Bonds are typically considered safe investments However, there were decades of negative real returns Drawdowns reached 50% for U.S. Treasuries and Bonds INTRODUCTION Inflation greater than 10% was unknown for the majority of people in developed markets before this year, but it is nothing

Inflation-linked bonds are considered inflation-hedges However, these have lost almost as much as plain-vanilla bonds in 2022 The sensitivity to interest rates matters more than that to inflation INTRODUCTION Inflation is the biggest issue facing the U.S. and is more important to citizens than

Manager-selected benchmarks are suboptimal as they are not free of conflict of interests Investors can use sectors to identify more appropriate benchmarks However, this ignores factors, which are better at explaining investment returns INTRODUCTION In our last research article (Mirror, Mirror on the

Evaluating manager performance is difficult as it requires an appropriate benchmark The manager’s benchmark selection is often not objective given conflicts of interests Factor exposure analysis can be used to systematically identify the best benchmark INTRODUCTION Although information asymmetries

Inverse ETFs come with significant risk disclosure Analyzing the performance of these products justifies the warnings There is a significant difference between performance of inverse ETFs & the inverse underlying indices INTRODUCTION In May 2022, Allianz, the large German insurance company,

Long volatility strategies are attractive diversifiers, but complex and not easily accessible Tactical asset allocation for equities may be considered as an alternative There is no clear winner between these two options INTRODUCTION Risk management in portfolio construction is primarily achieved via

Outperformance and alpha are not the same One is the difference from a benchmark, the other is the unexplained return A contribution analysis helps understanding the return drivers INTRODUCTION Almost 90% of US drivers rate themselves safer and more skillful than average. Obviously, such perceptions

There has been a boom in launching tactical asset allocation ETFs However, the recent track record of these has been poor Declining stock and bond markets have created a challenging environment for these INTRODUCTION Most investment strategies become popular through short rather than long periods,

Despite being different metrics, CPI and breakeven inflation rates exhibited the same trends since 2003 The securities with high betas to inflation come from diverse sectors, not just from energy and commodities Portfolios often feature hidden inflation exposure that should be revealed via factor

More than 80% of cryptocurrency tokens trade below their first trading price Tokens are diverse in their functions, but all types have been losing money consistently Token financing seems to be more beneficial for the issuer than investors INTRODUCTION A falling stock market is not bad for everyone.

Value is the clear winner of YTD 2022 Value, Momentum, and Low Volatility factors were positively correlated, which changed to previous years The Quality factor performed worst, which can be explained by a bias towards tech stocks INTRODUCTION We present the performance of five well-known factors on

Most defensive and diversifying strategies generated negative returns in YTD 2022 The correlation of almost all of these strategies to equities was too high Only managed futures generated attractive diversification benefits INTRODUCTION Economics and investing are all about data, eg GDP has

Most investors treat factor and macro variables differently Including macro variables improves a factor exposure analysis Both should be considered simultaneously when analyzing investment portfolios INTRODUCTION The investment world is full of conundrums. For example, discussions on investment

Investors tend to talk more about sector than factor performance However, few investors conduct a regression-based sector exposure analysis The high correlations of sectors, even if structured market-neutral, makes this less meaningful INTRODUCTION Switch on CNBC or Bloomberg TV during US stock

Factor exposure analysis can be used in fixed income as easily as in equities More variables improve the explanatory power of the model However, it also can make the interpretation challenging INTRODUCTION Running a factor exposure analysis is a core element of the due diligence process for

Most technological change today is an evolution rather than a revolution. Naturally, it is great to have a mobile device that allows instant access to the global knowledge depository, entertainment, shopping, and so on, but most of these innovations have been predicted decades ago by science fiction

Risk parity strategies have become available via mutual funds and ETFs, but portfolio construction varies Rising interest rates are seen as a threat and recent performance was disappointing However, rising correlations between stocks and bonds would be more concerning INTRODUCTION Risk parity has

Investors assume that token prices increase with product utilization in the token ecosystem However, the correlation between the token prices and token volumes has been zero Likely explained by token prices substantially being driven by speculation INTRODUCTION Much of the crypto world is, by

Thematic indices from MSCI have outperformed their benchmark since 2018 However, they have a rather unattractive factor mix Going against decades of research is not a sound investment strategy INTRODUCTION Although much of the future is uncertain, some technological innovations are rather certain.

