Rupert Watts
Head of Factors and Dividends, S&P Dow Jones Indices
Explore new territories with greater confidence
S&P DJI combines global reach with local expertise, working with exchanges around the world to build indices for both the local and international investment communities.
For over 20 years, our renowned SPIVA research has measured actively managed funds against their index benchmarks worldwide.
Register to attend complimentary webinars and deepen your knowledge of current trends and issues impacting the index universe today.
Your Gateway to Index Data
Explore new territories with greater confidence
Our Services
Professional Resources
S&P DJI combines global reach with local expertise, working with exchanges around the world to build indices for both the local and international investment communities.
Asset Class
Themes
By Region
Our Exchange Relationships
S&P DJI combines global reach with local expertise, working with exchanges around the world to build indices for both the local and international investment communities.
Equity
Fixed Income
Commodities
Dividends & Factors
Multi-Asset
Other Strategies
Sustainability
Thematics
Digital Assets
Indicators
For over 20 years, our renowned SPIVA research has measured actively managed funds against their index benchmarks worldwide.
Register to attend complimentary webinars and deepen your knowledge of current trends and issues impacting the index universe today.
Research & Insights
Education
Performance Reports
SPIVA®
For over 20 years, our renowned SPIVA research has measured actively managed funds against their index benchmarks worldwide.
Events & Webinars
Register to attend complimentary webinars and deepen your knowledge of current trends and issues impacting the index universe today.
S&P DJI has an extensive history of delivering robust and transparent benchmarks to the financial industry and always endeavors to deliver high quality indices in conformity with our core values and in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations as well as industry standards and guidelines. S&P Global's Code of Business Ethics coupled with S&P DJI policies and procedures set the standard for an effective governance program.
Find out what makes our indices tick—access index policies and methodologies, GICS® structure definitions, rebalancing and holiday schedules, and other information related to index calculation and maintenance.
Governance
Methodologies
Consultations
Our consultations enable members of the investment community to provide feedback on potential changes to index methodologies.
Your Gateway to Index Data
SPICE
Your Gateway to Index Data
S&P Global Offerings
Featured Topics
Featured Products
Events
Head of Factors and Dividends, S&P Dow Jones Indices
Rupert Watts is Head of Factors and Dividends at S&P Dow Jones Indices. His field focuses on alternate beta strategies, including factor-based indices, dividends and quantitative strategies. In his role, Rupert works closely with the Sales, Marketing and Global Research & Design departments to bring new ideas to market.
Prior to his current role, Rupert worked at Deutsche Bank for almost 11 years, with the majority of this time dedicated to research and product development within quantitative investment strategies (QIS), with stints on the buy side and sell side. While in QIS, Rupert developed factor-based strategies across multiple asset classes and managed portfolio mandates for institutional clients.
Rupert is originally from the United Kingdom and earned a bachelor’s degree in business and finance from the University of the West of England, Bristol. Rupert is both a Certified Financial Analyst (CFA) and a Certified Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA).
Popularized by Warren Buffett, the term economic moat refers to a company’s sustainable competitive advantage that allows it to preserve market share and generate high profits over the long term. In this analogy, companies are compared to medieval castles surrounded by deep and wide moats, which protected the castles from attack. In the same way,…
Underperformance of many active managers against their broad market benchmarks has been well documented.1 However, we thought it would be interesting to apply this comparison specifically to the dividend market. In this blog, we will examine how the S&P 500® Dividend Aristocrats® stacks up against actively managed U.S. equity income funds. Recognized as one of…
On Aug. 16, 2022, President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law, which includes the largest ever climate-related investment by the U.S. federal government. Devoting USD 370 billion to climate and energy programs, the act commits the U.S. to a roughly 40% emissions reduction by 2030. This landmark bill is the latest example…
While electric vehicles have been attractive to environmentally conscious consumers for several decades, in recent years, they have come into their own as innovation has made them more accessible and practical. With the current prices at the pump, now more than ever, consumers are turning to electric vehicles as a greener and more economical option….
Last week, the S&P 500® officially entered a bear market, dropping more than 20% from its record close in January. However, not all equity indices suffered comparable losses, and one such example is the S&P 500 Low Volatility High Dividend Index. In fact, this index has outperformed by a wide margin so far in 2022….
Since their launch in April 2021, the S&P Quality, Value, and Momentum Top 90% Multi-factor Indices (the “S&P QVM Top 90% Indices”) have been a great addition to our multi-factor lineup. These indices are designed to track companies in the top 90% of their respective underlying index universe, ranked by their multi-factor score. To support…
Driven primarily by the U.S. Federal Reserve’s plan to tighten monetary policy and curb inflation, and compounded by geopolitical tensions and earnings, the S&P 500® finished January down 5.26%. Market participants contemplating how to position themselves for the path ahead should not overlook dividend growth strategies such as the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats®. To be…
While the rationale behind risk parity is well understood, the implementation frameworks often differ. For example, some implementations are purely passive while others are more active, the way risk is defined can differ, and the underlying instruments used can vary. In 2018, the S&P Risk Parity Indices became the first transparent, rules-based benchmarks offered in…
This blog, the final in a series of three, reviews the performance of the new S&P Dividend Growers Indices and highlights some of their defensive characteristics. They are designed to track companies with consistently increasing dividends while excluding the top 25% highest-yielding eligible companies. Only companies that increase dividends consecutively for at least 10 and…
Earlier this year, S&P DJI launched three S&P Quality, Value, and Momentum Top 90% Multi-factor Indices (the “S&P QVM Top 90%” Indices) across our large-cap, mid-cap, and small-cap universes. Each of these indices is tracked by an ETF. Compared to S&P DJI’s other flagship multi-factor indices, this new series represents a differentiated approach to multi-factor…