In today’s low-rate world, some investors shifted toward historically higher-yielding equities. For others, especially in the insurance industry, the greater risk limited their ability to do so. Was a minimum-variance equity approach a viable option?

Will biodiversity losses become the next crisis facing humanity, possibly surpassing climate change? Growing scrutiny on biodiversity risks could have implications for mines that threaten biodiversity or environments of high conservation value.

ESG funds account for just 4.3% of the mutual-fund universe, totaling over USD 2 trillion. But they are growing in number, and their use as an ESG integration tool is also becoming more established. We take a deeper look at this subset in this quarterly report.

Investors are scouting for companies that mine the metals needed in new energy technologies. But some mining projects key to the transition from fossil fuels may face opposition from Native Americans for threatening sacred areas or traditional ways of life.

Momentum, by definition, rotates into securities with recent outperformance. That said, investors who view value and momentum as contra-signals may have questions about the value-momentum convergence and the divergence of momentum and growth.

The historic win of at least two seats on Exxon Mobil’s board by activist shareholder Engine No. 1 signals a dramatic shift in investors’ thinking about climate change — and in their willingness to vote for climate action. But there is a deeper story.

The MSCI Liquidity Risk Monitor is a quarterly publication that shows the development of several liquidity risk indicators over the previous 12 months.

During inflationary periods, equity investors, historically, have turned to gold as a hedge and diversifier. As the issue of inflation becomes more pressing, we ask whether cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, could have played a similar role.