Trend following and beta-neutral factor investing are considered diversifying strategies However, since 2009 their correlations to stocks moved in tandem Both strategies had related performance drivers and risk exposures INTRODUCTION Asset classes seem easy to distinguish at first. For example,

Factor volatility was low despite the significant geopolitical and economic turmoil in Q1 2022 Value is the clear winner with double-digit gains Quality stocks underperformed, but only moderately INTRODUCTION We present the performance of five well-known factors on an annual basis for the last 10

Most diversifying strategies fail to provide diversification benefits when most needed We build a diversified portfolio via trend, multi-factor, and long volatility An equal-weighted approach to asset allocation is not worse than more complex approaches INTRODUCTION At FactorResearch, we have

Relying on single entry and exit signals for trading introduces model risk However, simple tactical asset allocation strategies are surprisingly robust Necessity of signal diversification is questionable INTRODUCTION Last week, we explored a simple risk management system for an equity allocation

Risk management overlays tend to reduce stock market returns However, they also can reduce drawdowns and increase Sharpe ratios Given that diversification has become more difficult, these are becoming more relevant INTRODUCTION It is tough to have high return expectations for stocks for the coming

The average correlation between oil and oil ETFs was only 0.8 Gold ETFs provide better exposure to gold than oil ETFs to oil Gold mining stocks are hybrids that feature gold and equity beta INTRODUCTION As the war in Russia unfolded, crude oil (WTI) breached $100 per barrel, which was last seen in

Long-short momentum investing highlights attractive performance in Asia and emerging markets However, realized excess returns are significantly lower than theoretical ones Likely explained by transaction costs INTRODUCTION Momentum has been shown to generate attractive excess returns across eight

Smart money, crowd intelligence, and AI ETFs have underperformed the S&P 500 since their inception Somewhat surprisingly, all three have almost the same factor exposures Negative exposure to value, and positive exposure to size and momentum factors INTRODUCTION Welcome to the qualifying round of

Cryptocurrency hedge funds generated abnormally high and uncorrelated returns since 2014 However, the returns can be simply attributed to the performance of Bitcoin Many crypto-beta ETFs & ETPs have been launched, so crypto hedge funds need to move from beta to alpha INTRODUCTION

ETFs are a negligible owner of US stocks Primary and secondary ETF trading has not grown quicker than total stock trading The impact of ETFs on stocks is less strong than frequently suggested INTRODUCTION “Software is eating the world.” The venture capitalist Marc Andreessen wrote these words

Floating rate ETFs pursue differentiated strategies Some of them are highly correlated to equities, limiting any diversification benefits The correlation with interest rates and inflation has been low INTRODUCTION Despite the consensus on high inflation being transitory in 2021, the five-year,

“There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know” – Harry S. Truman January 2022. Reading Time: Several hours. Author: FactorResearch. RESEARCH COMPENDIUM 2021 In 2021 we published more than 50 research notes on mostly quantitative strategies, but also on topics like

2021 was a year of moderate factor performance Value, Quality, and Low Volatility factors generated positive returns Momentum and Size were negative INTRODUCTION We present the performance of five well-known factors on an annual basis for the last 10 years. Specifically, we only present factors

A wide range of strategies are marketed as beneficiaries of rising interest rates Portfolios are comprised of equities, bonds, options, long as well as short positions However, only financial services companies and short bonds offer a positive correlation to interest rates INTRODUCTION In this year,

