Monthly Archives: February 2014
Why Size Matters
This morning’s Financial Times revisits the argument that smaller funds generally have a performance advantage over larger funds. One contention advanced in favor of this view is that as funds grow, they “have” to hold more large-cap stocks, and that this large-cap weighting hurts overall performance: “Outperformance in large-cap companies is harder to achieve because…
Policy Post Mortems
Complete transcripts of the Fed’s policy meetings and conference calls are published with a five year lag. Last week the central bank released the transcripts from 2008, probably one of the more interesting years to “hear” word for word what the members of the FOMC were saying. The release was almost to the day the…
- Categories Blitzer's Insights
- Tags Fed Transcripts, History, stimulus
- Categories
- Blitzer's Insights
Global Inflation Beta
It is a familiar concept that commodities have provided inflation protection as discussed in a recent post about a discussion I had with Bluford Putnam, Managing Director and Chief Economist, of our partner, CME Group, to discuss why inflation is likely to appear this year. I have also discussed how much inflation protection has been provided in a special video…
HOT PORK ROLLS
For any investor who has chosen lean hogs as the commodity to invest in 2014, s/he is as “happy as a pig in the index“. The S&P GSCI Lean Hogs are the 3rd best performing commodity in the index YTD, up 16.3%, before the roll. Even after the roll, the lean hogs are the 5th best…
A Week of Auctions and Announcements
The S&P/BGCantor Current 10 Year U.S. Treasury Bond Index closed last week up 0.12%. January’s Housing Starts number of 880k fell well below the 950k expected number and the prior revised level of 1048k pushing Treasuries up for the week. The question was how much of the number was due to harsh winter weather or…
Incorporating Smart Beta Strategies in Asset Allocation
It is now a well-established trend that institutional investors are allocating to smart beta / risk premia strategies. In a recent survey of 300 institutional investors, 42% of the investors say they have committed a portion of their portfolios to smart beta, while a further 24% say they intend to do so in the future….
- Categories Equities, S&P 500 & DJIA
- Tags alternate beta, passive management, volatility
- Categories
- Equities, S&P 500 & DJIA
US Quantitative Easing – A boon or bane for the “Fragile Five”?
2013 was a seminal year for US equities with markets going up 33%. Emerging markets on the other hand did not fare so well and were relatively flat with a negative 1.27%. India ended the year down at 4.8%, hit strongly by currency woes, but the year was very volatile for most emerging markets. Some…
- Categories Equities, India
- Tags Fragile Five, India
- Tags
- Fragile Five, India
Weekend with the G20
The weekend meeting of 20 major global economies representing 85% of world GDP called for adding half a percentage point of growth each year to 2018 through renewed and aggressive stimulus. So far this is talk, but there is a chance for action. The G20 will convene again in November to show what they’ve done. …
- Categories Blitzer's Insights, Equities, Fixed Income, Strategy
- Categories
- Blitzer's Insights, Equities, Fixed Income, Strategy
VIX – The Enforcer
Your portfolio is like a hockey team. You don’t think so? It is. And VIX plays a key role. Stay with me while I explain. Equities are your guys playing at center and on the wings. You expect production from them. Your team largely lives and dies by how consistently they score. Bonds are your…
- Categories Strategy
- Tags VIX, VIX education
- Categories
- Strategy
- Tags
- VIX, VIX education
SPDJI Teleconference on U.S. Housing Set for February 25th @ 10am EST
Join us for a live teleconference on the US housing market on February 25th @ 10am EST. Featured speakers to include Professor Robert Shiller, Professor of Economics at Yale University and David Blitzer, Managing Director and Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. Instructions to access the teleconference are as follows: Net…
- Categories Uncategorized
- Categories
- Uncategorized