Hamish Preston is Associate Director, Global Research & Design at S&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI). Hamish is responsible for conceptualization, research, and design covering global strategy, factor-based, alternative beta, and thematic equity indices. He is also a frequent contributor to financial media outlets.
Prior to joining Global Research & Design, Hamish worked in Index Investment Strategy at S&P DJI, where he provided research and commentary on the entire S&P DJI product set, including U.S. and global equities, commodities, fixed income, and economic indices.
Hamish holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the London School of Economics and graduated with distinction from the University of Birmingham with a master’s degree in financial economics. Hamish has also passed CFA Exam Level II.U.S. mid-cap equities – as represented by the S&P MidCap 400 – outperformed both their larger and smaller counterparts since the early 1990s. In decomposing relative returns, sector analysis can be useful to understand the drivers of performance. For example, the S&P MidCap 400’s underweight position in Information Technology at the start of the 21st Read more […]
When it comes to investing, market participants often consider past performance to be indicative of future results. The same goes for fund selection. Notwithstanding the evidence showing that most active managers in most regions typically underperformed their benchmarks, consistently beating peers is one way to differentiate a manager’s luck from skill. Here are a few Read more […]
Many financial theories are based on the idea that riskier investments should offer higher returns. However, there is a bank of evidence – accumulated since the 1970s – showing that less volatile stocks posted higher risk-adjusted returns across a number of time horizons, regions, and market segments, historically. S&P Dow Jones Indices produces a range Read more […]
May was categorized by the return of macro fears. Many equities indices and fixed income indicators flashed red – and the S&P 500’s four month win streak ended – as investors grappled with trade tensions and the potential impact on global growth. Adding to investors’ uncertainty, President Trump’s surprise month-end announcement of tariffs on Mexican Read more […]
Global equities have been turbulent recently as a combination of stalled trade negotiations and announcements of tit-for-tat tariffs increased the prospect of a trade war between the U.S. and China. After its historic start to the year, the S&P 500 is down 3.7% so far in May, while many other markets have also faltered month-to-date. Read more […]
Our Year-End 2018 Canada SPIVA scorecard was released today. In addition to showing that the majority of Canadian active equity managers failed to outperform their benchmarks, the scorecard’s results provide the opportunity to dispel some common misconceptions. Here is a brief summary. 1) Higher volatility does not necessarily result in outperformance by active managers A Read more […]
S&P Dow Jones Indices recently launched the S&P Global SmallCap Select Index Series. These indices aim to provide broad market exposure to small-cap equities around the world that have a track record of generating positive earnings. As prior S&P DJI research highlighted, the S&P SmallCap 600® outperformed the Russell 2000 by around 2% on an Read more […]
Recently, a number of reports highlighted a surge in popularity for actively managed U.S. equity funds in 2019. The main explanation for this trend appears to be the volatility observed in the final few months of 2018: market participants seem to believe active managers are better able to navigate more volatile markets. However, the data Read more […]
The fourth quarter of 2018 was pretty turbulent for global equities. Volatility and correlations rose, the majority of the S&P Global BMI’s 48 country constituents declined by double digits, recent darlings among factor strategies (momentum and growth) lagged, and the S&P 500’s 13.52% quarterly plunge left the benchmark with its first calendar-year loss in a Read more […]
One of the most persistent trends over the last decade has been the underperformance of value compared to growth. The S&P 500 Growth beat its Value counterpart in eight of the last ten full calendar years, and growth is currently on track to outperform in 2018 (you can find year-to-date figures on page four of our Read more […]