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Active-Management Opportunities in a Disperse Market 

Factor Investing

Disperse markets have historically provided opportunities for active managers to outperform their respective benchmarks. We showed that, based on historical trends, CSV helped shed light on identifying where the dispersion was greatest.

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What Can Liquidity Tell Us About ETF Prices? 

Integrated Risk Management , Risk Management

As thematic equity ETFs have grown in popularity, concerns have been raised about their liquidity — especially when an ETF holds a large fraction of a constituent’s shares. How can ETF investors get a handle on this risk? 

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Securitized Products’ LIBOR Transition Picking Up Pace 

Fixed Income

In 2021, there has been significant progress in the transition from the LIBOR reference rate to its replacement, SOFR. But investors in securitized products are grappling with the challenge of the LIBOR-SOFR transition and its impact on their analytics.

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CDS Fading as a Measure of Value in Emerging Markets 

Fixed Income

Credit investors use spreads to compare relative value and risk. Studies of emerging-market sovereign debt have shown that credit-default swaps tended to be a better measure of value than spreads computed from bonds. But is it still the case?

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The Theory of (Value) Relativity 

Factor Investing

Whether constructing a fundamental factor model, a value strategy or a value index, valuation ratios need context. Time-series and cross-sectional approaches each have pros and cons. But combining the two may have presented a clearer picture. 

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How Are High-ESG-Rated Bond Portfolios Distinct? 

Fixed Income , Risk Management , ESG Research

ESG investing makes up an increasingly large footprint in equity portfolios, but ESG integration in bond portfolios is still in its early days. We examine the characteristics that make high-ESG-rated corporate-bond portfolios distinct.

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Accounting for Revenue Sources Tells a Richer Story 

Global Investing , Emerging Markets , Economic Exposure

Despite North America’s outsized weighting in the MSCI ACWI Index, companies in the index generated only 30% of their global revenues there. We explore how examining revenue sources may help uncover opportunities of economic growth around the world.

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China A Shares: What Have We Learned? 

Emerging Markets , Global Investing

In this first of a series of blogs covering specific index-inclusion stories, we explore China A shares’ inclusion in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index by looking back at how it occurred and what’s happened since with market and investor reaction.

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Hedging Inflation: A Scorecard 

Integrated Risk Management , Fixed Income , Global Investing , Risk Management

Aggressive actions by central banks and soaring government budget deficits have raised concerns among some investors that inflation may significantly rise. We examine whether an inflation hedge was worth the cost over the past 13 years.

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Measuring Climate Risk in Real Estate Portfolios 

ESG Research , Real Estate Investing

By evaluating real estate portfolios in terms of different physical risks as well as under different transition-risk scenarios, investors may be able to build a more complete picture of their exposure.