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Raman Aylur Subramanian

Raman Aylur Subramanian

Managing Director, MSCI Research

As global head of index regional research solutions, Raman Aylur Subramanian conducts research on MSCI product applications and presents the results in interactive sessions with clients. He joined MSCI in 1999, has been working in a variety of research roles and is a member of the MSCI Equity Index Committee. Raman has established close relationships with clients and gained an in-depth understanding of their needs with respect to the MSCI indexes. He received a Bachelor of Technology in petroleum engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines) and a master’s degree in international management from Thunderbird School of Global Management. Additionally, Raman is a CFA® charterholder.

Research and Insights

Articles by Raman Aylur Subramanian

    Free-Float Adjustment in Global Equities: A Two-Decade Review

    Research Report | Jan 10, 2024 | Abhishek Gupta, Raman Aylur Subramanian

    How does free float impact the performance and other characteristics of global equity benchmarks?  We examined changes in free float over the last 20 years and found that increases have led to positive price impacts, and vice versa.  

    How Canadian Asset Owners Are Seizing Investment Opportunities as Risks Evolve

    Blog | Nov 16, 2023 | Henry Fernandez, Ashley Lester, Raman Aylur Subramanian, Chris Cote

    Attendees at the recent MSCI Canadian Institutional Investor Forum discussed and debated the challenges and opportunities created by massive structural, macroeconomic, societal and technological shifts in the investment landscape.

    Seven Lean Years and Other Lessons from the Last Tech-Stock Correction

    2 mins read Quick Take | May 23, 2022 | Raman Aylur Subramanian, Anil Rao, Hitendra D Varsani

    While the share of U.S. technology firms with a substantial drawdown has risen fast, it is not yet at the level of the early-2000s technology crash. It is, nonetheless, worth examining what lessons we might pull from the wreckage of that time.

    Innovation Remix: Adding Thematics to Equity Programs

    6 mins read Blog | Apr 14, 2021 | Raman Aylur Subramanian, Anil Rao, Subramanian Aylur

    How can investors incorporate transformative, but volatile thematic investments while seeking to control for valuation and total and active risk? We examine three approaches that improved a portfolio’s “innovation profile” with modest changes to risk.

    Game of Homes: Is winter coming for the domestic-equity bias?

    Blog | Apr 30, 2019 | Raman Aylur Subramanian, Anil Rao, Raman Subramanian

    Can we quantify home-bias risk in an allocation? And, what has happened when U.S. stocks ended previous multiyear runs of outperformance?

    Does Turkey offer lessons for managing emerging-market currency volatility?

    Blog | Aug 15, 2018 | Raman Aylur Subramanian, Raman Subramanian

    The recent 40% drop in the Turkish lira is part of a long-term trend of rising emerging-market currency volatility. Typically, investors do not hedge this exposure. Is it time to reconsider this approach?

    Time to Rethink Emerging-Markets Allocations?

    Blog | Feb 23, 2017 | Raman Aylur Subramanian

    Over the last five years, the risk and return profile of emerging markets has started to resemble that of developed markets. That leaves many large asset owners to ask how to structure mandates to take advantage of the variation in the behavior of emerging markets.

    Return of the Cyclicals

    Blog | Jan 19, 2017 | Raman Aylur Subramanian, Subramanian Aylur, Raman Subramanian

    U.S. equity investors in 2016 experienced a roller coaster ride. The U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union and the U.S. presidential election each resulted in sharp market moves. Together, the two events contributed to a shift in the underlying fabric of equity markets starting in the second half of the year.

    What do Factors Tell us About Regime Change in U.S. Stocks Following the Election?

    Blog | Dec 2, 2016 | Raman Aylur Subramanian

    Pro-cyclical factors are in, defensive factors are out. That, in a nutshell, describes how the U.S. equity market has responded to the presidential election.

    How Pure is your Value?

    Blog | Oct 25, 2016 | Raman Aylur Subramanian

    Among the reasons that value firms sell at a discount to their intrinsic worth is that they tend to be more sensitive to shocks in gross domestic product compared with their growth counterparts. That may occur because of leverage, deployments of capital, risk-taking or something else that constrains value firms' abiliity to adapt to macroeconomic stresses.

    What a Fed Rate Hike May Mean for U.S. Equity Portfolios

    Blog | Sep 28, 2016 | Raman Aylur Subramanian

    With the U.S. Federal Reserve expected to raise interest rates before the end of the year, institutional investors are focused on how an increase may impact their portfolios, including how different equity style and industry factors perform in different interest-rate regimes.

    Insight into the emerging markets rally

    Blog | Sep 27, 2016 | Raman Aylur Subramanian

    Apart from a recent swoon spurred by fears that the U.S. Federal Reserve could raise rates, it has been a summer of love for investment in emerging markets.

    Thinking Broadly About Emerging Markets

    Blog | Apr 18, 2016 | Raman Aylur Subramanian

    Emerging-market equities revived in the first quarter after a rather dismal performance over the past five years. The pickup has left investors to wonder whether the gains might continue and to think anew about how to approach the segment.

    Finding Value: Understanding Factor Investing

    Blog | Jul 9, 2015 | Raman Aylur Subramanian

    Despite agreement on the principles of value investing, the investment community uses a number of different metrics to describe the value factor. Each metric (or descriptor) has its own advantages and pitfalls.

    Tilting to U.S. Small Caps: Using MSCI Analytics in Portfolio Construction

    Blog | May 15, 2015 | Raman Aylur Subramanian

    U.S. cap-weighted, small-cap benchmarks have historically displayed structural biases that affect performance. For example, small-cap indexes have sector, revenue and style tilts compared to the broad U.S. market.

    Small Caps - No Small Oversight

    Blog | Dec 9, 2014 | Raman Aylur Subramanian

    Many institutional investors recognize that their reference universe should include large-, mid- and small-cap equities and that smaller companies should earn a risk premium over larger ones. In practice, however, many of these investors - particularly in Europe and Asia - underweight the small-cap segment.

    Some Like it Hot: Very Active Mandates in a Core-Satellite Structure

    Blog | Nov 24, 2014 | Raman Aylur Subramanian

    Investors have long debated the benefits of active versus passive investing. There are institutional investors with strong convictions in each camp, but many have become increasingly pragmatic, combining active and passive mandates in pursuit of the best risk-adjusted return.

    "Factoring" in the Emerging Markets Premium

    Blog | Nov 3, 2014 | Raman Aylur Subramanian

    Factor indexes historically have generated premia in developed markets. Now, as global markets have become more correlated, investors are starting to seek additional sources of returns within emerging markets.

    What is Factor Investing?

    Blog | Nov 3, 2014 | Raman Aylur Subramanian

    Equity factor investing aims to capture exposures to different equity risk premia. Factor modeling and factor investing are rooted in the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) dating from the mid-1960s, Arbitrage Pricing Theory from the 1970s and Fama and French’s three-factor model from the 1990s.