Active Management

Navigating short-term risks is paramount, but we view the backdrop as favorable for income investors over the medium term.

Within the broader Asia Pacific universe, Portfolio Managers Yu Zhang and Joyce Li see attractive total return potential among dividend paying stocks.

In RBA’s latest report, Rich revisits the "Earnings Expectations Life Cycle" from the perspective of growth versus value investors and outlines why growth investors need to be contrarians in 2021.

The tide in the $20 trillion Treasury market appears to be turning in favor of the bulls for now, with expectations growing that the Federal Reserve will boost purchases of longer-maturity debt as soon as next month.

In a year that saw corporate forecasts canceled faster than travel plans, the third-quarter U.S. earnings season brought a sense of normalcy with better-than-expected profits and rising forecasts. Now a second wave of Covid-19 infections and renewed lockdowns threaten to cloud those views.

“I predict the bull market will continue next year,” says Jeremy Siegel. “Stocks are not overpriced.”

The data used to construct ESG portfolios differs widely among providers, meaning that funds may not be aligned with your clients’ objectives and beliefs.

Value managers often use static point in time multiples such as Book to Price to identify attractive companies. P/B is a “cheapness” indicator rather than a measure of a company’s intrinsic value, as it does not include the essential components to value a company: profitability, growth, competition, and risk. On the other hand, growth managers focus on a companies ability to growth their business assuming it will lead to creating shareholder value.

Amid an environment of near-zero benchmark and T-bill yields, for a modest increase in risk, PIMCO's short-term strategies may offer higher levels of total return and income for stepping beyond the confines of money market fund strategies.

Anne N. Mathias is a senior strategist for Vanguard and a member of the firm's Fixed Income Group, with a focus on global macroeconomics, interest rates, and foreign currency. I spoke with her about the outlook for the economy and the credit markets.

Gold “is a hedge on policymakers screwing up, and there has been a lot of screwing up in the last 20 years.”

A new normal is the norm. Changes are inevitable and therefore imaginable, even during this era of ever-growing technological breakthroughs such as cryptocurrencies, blockchain, robo-everything, 5G, EVs, AVs, AI, VR, AR, and IoT.1 We remember when ecosystem referred to a Costa Rican rain forest.

In our view, inflation-fighting asset classes look considerably cheaper and offer higher long-term estimated returns than mainstream stocks and bonds.

In calling the current market the third “Real McCoy” bubble of recent decades, Jeremy Grantham described, in his own words, what I call the Iron Law of Valuation: a security is nothing more than a claim on some set of future cash flows that investors expect to be delivered into their hands over time. The higher the price an investor pays today for some amount of cash in the future, the lower the long-term return the investor can expect on that investment.

Ten-year Treasury bond yields may rise as high as 1.6% in 2021, reflecting prospects for faster economic growth.

With yields near zero, many investors may question the value of fixed income within a portfolio. Western Asset’s Head of Product Management, Doug Hulsey, joins our Head of Equities, Stephen Dover, to discuss fixed income investing with an active-management lens. He makes a case for the asset class for investors in light of market uncertainties and outlines where he sees opportunities today.

There is new reform legislation making its way through Congress which will significantly affect how many of us save for retirement and specifically how, and how much, we can contribute to our retirement accounts and at what ages. This is the most significant retirement saving reform legislation in years. I’ll break it all down for you below.

What if I told you that to become a better financial professional under Reg BI, you should think less like one?

The US elections have implications for emerging markets in the area of global trade relations in particular, but for investors, it’s important to look at countries and companies individually within the asset class, according to Portfolio Manager Andrew Ness. He joins our Head of Equities Stephen Dover to discuss how emerging markets are navigating today’s challenges—including the COVID-19 pandemic—and note they are home to some of the most innovative and resilient companies in the world.

Despite lingering uncertainty about corporate earnings growth and economies around the world, global stocks have rebounded from the COVID-19-driven downfall in March. But even following that bounce back, international stocks have lagged their US counterpoints for over the last decade. Could they be reaching an important inflection point? If so, how are astute investors casting a broader net to pinpoint the right companies outside the US?

Join us to hear from an interactive panel of investment experts from AllianceBernstein, who will cover:

• Key catalysts that could signal improved performance outside the US
• The benefits of going abroad, including less-crowded trades, lower valuations, and sourcing different alpha
• Why consider a high-conviction approach for international stock selection
• How benchmark-agnostic strategies can help identify forward-looking thematic opportunities

This week’s report will look at last week’s market moves in the wake of positive vaccine news (with additional and even better news today); but will also review our most recent tactical recommendation change.

