Are high yield’s new fans clutching at straws?
Money has poured into high yield bond funds at a rare pace over the past month but is this a sound move based on merit, or a case of return-starved investors clutching at straws?
Investment
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Profile interview – José Luís Borges
Fearing that the current preoccupation with long/short equities will lead to short trades becoming too crowded, José Luís Borges insists on his long/short funds being market-neutral. However, the Lisbon-based head of institutional portfolios at BPI Gestão de Activos is otherwise happy to be overweight equities.
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Fund manager video: Rajesh Shant – global equities at Newton, a BNY Mellon company
In this video, Rajesh Shant, global equities portfolio manager at Newton, talks to us about two of Newton’s current investment themes – namely, ‘abundance’ and ‘mind the gap’.
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Replacing fixed income with equity market-neutral – a dangerous idea
Some investors replace part of their fixed income holdings with market-neutral equity. Though these funds are supposedly uncorrelated to the equity market, it’s better to choose a diversified approach, argues Rui Machado, alternative investments director at IM gestao de ativos in Lisbon.
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Emerging market debt – a reversal of fortunes
Investors are fleeing from emerging market debt, and optimism for any recovery in the near term is low, particularly for local currency government bonds.
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The commodity bull awakens
Although commodities are still being treated with a great deal of suspicion, by taking a long-term view investors could reap the rewards of the consolidation that is already underway in the sector.
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It’s all gold that glitters in Monaco
A gold rush has gripped Monaco. All but one of the fund selectors our researcher interviewed when she visited the principality recently, said they are either sure they will buy more gold or will seriously consider the opportunity.
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The Great Rotation – from bonds to absolute return
Fund selectors expect an annual return of less than 2% from their bond portfolios over the next five years. The Great Rotation is therefore finally happening. However, it’s not from bonds to equities, but to absolute return.
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An emerging markets turning point or false dawn?
The recent modest recovery in oil and other commodities prices has prompted some early calls that a widely unloved asset class recently could be close to seeing better days.
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High time for high-yield, the US equity substitute?
Those who believe that ‘risk-on, risk-off’ is consigned to the past look away now, with record inflows into US high-yield indicating that sentiment has shifted once again to the spicier end of the fixed income spectrum.
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Time running out for Europe’s closet trackers
With returns from European equities distinctly harder to come by than during the QE inspired climb last year, active funds falling short in active share terms are going to find investors less forgiving.
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Fund buyers expect another market correction
The equity markets have only just stopped falling, but fund buyers are already preparing for the next market correction. Eight in 10 of delegates at Expert Investor’s Pan-European Congress in Rome expect equity markets to repeat their more than 10% falls before the end of the year.