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?

Could factor investing offer a risk-return edge in USD investment-grade corporate credit? We simulated the past performance of six fixed-income factors — value, low size, quality, momentum, carry and low risk — that broadly align with MSCI’s equity factors.

Some global equity markets reached all-time highs and experienced limited bouts of volatility over the course of 2019. But underneath the calm surface, we saw a high degree of dispersion among factors and sectors.

As the relationship between U.S. value factors’ exposures and returns deteriorated over the last decade, U.S. momentum’s return patterns improved. We examine the value-momentum relationship and contributions of other style factors to value’s performance.

Company insiders’ trading of their company’s stock is usually subject to strict rules, including public disclosure. Did observing insider transactions provide more information about expected company performance than traditional sources?

Over the last few decades, increasing global economic and financial integration promoted economic development and enabled investors to seek opportunities and spread risks across national borders. This report, which was commission by the Norwegian Ministry of Finance, examines diversification opportunities including the importance of emerging markets; how a handful of large technology companies accounted for a significant percentage of recent developed-market performance and omitting geographical or size segments would have had a substantial impact on returns; and the role of starting valuations and dividend growth explaining long-term equity market performance.

During low interest-rate, high-volatility environments, some investors have turned to high dividend-paying stocks. However, overly simplistic approaches to selecting dividend-paying securities exposed investors to potential “yield traps.” Could these traps have been avoided?

Value stocks generally underperformed the broad U.S. equity market over the past decade — just as they did in the late 1990s. What drove that underperformance? Was it consistent globally? Within U.S. sectors?