Defined outcome ETFs have quickly gathered almost $5 billion in assets; Not unexpected given their much lower drawdowns when the market crashed in March 2020; However, they are complex and expensive products and there are viable alternatives.

Abstract investment themes are much more than entertainment. They’re serious business and have roles to play in portfolios. I share my process for incorporating then into mine.

The blue shift in the White House may signal added trouble for Big Tech companies.

This short article investigates the rebalancing premium that investors may expect from risk-parity portfolios.

The top-heavy outperformance of the FAANG stocks is not a historical anomaly, but history shows that they are likely to be tomorrow’s underperformers.

Monday, November 9th, was the largest laggard outperformance we have in the Nasdaq Dorsey Wright (NDW) data with laggards outperforming leaders by more than 16%. Momentum crashes are not a new thing. All types of things drive the leaders/laggards spread on a day-to-day basis.

Many broad domestic equity markets moved sharply higher last Monday after investors took into account stabilization in the expected outcome of the US presidential election as well as positive coronavirus vaccine news.

Washington will likely focus on fiscal stimulus immediately – but given the realities of governing and the pandemic, economic recovery will take time.

Bundling may help plan sponsors unlock alpha potential and supplement low returns from long Treasury bonds.

The Franklin Templeton–Gallup Economics of Recovery Study has heralded some interesting results in regard to the attitudes and behavior of Americans in response to the ongoing pandemic—and what developments could change both.

This is the fifth and last blog in our 2020 series, discussing why Russell Investments believes in the value of advisors. Here we discuss tax-smart planning and investing.

By most measures, Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, should have been taking a bow this week. Record numbers voted in a pandemic. Lines, after early hiccups, were measured in minutes, not the hours endured in the chaotic primary.

As COVID-19 comes under control with vaccines and the US economy improves, increasing exposure to both high-quality value stocks and stable growth stocks, while reducing exposure to hyper-growth and deep-value stocks, may be prudent for investors.

For years, hedge funds have blamed placid markets for their uninspiring returns. That excuse won’t fly this year.

For some of my clients, retirement has not been what they imagined or hoped it would be; particularly for a generation of men who didn’t come to terms with the loss of their career identity or finding new and appealing ways to stay active.

During the recent Advisor Perspectives Thought Leader Summit, two of the industry’s most respected experts shared their best practices and insights on growing and scaling your business with fintech solutions.

Investors looking past the presidential election for the next market-moving news break were rewarded earlier this week when Pfizer announced that it had made some headway in the fight against COVID-19.

On Saturday, Joe Biden was named president-elect. In hindsight, the market clearly predicted this outcome.

Global equity markets rallied on Monday after major networks declared Joe Biden the winner of the US presidential election, and early analysis of a COVID-19 vaccine from a large US drugmaker showed promising results.

Amid the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, we believe that investing in private markets may offer a raft of potential opportunities. Here's why.

A Joe Biden presidency, checked by a Republican-controlled Senate, may be just what emerging-market investors are looking for.

Evidence from the field of behavioral finance suggests investors can’t handle the truth – many delude themselves about their own skills and performance. The ability to delude oneself leads to persistent and costly investment mistakes.

The strategy proposed here is to always invest in sector equity ETFs. I defined two super-sector groups, classified as aggressive and defensive, each with four sector ETFs which have historically performed best from November to April and relatively well from May to October, respectively.

Defensive equities are usually found in sectors that have withstood market shocks, such as utilities and real estate. But as COVID-19 shakes up investment conventions, companies with intangible assets are being more appreciated for their volatility cushion.

The 2020 election dims the outlook for major legislation and aid to local governments, while central banks face the risk of a liquidity trap.

In an environment where interest rates are low and the risk of higher Treasury yields has risen, Portfolio Managers from Janus Henderson Investors discuss how allocations to AAA rated CLOs may help investors diversify a traditional fixed income portfolio, offering lower volatility, higher credit-quality and less sensitivity to any rise in interest rates.

In today’s blog, I will update the current status of the election results, extend the conversation with regards to the market reaction at this point and revisit what we see as the most important factors investors should be considering going forward.

