The last few weeks have been challenging for business the world over. People working from home and aggressive social distancing have led to business contraction and the expectation of rising default. On March 19, 2020, an S&P report expected that the U.S. trailing 12-month speculative-grade corporate default rate would rise to 10% within the next Read more […]
In January 2019, we highlighted several indices designed to reduce the impact of large equity market drawdowns. Here we analyze the same suite of indices divided across three broad categories: defensive equity, multi-asset, and volatility. This analysis simply reviews performance since the S&P 500®’s high on Feb. 19, 2020, through the close on Friday, March Read more […]
“The rich, the poor, the high, the low Alike the various symptoms know”–The Influenza Winston Churchill, 1890 By this point, the infamous COVID-19 has made its way around the world and wreaked havoc through equity markets across the globe. We’ve already highlighted the value of protection in the U.S. and Canada. Pandemics show no respect Read more […]
It remains to be seen what the full economic impact of the COVID-19 virus will be, but it is already clear that no equity market has escaped unscathed. (In fact, most of them have been scathed rather badly.) The Canadian equity market was humming along in 2020 through February 20, 2020, with the S&P/TSX Composite Read more […]
With the S&P 500 down -14.7% for calendar 2020, and -18.8% since its peak in late February, investors are rightly concerned to identify strategies that might help to mitigate the ongoing decline. A number of defensive factor indices have performed relatively well in March, but the leader for the year so far is S&P 500 Read more […]
Low volatility strategies have achieved considerable market acceptance in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. For most of the 12 years since then, skeptics have argued that low vol might become, and sometimes that it has become, overvalued. It’s an understandable concern, especially in light of the continuing popularity of low volatility strategies. We Read more […]
What story is Optimal Asset Management’s Factor Allocator’s analysis trying to tell us? First, it is important to note each strategy has a factor fit quality reading above 80% (the S&P 500 High Dividend Index – 83.72% and the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats – 87.62%) which means the analysis of factor exposures appears useful in Read more […]
Through Feb. 20, 2020, the S&P 500 Low Volatility Index® is up 5.9% compared to a gain of 4.7% for the S&P 500. Equities roared out of the gate in 2020 but a hiccup in late January allowed Low Vol to catch up and eventually overtake the S&P 500. Those who are familiar with low Read more […]
Except for a couple of hiccups, the U.S. stock market has more or less hummed along in an upward trajectory for 2019. Through October, the S&P 500 is up 23%. What is surprising is that the S&P 500 Low Volatility Index® outperformed the benchmark by almost 3%, gaining 26% over the same period. This is Read more […]
Amid the turbulent markets of 2019, the S&P Economic Cycle Factor Rotator Index has been holding steady. The index rotates its allocation between four indices benchmarked to factors—momentum, value, quality, and low volatility—seeking to pick the relevant factor for each phase of the business cycle. The index uses a signal that is based off the Read more […]
