflation and a strong dollar, mega-cap growth companies have suffered heavy losses, paced by recent “Big Tech” earnings disappointments from Meta, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and others. The S&P 500® Top 50 declined by 19% over the past 12 months, underperforming the S&P 500 by 5%….
Watch Your Weighting Scheme
2022 has witnessed a recalibration across financial markets, as investors have digested the impact of higher interest rates amid elevated inflation. Despite bouts of optimism that the U.S. Federal Reserve would take a more dovish stance, and better-than-expected corporate earnings, Exhibit 1 shows that the vast majority of large-, mid- and small-cap indices declined through…
A Weakening Aussie Dollar Puts Offshore Earners in the Spotlight
The days of Australian-U.S. dollar parity are becoming a distant memory, as U.S. dollar strength has seen the value of the Australian equivalent reach a recent low of just under 63 cents, a decline of over 13% from year-end levels. The weakening of the Australian dollar could have significant implications for the share prices of…
U.K. Bond Market: Insights from the Recent Downturn
The past few weeks have been extraordinary as U.K. politics and financial markets entangled, resulting in GBP-denominated debt becoming both shaken and stirred. Gilts, bonds issued by the U.K. government, were hit particularly hard on the back of collateral calls in the liability-driven investment pension crisis. Gilts saw their yields reach multi-year highs, especially in…
