Tag Archives: topposts2019
The Case for Dividend Futures Contracts
The S&P 500® Dividend Points Index tracks dividend payments of S&P 500 constituents, based on a fixed initial market capitalization, independent of equity price changes. The index cannot be invested in directly, but it is tracked by futures contracts listed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). Currently, the annual dividend futures are available up to…
Why Facebook Was Dropped from the S&P 500® ESG Index
When the S&P 500 ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) Index underwent its annual rebalance after markets closed on April 30, 2019, several notable companies were removed, including Wells Fargo, Oracle, and IBM. However, the largest component to be dropped was Facebook. A day before its exclusion, Facebook held a weight of 2.5% in the S&P…
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Four Decades of the Low Volatility Factor
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…
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Are Active Funds Better at Managing Risks? Not Really.
In investing, risk and return are two sides of the same coin; the expected returns of an asset must be accompanied by variation or uncertainty around the outcome of those returns. All else equal, higher-risk assets should be compensated, on average, by higher returns. The same philosophy applies to performance evaluation. The performance of both…
Low Volatility and Minimum Volatility Are Not the Same
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. …
Dividends and Buybacks: S&P 500® Buyback Index Outperforms
In general, it is a positive sign when a company buy back shares. This means the company believes its stock is undervalued and is confident about its future earnings. In recent years, buybacks have become increasingly popular. With a record number of companies buying back shares, how are these companies are faring? A company can…
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Are You Ready for China A-Share Inclusion?
In case you missed our country classification announcement on Dec. 5, 2018, we will be starting the process of adding China A-shares to S&P DJI global benchmarks (including the S&P China BMI and S&P Emerging BMI) in September 2019 at a partial inclusion factor of 25%. Given the size of China’s onshore equity market, the…
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Can You Beat the Market Consistently?
Our SPIVA® readers often ask what percentage of outperforming funds goes on to beat the market over the following years. Our latest research report, Fleeting Alpha: The Challenge of Consistent Outperformance, answers that exact question in detail. In this blog, we demonstrate the difficulty and likelihood of consistently outperforming a benchmark. Using trailing three-year returns…
- Categories Equities
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- Equities
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When to Get Active with Sectors
When do sectors matter, and what can you do about it? Sometimes the sector composition of an equity portfolio strongly affects its returns. At other times, single stock effects or overall market effects dominate. Sector-based products such as ETFs and futures have been around for decades, but recently they have attracted growing interest. Exhibit 1…
- Categories S&P 500 & DJIA, Strategy
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- S&P 500 & DJIA, Strategy
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Active Management for Volatile Times?
This morning brought a report that “retail investors have returned to Wall Street, pouring money into mutual funds focused on US equities for the first time since early 2015, according to data from TrimTabs Investment Research…. ‘Maybe people think, in times of higher volatility, active managers will do a better job,’ Winston Chua, an analyst…
- Categories Equities, S&P 500 & DJIA, Strategy
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