Average stock market returns are similar regardless if volatility was high or low However, given skewed returns, it was not attractive investing when volatility was high Unfortunately implementing a strategy to avoid high volatility periods is emotionally challenging INTRODUCTION Active fund

With a long-term time horizon, investors should consider alternatives to the market-cap weighted equity indices A valuation-based approach for creating an equities portfolio may seem more sensible Using EBITDA / EV yield seems to avoid some of the quality issues of other value metrics INTRODUCTION

The valuation of the S&P 500 depends on portfolio construction Analyst EPS projections are likely overly optimistic PEG ratios of other stock markets are more attractive INTRODUCTION Striking a bargain seems to bring joy to all people, regardless of their location and their beliefs. It is almost

Given the importance of inflation as a topic, there are surprisingly few inflation-themed ETFs The few available pursue differentiated strategies that result in heterogeneous portfolios The correlation of these ETFs to inflation has been relatively low INTRODUCTION Creating an investment framework

Direct indexing is one of the growth areas in the asset management industry However, direct indexing represents active management, specifically an inferior approach to it Given the poor track record of active management, most investors should avoid pursuing this INTRODUCTION Direct indexing is hot.

Developed markets have evolved from momentum to mean-reversion markets Other markets like EM or cryptos are momentum-dominated Likely explained by the distribution of retail vs institutional investors INTRODUCTION Markets evolve constantly, but they rarely change structurally. When they do, it is

Past equity market returns seem to predict currency returns Such a currency timing strategy may be interesting as a diversifier However, it is difficult to rationalize the results INTRODUCTION Bloomberg TV at 08:30 am EST: “The S&P 500 futures are trading lower as the US Dollar depreciated

Long volatility exposure is typically achieved via hedge funds A simple DIY strategy would have generated similar attractive diversification benefits Most of the returns are explained by risk-off currencies, government bonds, and gold INTRODUCTION Do-it-yourself is the best and worst financial

Emerging market mutual fund managers struggle to outperform EM hedge fund managers failed to generate meaningful alpha EM opportunities seem to come with proportional risks INTRODUCTION Students often ask me for career advice. It is not a particularly satisfying experience. On the one hand, these

2021 is shaping up as a year of undifferentiated factor performance Value is the only factor with positive performance in year-to-date 2021 The Size factor has generated the most negative returns INTRODUCTION We present the performance of five well-known factors on an annual basis for the last 10

Options trading has increased to record highs Some data points indicate changes in the market structure However, these changes are likely temporary rather than structural INTRODUCTION During the 1954 recession in the U.S., Sir John Templeton wrote to his clients that “this time it’s different”

The correlation of stock markets has stopped increasing since the GFC The Value and Momentum factors are trading at peak correlations Correlations can change dramatically when using different data sources INTRODUCTION Globalization is less of a smooth ride on a river barge and more akin to river

There is no consensus whether an equal or market cap-weighted allocation model for stocks is superior Both generated similar drawdowns during stock market crashes on average Theoretically, equal-weight is superior, but practically cap-weighted INTRODUCTION “Diversify, reduce fees, avoid active

We recently explored using stocks to create an inflation-proxy portfolio that resulted in a collection of stocks with strong sector and factor biases. Specifically, the portfolio exhibited overweights in energy and financial stocks, perhaps as expected, as well as a long position in the value and

Long volatility strategies can be built without using options Securities can be selected on different risk metrics like the VIX or high yield spread Although portfolios differ, the strategies exhibited similar trends INTRODUCTION We started our exploration of long volatility strategies by analyzing

Foreign stock ownership is low in China and the market is dominated by retail investors This provides an opportunity for investors to deploy quant strategies Factor investing has been far more attractive in Chinese than U.S. equities in recent years INTRODUCTION The latest chapter in the complicated

An inflation portfolio can be created by systematically selecting stocks correlated to inflation This would have resulted in a portfolio with strong sector and factor biases However, the correlation to inflation would not have been significantly higher than for stocks overall INTRODUCTION Measuring