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The coronavirus epidemic: Implications for markets 

Economic Exposure , Emerging Markets , Factor Investing , Fixed Income , Global Investing , Risk Management

The toll from the coronavirus has been felt throughout societies, leading to repercussions on the global economy and financial markets. We examine investor impact through markets’ economic exposures to China and factors and by stress testing portfolios.

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What’s driven capital growth in real estate portfolios? 

Real Estate Investing

In real estate investing, capital growth has historically been responsible for most of the observed volatility in total returns. Could breaking capital growth into its components help tell a more detailed story of property portfolios’ performance?

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How climate change may ‘flood’ global equities 

ESG Research , Emerging Markets

Of all the threats to the environment from climate change, sea-level rise may be one of the most devastating and permanent. The question for global equity investors is how coastal-flooding risks may affect their portfolios.

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Aramco IPO shows importance of timely index inclusion 

Emerging Markets , Global Investing

Saudi Aramco’s IPO showed why single-country index providers may sometimes need to include companies (especially larger ones) outside of scheduled reviews, as they work to bridge gaps between a country’s equity index exposure and economic drivers.

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Did private capital deliver? 

Global Investing

Private-capital funds enjoyed record inflows from 2014 to 2018, as asset owners sought high-returning assets that had low correlations to traditional public asset classes. Did private capital deliver?

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Trade deal broadened access to China’s nonperforming loans 

Risk Management , Fixed Income , Global Investing , Emerging Markets

The phase-one U.S.-China trade deal lets U.S. asset managers acquire nonperforming loans directly from Chinese banks. We assess the market’s characteristics, as investors face challenges estimating recovery rates and liquidation timing of these loans.

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Did corporate-credit factors offer a risk-return edge? 

Factor Indexes , Factor Investing , Factors , Fixed Income , Risk Management

Factors have gained popularity in equity investing for providing insight into the key drivers of portfolio risk and returns. Did tilting hypothetical fixed-income portfolios toward some bond-specific factors benefit investors?

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Counterparty credit risk and the initial-margin big bang 

Risk Management

A forthcoming global regulatory standard will require derivatives users to estimate mandatory initial margin on their portfolios. The choice of model methodology may have a significant impact on this calculation.

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MBS prepayment in 2020: Looking back, looking ahead 

Fixed Income , Risk Management

Drawing on two decades of U.S. data on MBS prepayment and borrower incentives to refinance, we used our model to look at three potential prepayment themes for 2020.

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2020 Emerging Real Estate Trends 

Real Estate Investing

From managing climate risk to advances in analytics, 2020 may be a watershed year for real estate. Read our top five emerging trends likely to be front of mind for global real estate investors in 2020 and beyond