Analysis

State Street Global Advisors is releasing two interesting papers this week on the outlook for global bonds and currencies. The common theme is: the past is behind us and the future will be different. Here is the firm’s advice for investors of all shapes and sizes in an increasingly difficult environment. Bonds and currencies tend…

It is often said that momentum, as an investment style, adds value on average over time. And the stats say that is true. In fact, compared with other styles, such as value – the grand-daddy of all styles – it works right up until the time it doesn’t work. Here’s how quants use it. According…

Market conditions and changing investor preferences are creating new challenges for hedge fund managers’ capital raising ambitions, allowing alternatives funds to gain favour with investors, according to EY’s annual alternative funds survey, ‘Global Alternative Fund Survey – At the Tipping Point: Disruption’. The 12th annual survey (formerly the EY Global Hedge Fund Survey) found that 20…

In the largest asset owner survey it has conducted, consulting and manager search firm bfinance uncovered that the trend to alternative, and more ‘costly’ – in terms of fees – strategies has, overall, saved money for big pension and super funds. The survey of 485 fiduciary investors, including 37 from Australia and New Zealand, spoke…

Recent research by Harvard Business School has shown an increasing price premium for stocks which rate highly on an ESG scale over others, and that much of the premium increase can be attributed to investor sentiment. As always, though, investors need to watch for value. With the help of TruValue Labs, which provided data and…

Insight Investment, the big funds management subsidiary of BNY Mellon, has launched a global sustainability model which dissects the risks in each country for sovereign debt investors. In its first unveiling today, the model shows Australia to be “generally strong” on ESG scores, although it is dragged down by environmental issues. New Zealand comes out…

There’s a lot happening in the regulatory world for financial services. Stuart Robert, new Assistant Treasurer, told the SuperRatings/Lonsec conference late last month that he was hopeful of at least four, maybe five, Bills making it through Parliament this month. Here is an interesting update from QMV Solutions. While preparation for round seven of the…

There are 27 open class actions in Australia at the moment, accounting for roughly 10 per cent of the market capitalisation of the ASX 200. Australia has become the second-most important market for investor class cations in the world. Investors need to take note. Whether or not it is an emerging asset class, there is…

by John Hamer* Paul Smith, the global president and chief executive of the CFA Institute, says shining a light on a problem, as Australia’s Royal Commission into banking has done, is a good thing. Before you find a cure you need to find the illness, he says. Australian cricket’s ball-tampering’ scandal is a good analogy….

In the country’s biggest single investment mandate, State Street Global Advisors ended the financial year with almost NZ$8 billion (A$7.6 billion) under management for the NZ Superannuation Fund (NZS). The just-released NZS annual accounts show the State Street passive global equities mandate sat just $24 million shy of the $8 billion mark as at June…

by Greg Bright Two conflicting trends are emerging in investment management which contrast fundamental top-down research with quantitative data sourcing, analysis and management. Forget the index versus active debate, it’s looking more like politics versus big data and artificial intelligence. Quantitative analysis could be at an interesting point of its evolution. On the one hand,…

The Australian Custodial Services Association, one of only two industry bodies which can genuinely be considered to be apolitical, has embarked on a new growth path, having appointed its first chief executive for many years and drawn up a clear program of study and member engagement. Given the Royal Commission, there is no better time…