Blog Post - The low size factor, or the premium that has been historically realized by investing in smaller sized companies over longer time periods, forms an integral component of many institutional portfolios. However, investors can choose different ways to making a low size allocation.

Research Paper - We examine the trading activity and pricing structure in the equity options market to infer the sentiment of options traders on the underlying equity. We find that metrics constructed from the level of options trading activity relative to the underlying stock and from comparing the pricing of puts relative to calls at various moneyness levels have implications for the cross section of stock returns. Importantly, we also find that the information in options sentiment is additive and orthogonal to what is explained by other common style factors such as value and momentum, or by other measures of sentiment such as those derived from short interest or analyst revisions.

Research Paper - Asset owners use indexes as policy benchmarks and reference portfolios in their asset allocation. Index investors track cap-weighted indexes that seek to capture the market return. Active investors select securities and build portfolios that aim to outperform the market. All these types of investors may be able to benefit from incorporating factors into their process.

Blog Post - Chinese equity prices have hardly been music to investors’ ears in 2018. The MSCI China A Onshore IMI Index has declined more than 25% in local currency terms through Oct. 31, with a relatively narrow differentiation of returns. Were there factors in this market that outperformed?

Blog Post - October’s market sell-off reflected investors’ concerns with the sustainability of economic growth, the longer-term impact of trade tariffs and rising interest rates. In all, it seemed to be a shift away from pro-cyclical themes. Do risks remain for those areas of the market?

Blog Post - As factor investing becomes increasingly “business as usual,” institutional investors have become keenly interested in the ability of strategies that replicate factor indexes to persistently capture desired exposures without compromising exposure to the target factor. We illustrate six index design approaches that can be used to tackle this challenge. 

Research Paper - Factor allocation approaches based on simple diversification techniques are transparent and have performed well historically. However, some investors prefer a dynamic approach that adapts to changing market environments while preserving diversification benefits of multi-factor investing.

Blog Post - Fears of a global slowdown have sent U.S. stock markets plummeting recently. Given FAANG stocks (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google) have been a dominant force in driving U.S. market performance higher over the past few years, did these stocks lead the market’s downward trajectory?

Blog Post - Which factors have performed best in the China A market, especially given its relatively high annualized market volatility? Is there too much risk to bear? We investigate the role that the minimum volatility factor has played.