The post-pandemic world is charging into change. Trends that were in play prior to the onslaught of COVID-19 have been accelerated, and many of the companies that were already leading the charge are emerging supercharged.

Volatility swept across US markets over the last several days as fear and uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus as well as the US presidential election continue to take hold, causing the Nasdaq Composite to post its worst week since March.

History does not repeat, but it rhymes, as Mark Twain observed. As such, we are struck by the eerie and dangerous parallels between today’s markets and the markets back in 1999. Back then, Value investing and Value managers were under the gun for having underperformed their Growth brethren for too long.

Key takeaways for investors amid the tightening race for the White House and control of the Senate.

Like a good caddy, the tools on the Nasdaq Dorsey Wright Research Platform offer guidance, advising you toward logical club selections based on present conditions, while you remain the ultimate decision-maker.

Domestic Equities currently hold the number one spot in the Nasdaq Dorsey Wright Dynamic Asset Level Investing (DALI) tool and populate the upper echelon of the Asset Class Group Scores (ACGS) page, confirming the technical strength/leadership from that group.

When you run an equity portfolio which is concentrated in 25-30 common stock selections, there are usually three stocks which stick out as particularly attractive at any given time.

While getting into a groove with your social media plan may take some trial-and-error, there are some crucial commandments to maximize your potential and reach.

It is scary and overwhelming to address long-term planning. But the lack of planning is disheartening to those left to address a crisis, as was the case with David, an 80-year-old man.

Within emerging markets, we find companies at the forefront of important global developments, including the health care and technology sectors.

The roller-coaster ride of 2020 still has a few twists and turns to navigate. But the massive policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic brought a quick, though incomplete, recovery. With volatility expected to continue, where can investors look for opportunities?

Head of Equities Stephen Dover joined Templeton Global Macro’s Katie Klingensmith and Fiduciary Trust Company International’s Gene Todd for a discussion about what they are keeping an eye on as investors.

Clients are surprised when I request copies of their tax returns. But when they see the process I use to save them money – tax “alpha” – they often wish April 15 came more often.

Our election 2020 coverage concludes with a look at the nation’s physical and human capital.

Investors often think of emerging markets as taking cues from their developed counterparts—for example, by aiming to boost consumption and to achieve productivity gains. It may come as a surprise that some emerging economies have made an earlier start in adopting environmental, social and governance...

Technology is transforming the way we work. Asset managers are no exception as they seek better investment outcomes for clients.

Equity price gains in Japan may be driven by innovation over the long term. Portfolio manager Shuntaro Takeuchi discusses the opportunity set.

By almost any measure, 2020 has been one of the most volatile years for the market in recent memory. Through the first week of September, the S&P 500 SPX had more daily moves of +/- 2% or more this year than in any full calendar year since 2009. 

On October 21st, 2020, the First Trust Focus Five Model FTRUST5 turns 11 years old. While many investors have been following this model for years, those of you who have not can read more about the model’s methodology in the First Trust Focus Five Model Fact Sheet, which includes a detailed account of the methodology, the inventory, and performance numbers that go back to inception.

Most companies’ earnings—and creditworthiness—took a hit from pandemic containment measures like lockdowns. But with initial credit market adjustments to COVID-19 behind us, what challenges are still evolving and where does Vanguard’s fixed income team see opportunities?

The latest on how equity managers across the globe fared during the third quarter, plus how the upcoming U.S. election is impacting manager viewpoints.

Enjoy Harold Evensky's latest Newsletter.

I meet few humble advisors. Most are supremely confident in their knowledge of all things financial. This confidence is rarely justified.

Please join Di Zhou, portfolio manager on the #1-rated Thornburg Better World International Fund*, and Jake Walko, director of ESG investing & global investment stewardship, for a conversation about what’s important for advisors and their clients to know about today’s ESG landscape. Three takeaways you’ll learn:

• The current state of ESG across asset classes
• Why bottom-up stock selection matters even more in ESG portfolios
• Common misconceptions shared by advisors and investors and how to overcome them

What is impacting investing? How is it different from ESG? Equity investor Eric Rice answers these questions and more in this one-minute read.

Our experience tells us that we have hope from the indignity and humiliation of the present circumstances.

The tightrope walker has his blindfold off, the wind is blowing, and it’s a long way down. Technically speaking, high-yield bond prices broke downward through a “double bottom,” which could reasonably be taken as an indicator of coming trouble for the stock market as well, given the greater wariness among bond market investors this year.