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Tag Archives: factors

May 1, 2023

Lessons from 20 Years of Equal Weight

How has equal-weight compared with cap-weight historically? S&P DJI’s Hamish Preston and Invesco’s Nick Kalivas explore how differences in index construction have influenced index performance, sector and factor composition, and results in the latest SPIVA Scorecards.

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Apr 26, 2023

Equally Weighting within Sectors: Impact and Potential Applications

The outperformance of equal weight indices is well documented, especially for the S&P 500® Equal Weight Index’s 20 years of live history. Equal Weight’s relative returns reflect the impact of several important index characteristics. For example, smaller-size exposure and (anti-) momentum effects together account for around 75% of the historical variation of its relative returns….

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Apr 18, 2023

The Same, Only Different

In the first quarter of 2023, the best performing of the 17 factor indices featured in our monthly factor dashboard was S&P 500® High Beta (up 12.5%), while the worst performer was S&P 500 Momentum (-3.2%). This may seem odd at first blush, since both indices are, in some sense, performance chasers—Momentum in absolute and…

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Mar 29, 2023

Revenue-Weighted Indices: An Alternative to Core Equities

As persistently high inflation, high interest rates and geopolitical risks continue to dominate the macro environment, the S&P 500® Revenue-Weighted Index, S&P MidCap 400® Revenue-Weighted Index and S&P SmallCap® 600 Revenue-Weighted Index have outperformed their corresponding float-adjusted market-capitalization (FMC) weighted indices by more than 5% during the past one-year period (see Exhibit 1). In this…

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Mar 20, 2023

2023 Has Already Been Trepidatious

A sizzling start for Canadian equities in 2023 found itself fizzling as March began. Despite having a return of as much as 7% in late January/early February, through March 17, 2023, the S&P/TSX Composite Index was up 0.7% YTD. In line with historical trends, the S&P/TSX Composite Low Volatility Index underperformed, declining 0.1%. Volatility rose…

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Mar 9, 2023

Expanding the Dividend Aristocrats Ecosystem with ESG Screening and FMC Weighting

Amid rising interest rates and the uncertain macroeconomic environment last year, dividend-focused strategies received substantial inflows throughout 2022.  On top of these recent macroeconomic trends is also the longer-term, structural development of increasing investor demand for investments that align with their personal and societal values. Against this backdrop, S&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI) recently…

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Feb 27, 2023

Collections of Factors

Traditional investors think of portfolios (whether active or indexed) as collections of stocks. We can equally well think of portfolios as collections of factors—defining factor in the academic sense, as an attribute with which excess returns are thought to be associated. If we’re correct in assessing these attributes, it should be possible to explain portfolio…

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Feb 24, 2023

Momentum’s Mystique

I confess some superhero powers underwhelm me (really, Hawkeye, arrows?) or stretch credulity further than Hulk’s hyper-elastic jeans. However, one I can appreciate is Mystique, the shape-shifting mutant who constantly alters her appearance to stay one step ahead. If factors were superheroes, I’d argue the S&P 500® Momentum Index (“Momentum”) and Mystique share commonalities, both…

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Jan 30, 2023

What Performance Reversals Suggest

Investment results in 2022 were distinctly different from those of the recent past. The S&P 500®, which had doubled in the three years between 2019 and 2021, fell by more than 18% last year, and Exhibit 1 shows that there were regime shifts among factor indices as well. The dominance of Value over Growth in…

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Jan 26, 2023

Surveying Style Indices

How can index construction inform style selection? S&P DJI’s Craig Lazzara takes a closer look at the S&P Style and S&P Pure Style Indices and how these different approaches to indexing Growth and Value are designed to help advisors align strategies with client objectives.

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