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Featured Papers and Interviews with Industry Thought Leaders

Over the past century, the global economy has transitioned from being dominated by agriculture and manufacturing to being powered primarily by services. Services now represent three-quarters of the workforce in developed markets and generate two-thirds of…

Asset allocation and portfolio construction are considered to be the main determinants of investment risk and returns for investors. The challenge for asset managers has always been finding an optimal asset allocation that meets both investors’ risk and reward requirements. Asset allocation methods have developed and…

2020 was the year of the pandemic, instant recession, and US election drama, while UBS AM think 2021 is poised to be the year of vaccines and a more durable, comprehensive economic reopening. Dive inside their Panorama report to see what their attention is focused on for 2021.

In a world of low return expectations and even lower interest rates, pension plans are re-evaluating their portfolios, looking for alternative ways to achieve return targets and improve funded status. Diversifying portfolios with real assets helps address these challenges. Real assets may reduce portfolio volatility, enhance…

The correlation between stock and bond returns has been reliably and persistently negative for the last two decades across Developed Markets (DM) – matching the U.S. experience. During this regime, stocks and bonds have hedged one another, dampening overall portfolio risk for a given level of equity allocation.

Nuveen experts explore considerations for institutions looking to allocate to alternative credit.

Generating alpha within a portfolio is an objective that most investors strive for, but is something that often evades their grasp. There have been a number of quantitative models created over time with the aim of outperforming the market, however, as markets are continuously developing and evolving, it is difficult to find…

What’s driving increased demand for sustainable investment fixed income indexes? What are the implementation challenges of ESG in fixed income?

As investors seek to navigate an unprecedented market regime, BlackRock sees private market investments as well suited to the task.

This white paper is the second in a series designed to bring understanding of the U.S. equity market to the next level. This paper is organised into two parts, the first and longer part focusing on CAPE-based valuations, and the second focusing on corporate profit margins. The paper addresses both the multiple and the…

Winner of Savvy Investor Awards - Best Asset Allocation Paper 2021

Oliver Wyman Forum asks why stock market valuations in the United States varied so much throughout history. Relative to historical benchmarks, are valuations in recent years as extreme as commonly believed? And why have margins also varied so much and…

CFA Institute Research Foundation introduces the first edition of the International Guide to Cost of Capital Summary Edition (IGCC) from Duff and Phelps/Kroll. This publication, which examines the important difference in risk characteristics of investing in various countries, is now a valuable part of the Research Foundation…

The financial system as investors have known it for many decades is dealing with a new reality of negative interest rates and yields. Behind this phenomenon lie many factors and their consequences that are important for every financial professional to understand. In a levered financial system, central banks globally have had…

The credit markets are finally embracing quantitative investing and this paper provides an in-depth primer to quant credit. Readers will learn about the dynamics of systematic trading, the factors employed in quant models, and the future path this rapidly-evolving strategy is likely to take.

The key theme of this year’s report, the ‘S’ pillar of ESG (environmental, social and governance) investing, is highly pertinent. As politicians and policy makers across the world aim to ‘build back better’, Create-Research and DWS believe they need to take the time to fully understand the social part of ESG.

The role of cryptocurrencies as a vehicle for speculation has been well established. However, it is less clear if cryptocurrencies can also serve to manage risk. The authors seek to determine the diversification potential of cryptocurrencies both for short and long horizons. For short horizons, they estimate correlations…

This paper reviews the significant progress in academic and policy research on climate change and its impact on expected returns and strategic portfolio allocation across major public assets. To date, there have been efforts to measure the environmental impact to firms within a broader ESG framework. Various sources may help…

The progress that sustainable investment has made in recent years has been stunning. It has gone from a niche investment style to a mainstream multi-trillion dollar industry. The rise of sustainability has produced some stunning statistics of its own – from wind turbines the size of skyscrapers to plans to create a Great…