Fei Mei Chan is Director, Index Investment Strategy at S&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI). The index investment strategy team provides research and commentary on the entire S&P DJI product set, including U.S. and global equities, commodities, fixed income, and economic indices.
Prior to joining S&P DJI, Fei Mei was a member of the tax-exempt housing and structured finance group within U.S. Public Finance Ratings at Standard & Poor’s. Fei Mei has also reported and written for both Forbes and Barron’s, covering equity and mutual funds.
Fei Mei holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and classics anthropology from New York University.Through the end of July, equities had netted a nice gain for 2019 (though the picture looks a lot different so far in August). Unusually, the S&P 500 Low Volatility Index® outperformed in an environment when it has typically lagged its benchmark. (The S&P 500 gained 20.2%, while the low volatility index was up 20.8%, Read more […]
Despite the hovering cloud of geopolitical menace as we entered 2019, the U.S. equity market enjoyed an almost seamless rise through the first four months of the year. May’s retreat reacquainted investors with volatility and served as a reminder that the market is near all-time highs, having enjoyed a more or less sustained increase for Read more […]
Market gains in the first four months in 2019 more than made up for what it lost in the turbulent last quarter of 2018 as the S&P 500 jumped 18%. Predictably enough, the S&P 500 Low Volatility Index® trailed the broader benchmark (up a “mere” 16% in the first four months), although Low Vol has Read more […]
We recently updated our paper asking Is the Low Volatility Anomaly Universal? The alert reader (and we have no other kind) will have guessed that it is. This is an empirical conclusion, but a theoretical digression might help explain why this is so remarkable. Low volatility strategies explicitly seek to lower the risk of a Read more […]
The S&P 500 Low Volatility Index® made a valiant comeback in late 2018 after trailing for most of the year. The strategy index finished the year well by just staying in positive territory at a 0.27% gain, when the broader S&P 500 declined 4%. It was also the best performing factor index among those based Read more […]
A headline from yesterday was very intriguing: “Why investors crave a return to the art of stock-picking.” Copious data demonstrate the peril of placing hope in active management. The article argues that since we seem to be in a trend that favors value, it is a good time for managers to pick stocks based on Read more […]
Active managers were welcomed by a disheartening headline this morning. “The 2018 Comeback That Wasn’t for Stock Pickers” highlights that “just 38% of actively managed U.S. stock funds tracked by Morningstar outperformed their counterparts at passively managed funds last year.” This should hardly have been considered shocking. Both long-term and more recent data (notably including Read more […]
In 2018, the S&P 500 declined for the first time in 10 years. The year’s 4% decline is obviously de minimis compared to 2008’s 37% plunge, though investors may feel it more keenly since the fourth quarter’s 14% decline erased what had been a profitable year. Nonetheless, the risk landscape changed dramatically in 2018 compared Read more […]
For most of 2018, the S&P 500 Low Volatility Index® underperformed its parent S&P 500. Through the first nine months of 2018, the S&P 500 climbed 11% while the S&P 500 Low Volatility Index was up only 6%. Then October came and, in one month of acute volatility, the low volatility index recaptured parity with Read more […]
“The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain.” – Aristotle Recent volatility in equity markets may be unsettling to some investors. Skittishness about the stock market is understandable, especially in the context of the serenity in 2017. Volatility levels are relatively higher and risk is on the radar of Read more […]