Reports and investment research on ETFs and other fund vehicles, including mutual funds, UCITs and white papers on liquid alternatives. Research on liquid alts has received a lot of attention, as institutional investors and FOHFs show increasing interest in the many different types of liquid alternative mutual funds. For hedge funds, alternative UCITs provide another opportunity to expand... their investor universe. Research on future trends in UCITs has been popular, as have papers on the use of sub-advisers for liquid alternatives. The most popular ETF research includes papers on smart beta ETFs, best practices for ETF trading, Asian ETFs and bond ETFs. Different ETF articles will appeal to different members. For asset allocators seeking to make short-term allocations to an asset class, research providing a cost comparison of futures and ETFs has received many downloads. For DC Plan Sponsors, the question "should ETFs be an investment option in DC plans?" has generated a lot of interest, whereas for Canadian plan sponsors a paper questioning the use of mutual funds in Canadian pensions has proved popular.
Our EM Equity Spotlight is designed to guide you through Emerging Market equity indices, covering broad, regional and single country exposures from every angle. It also takes you through the latest outlook, returns and valuations, flow trends, and a note on active vs. passive performance.
Institutional allocations to exchange-traded funds (ETFs) rapidly grew last year, driven in large part by investors repositioning their portfolios in the face of an increasingly volatile and fast-changing market environment and the continued shift of institutional assets from active management to index strategies.
Quantitative investment managers experienced significant and wide-ranging underperformance in 2018. The performance of Alternative Risk Premia (ARP) strategies, which claim to offer broad diversification across distinct economic drivers and to be lowly correlated to equity markets, was particularly poor. Because of their…
This edition of Platinum Quarterly considers the platinum supply and demand developments for the first quarter of 2019 and provides an updated outlook for 2019. We also provide our views on issues and trends relevant to investors considering exposure to platinum as an investment asset and update you on…
When an exchange-traded fund (ETF) trades heavily around a theme, correlations among its constituents increase significantly. Even some securities that have little or negative exposure to the theme itself begin to trade in lockstep with other ETF constituents. In other words, because ETF investors are agnostic to security-…
ETF allocation has increased by 50% in the past 2 years. That growth was driven by three key trends: Institutions are repositioning their portfolios for a turbulent investment environment. Concerns with macroeconomic developments and geopolitical events have increased the demand for ETFs.
Prior research has shown that decisions made at fund family level can account for a substantial portion of the performance of the individual active fund managers in the family. The question then arises whether the average fund performance of some fund families is persistently superior or inferior to that of other fund…
This study identifies and analyzes the sources of historical underperformance of index ETFs versus actively managed mutual funds in the high-yield bond and floating-rate loan fund categories, and examines whether such underperformance is likely to persist.
This 28 page document provides a comprehensive overview of the characteristics of U.S. equity indices, covering broad, country, sector and thematic indices. The report examines fund flows and investor sentiment, providing guidance in the use of ETFs to efficiently capture index returns.
This 44 page document provides a comprehensive overview of the characteristics of European equity indices, covering broad, country, sector and thematic indices. The report examines fund flows and investor sentiment, providing guidance in the use of ETFs to efficiently capture index returns.
This study examines the risk-adjusted performance of actively managed mutual funds vs. passively managed mutual funds between 1991 and 2018 and finds that the statistical significance of the difference in performance between the two types of funds disappears when the passively managed funds are compared to competitively…
ETFs can be useful tools for investors building their portfolios. This paper by Vanguard examines their role in portfolio construction and in providing market liquidity and market information.
The right Exchange Traded Funds (ETF), start with the right index. ETF due diligence importantly begins with analyzing and understanding the underlying benchmark used. Whether advising clients or selecting investments for client portfolios, the insight provided in FTSE Russell’s Guide to Indexes and ETFs is designed to help…
Allocations to exchange-traded funds by institutions currently investing in ETFs increased by 50% in 2018, totalling 15% of total assets among the 127 institutional investors participating in Greenwich Associates most recent European Exchange-Traded Funds’ European Study. Join subject matter experts from index provider FTSE…
This research paper presents a methodology for estimating the trading volume on U.S. exchanges attributable to the portfolio management activity of index funds, index ETFs, and other indexing strategies. We estimate that index funds and index ETFs currently account for approximately 1% of overall trading volume on U.S.…
