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Dimitris Melas
Managing Director and Global Head of Core Equity Research
About the Contributor
Dimitris Melas is Managing Director and Global Head of Core Equity Research at MSCI, where he is responsible for equity research and strategic product development across both equity indexes and equity analytics. Dimitris leads a global team of research specialists located in several cities around the world. Prior to joining MSCI in 2006, Dimitris worked at HSBC Asset Management as Head of Research and Head of Quantitative Strategies. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst and holds an MSc in Electrical Engineering, an MBA in Finance, and a Ph.D. in Applied Probability from the London School of Economics. He has published several research papers in peer reviewed journals and serves as Editorial Board Member of the Journal of Portfolio Management.
Blog posts by Dimitris Melas
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Apr. 03, 2018
Putting the spotlight on Spotify: Why have stocks with unequal voting rights outperformed? »
Nearly 15 years after Google’s initial public offering, the debate about listed companies that offer unequal voting rights to outside investors rages on. A number of high-profile technology companies including Dropbox Inc., Spotify and Snap Inc. have recently listed shares with unequal voting rights, adding fuel to the debate. Meanwhile, investors are trying to determine if they should shun the stock issued by these companies or include them in equity portfolios.
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Large U.S. technology companies, the so-called FAANG, dominated the U.S. stock market in the last few years and had a significant impact on many investment strategies. These companies have been underrepresented in most factor-based strategies due to their unattractive factor characteristics. Have factor investors suffered from not investing in these stocks?
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Growing fears about rising inflation and interest rates sparked a decline across equity markets in the last few days. The MSCI USA Index fell 2% on Friday and a further 4% on Monday. Has the sell-off been indiscriminate? Or has it affected certain sectors and factors more than others?
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Markets have enjoyed a relatively long period of positive returns and low volatility, making some investors wonder if a correction is imminent. One possible trigger for a correction would be investors concluding that market valuations have become extreme, which could lower future returns.
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Over the past decade, many long-term institutional investors have incorporated Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) considerations into their portfolios, by creating segregated ESG mandates or by incorporating ESG criteria across the entire portfolio.
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Hedge funds and other investors who manage portfolios that rebalance frequently face a challenge when it comes to the use of factors for trading, hedging and risk monitoring: Which factors tend to break down over time?
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For institutional investors, float-adjusted market capitalization weighted indexes remain the tools of choice to implement their passive allocations. Such indexes are used widely as policy and performance benchmarks and as the basis for ETFs and other passive vehicles. Is this use justified or even appropriate? Do benchmark indexes suffer from shortcomings that undermine their suitability in implementing investment strategies?
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Investors with global portfolios need to know where the companies they invest in are domiciled. It is equally important, however, for them to know where those companies earn their revenue. Data from MSCI shows that the geographic distribution of companies’ revenues can have a significant impact on their stock prices.
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Brexit brought mayhem to Britain, at least in the short run. Markets fell, the pound dropped, the prime minister resigned and, worst of all, the English national football team was knocked from the European Championship by Iceland!
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While the long-term consequences for investors of the decision by U.K. voters to leave the European Union may take time to unfold, our analysis of the months that preceded the referendum shows that tremors from Brexit already have stirred up markets and upped systemic risk for Britain compared with developed markets generally. The question now is whether the waves will continue and how they may (or may not) intensify.