Bond indices were never intended to form a basis for investment, but merely reflect a market. As a consequence they expose investors to unintended risks and are not a rational investment strategy. Indices were never meant to drive investment strategy Bond indices, like all market indices, aim to represent a segment of the investable universe.…
One of the questions we examine in the October issue of the magazine is whether it makes sense now to allocate substantially to cash.
Thanks to the extensive forward guidance of the world’s major central banks, an interest rate hike by either the Fed or the Bank of England would not take investors by surprise. However, short-term consequences could still be grave, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has reportedly warned.
Emerging market debt and high yield bonds, which have had some pretty high inflow volatility recently, are now firmly back in favour with European investors. By contrast, net inflows into investment grade bonds are slowing down.
As Greece is heading for a default, which would significantly increase the possibility for the country to be forced out of the eurozone, markets have plummeted. This is not at all surprising, considering Europe’s fund buyers have consistently been telling us they will decrease their allocations to both bonds and equities if a Grexit appears…
Wealth managers are significantly underestimating the propensity of ultra high net worth individuals to make use of automated advice services, the World Wealth Report 2015 shows.
Asset management companies are starting to struggle explaining their investment philosophy to fund selectors according to a survey by research outfit Cerulli. It asked a selection of European asset managers what they find the biggest challenges in promoting their products to fund selectors.
The announcement by the Icelandic government last week that it is planning to lift the capital controls on the island can already now be seen as a watershed moment for local fund selector polls, at the Expert Investor Iceland held last week in Reykjavik revealed.
The majority of global pension funds have been increasing their equity allocation in the past six months. However, many would prefer to decrease it if they could just find yield somewhere else, because they expect a serious market correction.
A 6.5% fall in the Shanghai stock exchange on Thursday and a 16% one-day spike in the VIX earlier on in the week are but the two most recent examples of sudden, significant market movements that have caught people off guard. Perhaps the best example, however, is the sharp compression and even sharper rise in…
GAM’s poll, which was conducted at a client event attended by 78 investors and featured prominently on the front page of the FTfm on Monday, shows that investors’ assessment about a Grexit has not really changed over the past weeks, athough Greece and its creditors keep failing to reach an agreement on the extension of Greece’s…
China is on the verge of reaching its so-called Lewis Turning Point, as China’s work force as share of the population has reached a peak and cheap supply of labour from the countryside is running dry. The economy will therefore need to find new engines of growth, which will slow down to 4 or 5%…
