20 Top Papers from September 2019
Popular and Trending Papers from September 2019
This month's list of top papers on Savvy Investor covers some unique topics, such as: searching for tenbaggers in the sea of European equities, the development of EVs in EMs, and how to measure the illiquidity premium in fixed income.
Pension investors may also be interested in the Thinking Ahead Institute's recently released report providing insight into the inner workings of the world's 300 top pension funds. Please note that all 20 papers may not be visible to some site members due to geographic restrictions on the included papers.
Investing for outcomes (Invesco, 2019)
For compliance reasons, this paper is only accessible in certain geographies
Invesco reports on the increasing sophistication and specificity of investment mandates. Fewer of the requests they now receive are to fulfil narrow objectives. Instead, an increasing number of conversations are around specific, multi-period goals.
Reducing carbon risk in institutional portfolios (Candriam, 2019)
For compliance reasons, this paper is only accessible in certain geographies
One of the most topical ESG metrics today is greenhouse gas emissions. But how can this be measured, taking into account the emissions of the company, its suppliers, and its products? The authors discuss how this can be translated into a portfolio metric.
CIO Outlook: Opportunities in adversity (LGIM, Sep 2019)
For compliance reasons, this paper is NOT accessible in the United States and Canada
In this LGIM outlook, different teams from across the business provide answers to key client questions regarding the market and macro outlook over the next few months.
The Hunt for Europe's Tenbaggers (Baillie Gifford, Sep 2019)
So-called 'tenbaggers' are an investor's dream - stocks where they have made 10x their money. While these returns may seem far-fetched, the concept of searching for stocks with limited downside and unlimited upside is far from it.
The world's largest 300 pension funds (Thinking Ahead Institute, 2019)
This report by the Thinking Ahead Institute provides detailed analysis of the world's largest pension funds.
EV Development in Emerging Markets (BNP Paribas AM, 2019)
This paper by BNP Paribas AM examines where major markets such as China and India stand in their evolution. It also explores the scope for electric vehicles to develop in other global emerging markets.
Illiquidity: understanding the premium in fixed-income (Hermes IM blog, 2019)
Low interest rates have pushed fixed income investors into lower credit quality and greater duration, but also into illiquid assets, due to the their illiquidity premium. Hermes discusses the illiquidity premium in detail, including mistakes made in its measurement and the way it operates in different market conditions.
Taking Stock of Farmland Cash Yields: a Comparative Analysis (Manulife IM, 2019)
For compliance reasons, this paper is only accessible in the EMEA region
Expanding into real assets such as timberland, farmland, and CRE is one way to diversify multi-asset portfolios. Additionally, in today's volatile market environment, investors may benefit from strong cash yields provided by farmland investments.
Fixed Income: Capturing the Opportunity of Constraints (PGIM Fixed Income, 2019)
The fragmentation of fixed income markets leads to opportunities for total-return, multi-sector fixed income investors. PGIM Fixed Income describes some of these relative value opportunities as well as an approach for building multi-sector portfolios.
Podcast: An Investor's Guide to China - Opening Up (Fidelity Intl, 2019)
For compliance reasons, this paper is only accessible in the UK & Europe
This guide delves deep into both the Chinese economy and the inner workings of Chinese financial markets. How are Chinese investors navigating opportunities in the 2nd largest global economy while still avoiding pitfalls?
ETFs’ Versatility Shines in Volatile Times (iShares, 2019)
For compliance reasons, this paper is only accessible in the United States
Robust inflows from other assets and into ETFs last year may have occurred not in spite of market volatility and drawdowns, but rather because of these factors.
What explains the poor performance of factor strategies? (Scientific Beta, 2019)
Recent factor underperformance relates more to implementation decisions for factor exposures than to the actual factors, the authors show.
An Introduction to Collateralized Loan Obligations (PineBridge, 2019)
In this primer, PineBridge explores how collateralized loan obligations (CLOs) work. They present CLOs as robust, opportunity-rich debt instruments and discuss several of their pros and cons.
EROCI and the Tough Road Ahead for Oil (BNP Paribas AM, 2019)
The authors discuss EROCI (the Energy Return on Capital Invested), and the specific example of the energy return on a $100bn investment in renewables and oil where energy is used to power light-duty vehicles and cars.
2019 North American InvestOps Report (SimCorp)
SimCorp provides an overview of some of the challenges and opportunities that operations leaders face in the insurance, asset management, and pension fields. This report is based on data from a survey of operations directors within 100 North American buy-side firms.
How much do fees affect the active versus passive debate? (S&P Dow Jones Indices)
Adding institutional accounts to the S&P Indices Versus Active (SPIVA) U.S. Scorecards in addition to mutual funds broadens the overall data set. In addition, this report looks at the impact of fees.
Five year capital market expectations (UBS AM, 2019)
Drawing on the breadth and depth of expertise within their asset management group, the UBS team quantify risk/return expectations for a broad set of asset classes, incorporating current economic and market conditions while providing insight for strategic asset allocations.
VC Pricing: Lessons from Uber, WeWork and Peloton (Aswath Damodaran, Sep 2019)
Aswath Damodaran examines the pricing of companies by VCs, looking at the prospectuses of WeWork, Uber, and Peloton. What do their investment pitches reveal about VC pricing?
Secure Retirement: Connecting Financial Theory & Human Behavior (CFA Institute Research Foundation, 2019)
Fear sometimes prompts the average investor to act against his own best interest. Investors fear uncertainty over returns as well as drawdowns. The fact that greater risk is associated with greater expected return does not preclude the possibility that realized returns may be far less than a low-risk asset could provide, even with horizons as long as 5 to 10 years.
Fallen Angels in the U.S. Credit Market (FTSE Russell, 2019)
FTSE Russell describes the characteristics, historical performance, and differences between the current credit cycle and earlier regimes.
