Mid- and Small-Cap Fund Managers Lost Their Advantage – SPIVA U.S. Mid-Year 2021 Scorecard
The SPIVA® U.S. Mid-Year Scorecard continues to show that active funds’ strong absolute returns do not always translate into relative success compared with their benchmarks. In 15 out of 18 categories of domestic equity funds, the majority of actively managed funds underperformed their benchmarks. Over the 12-month period ending June 30, 2021, 58% of large-cap…
The Importance of Order
We all know that stock market returns vary substantially over time. For example, the S&P 500®’s performance between 1981 and 2020 ranged from -37% (2008) to +38% (1995). The market’s compound annual return for this period was 11.5%. Investors, however, live with actual portfolio values, not abstract rates of return. Obviously, and other things equal,…
Global Diversification Trending in India – Time to Notice?
The merit of international diversification seems to have proven itself lately in the context of the Indian market. Over the past year, interest has increased in adding global exposures to local investment portfolios. Global markets offer the potential opportunity to diversify beyond a traditional concentrated focus on local markets. The latest August Global Equity Dashboard…
S&P MAESTRO 5 Index: A Sophisticated Composition Designed to Simplify Risk Management
Get to know the S&P MAESTRO 5 Index, a diversified, multi-asset, multi-factor risk parity strategy designed to help investors hit the right notes across a range of market conditions.
- Categories Commodities, Equities, Factors, Fixed Income, Strategy
- Tags commodities, diversification, dividends, Downside Protection, ETFs, gold, indexing, inflation protection, insurance, low volatility, momentum factor, multi-asset, Multi-Factor, quality factor, rising rate protection, risk management, risk parity, S&P 500 Factors, S&P MAESTRO 5 Index, U.S. Treasuries, VIX Futures
- Categories
- Commodities, Equities, Factors, Fixed Income, Strategy
- Tags
- commodities, diversification, dividends, Downside Protection, ETFs, gold, indexing, inflation protection, insurance, low volatility, momentum factor, multi-asset, Multi-Factor, quality factor, rising rate protection, risk management, risk parity, S&P 500 Factors, S&P MAESTRO 5 Index, U.S. Treasuries, VIX Futures
Chugging Along
In the last three months, the Canadian equity market climbed another three percentage points, bringing the S&P/TSX Composite Index up to an impressive 20.4% YTD through Sept. 16, 2021. In a strong bull market environment, low volatility indices are expected to lag—and they typically have. But overall, the S&P/TSX Composite Low Volatility Index has held…
Performance Characteristics of the New S&P U.S. SPAC Index
After exploring the characteristics and lifecycle of special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) in our previous SPAC blog series, we will now examine the recently launched S&P U.S. SPAC Index. The S&P U.S. SPAC Index is designed to measure the performance of a minimum of 30 common stocks of SPACs listed on U.S. exchanges. The constituents…
- Categories Equities
- Tags IPOs, S&P U.S. SPAC Index, SPACs, Special Purpose Acquisition Companies
- Categories
- Equities
Headwinds on the Active Horizon
Active managers’ performance was disappointing in 2020, despite the market’s heightened volatility. As the market continues to march upward in 2021, it’s natural to wonder if current conditions are favorable for stock pickers. We expect active managers’ difficulties to persist. We can think of volatility in terms of its components: dispersion and correlation. Active managers…
The Senate’s Approval of the Infrastructure Bill and Its Effect on Cryptocurrency
On Aug. 10, 2021, the US Senate approved the much-debated Infrastructure Bill, a cornerstone of President Joe Biden’s agenda. The bill overall is worth over $1 trillion. Yet the impact on the digital asset community, while small from a dollar perspective, may be equally outsized. It is estimated that the bill will increase tax revenue…
- Categories Equities
- Tags crypto, Cryptocurrency, digital assets, infrastructure bill, Lukka
- Categories
- Equities
Introducing the S&P Multi-Asset Dynamic Inflation Strategy Index – Part 2
In a previous blog, we highlighted the objective of the S&P Multi-Asset Dynamic Inflation Strategy Index and summarized its methodology. We justified our strategy choice for each inflation regime (high, medium, low) and illustrated how the index dynamically switches between these strategies based on a monthly inflation forecast. In this blog, we will take a…
Introducing the S&P Multi-Asset Dynamic Inflation Strategy Index – Part 1
Inflation is one of the most significant risks to investment returns over the long term. Core equities and conventional bonds tend to deliver below-average returns in rising inflation environments, which can encourage investors to seek out inflation-sensitive assets, such as commodities, inflation-linked bonds, REITs, natural resource stocks, and gold, to protect their portfolios from inflation…
