-
Feb. 14, 2019
Venezuela and the Specter of Recovery Risk »
Hamed Faquiryan, Manuel Rueda | Fixed Income, Global Investing, Factor Investing
Venezuela unfortunately finds itself on the verge of political and economic collapse. From the perspective of investors in the country’s sovereign and corporate bonds, recovery risk is now likely a bigger consideration than default risk.
-
Feb. 13, 2019
What market volatility has meant for factors »
Guillermo Cano | Factors, Factor Research Group, Factor Investing
As investors continue to focus on factor investing in periods of heightened volatility, we ask how volatility has affected factor performance.
-
Historically, environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing was about excluding stocks of undesirable companies from portfolios — often because they violated one’s sense of ethics or values. ESG investing has since expanded to include consideration of ESG criteria alongside financial ones. ESG is growing in importance among institutional, wealth and retail investors. In recent years, institutional and high-net-worth investors’ adoption of ESG, along with the subsequent growth in ESG assets under management, has accelerated.
-
Feb. 07, 2019
How mortgage fees affect rates and spreads »
Yihai Yu | Models/Client Cases, Real Estate Investing, Fixed Income
How could potential changes in U.S. mortgage policy and possible long-term industry trends affect mortgage-related fees and rate spreads?
-
Feb. 06, 2019
What Fed monetary policy has meant for factors »
Raina Oberoi, Abhishek Gupta | Factors, Factor Research Group, Factor Investing
As interest rates in the U.S. started increasing in late 2015, many investors expressed concerns over the impact that rising rates could have on their investments. However, the tone of the U.S. Federal Reserve (the Fed) shifted from “we’re a long way from neutral” in October last year to a more accommodative stance of “we will be patient” early this year, re-emphasizing that expression at the January 2019 Federal Open Market Committee meeting.
-
Feb. 05, 2019
2019 emerging real estate trends »
Will Robson | ESG Research, Real Estate Investing, Global Investing
https://www.msci.com/www/blog-posts/global-gateway-cities-the/0863554848
-
Feb. 01, 2019
Should we be surprised by earnings surprises? »
Rohit Mendiratta, George Bonne | Factors, Factor Research Group, Factor Investing
Early 2019 earnings season has already contained a number of high-profile surprises, such as Facebooks's, but how predictable are these surprises, and what happens when earnings surprises return to trend?
-
Jan. 31, 2019
What has affected minimum volatility index performance? »
Waman Virgaonkar, Mehdi Alighanbari | Factor Indexes, Factors, Factor Investing
As we head further into 2019, some of last year’s concerns, including market volatility and interest-rate uncertainty, continue to occupy investors’ minds. With the assumption that rates-related concerns continue and uncertainty looms in the global equity markets, the question is how minimum volatility indexes behaved in an environment dominated by these two opposing forces.
-
In September 1999, NASA’s Mars Climate Orbiter was lost, at a reported cost of USD 125 million, due to a mix-up in measurements.
-
Jan. 23, 2019
CDS hedging: exploring all the options »
Michael Hayes | Models/Client Cases, Fixed Income, Risk Management
The credit-default-swap (CDS) market previously offered a cost-effective means to make short-term hedges or place bets on an individual issuer’s credit.