We explore a representative multi-asset momentum model that is similar to many bank-based indexes behind structured products and market-linked CDs. With a monthly rebalance cycle, we find substantial timing luck risk. Using the same basic framework, we build a simple ensemble approach, diversifying

Many retirement planning analyses rely on Monte Carlo simulations with static assumptions for withdrawals. Incorporating dynamic spending rules can more closely align the simulations with how investors would likely behave during times when the plan looked like it was on a path to failure. Even a

In this research note, we continue our exploration of credit. Rather than test a quantitative signal, we explore credit changes through the lens of statistical decomposition. As with the Treasury yield curve, we find that changes in the credit spread curve can be largely explained by Level, Slope,

We continue our exploration of quantitative signals in fixed income. We use a measure of credit curve steepness as a valuation signal for timing exposure between corporate bonds and U.S. Treasuries. The value signal generates a 0.84% annualized return from 1950 to 2019 but is highly regime dependent

With a 5-star rating on iTunes, we are proud to say that Season 1 of our podcast – Flirting with Models – received a tremendously warm welcome. And so we’re happy to announce that Season 2 is now available! You can listen to the new season on: iTunes Stitcher Google Play TuneIn Android The

We expand last week’s commentary to explore momentum, carry, value, and long-term reversal signals in a time-series context. Using these signals, we generate long/short portfolios for each asset class. We use a sub-sampling methodology to bootstrap and annualized return distribution. We find that

In this commentary we explore the application of several quantitative signals to a broad set of fixed income exposures. Specifically, we explore value, momentum, carry, long-term reversals, and volatility signals. We find that value, 3-month momentum, carry, and 3-year reversals all create

In this commentary we explore tactical credit strategies that switch between high yield bonds and core fixed income exposures. We find that short-term momentum signals generate statistically significant annualized excess returns. We use a cross-section of statistically significant strategy

As a firm, Newfound Research focuses on tactical allocation strategies. However, we also spend time researching other mandates – such as systematic value – in an effort to introduce lateral thinking to our process. Three years ago, we built a systematic value portfolio that seeks to create a

Last week we introduced a signal that appeared to generate statistically significant performance results for performing country rotation. This week, we walk through the steps taken to explore the robustness of the signal. We first explore out-of-sample data with sector and emerging market country

Value investing has not only underperformed with regard to security selection, but also country selection over the last decade. In an effort to avoid country value traps, we set out to design two signals that might better confirm when a country is likely to exhibit positive re-valuation. We find

In this commentary, we revisit the idea of portable beta: utilizing leverage to overlay traditional risk premia on existing strategic allocations. While a 1.5x levered 60/40 portfolio has historically out-performed an all equity blend with similar risk levels, it can suffer through prolonged periods

In this commentary, we ask whether we should consider rotating factor exposure based upon the business cycle. To eliminate a source of model risk, we assume perfect knowledge of future recessions, allowing us to focus only on whether prevailing wisdom about which factors work during certain economic

The Perfect Withdrawal Rate (PWR) is the rate of regular portfolio withdrawals that leads to a zero balance over a given time frame. 4% is the commonly accepted lower bound for safe withdrawal rates, but this is only based on one realization of history and the actual risk investors take on by using

Trend following is “mechanically convex,” meaning that the convexity profile it generates is driven by the rules that govern the strategy. While the convexity can be measured analytically, the unknown nature of future price dynamics makes it difficult to say anything specific about expected

A few years ago, we blindly applied mean-variance optimization to a set of capital market assumptions, and The Weird Portfolio was born. This portfolio is weird because it does not look like typical investor portfolios since it tilts heavily toward credit-based and alternative asset classes. Despite

Due to their highly active nature, trend following strategies are generally assumed to be tax inefficient. Through the lens of a simple trend equity strategy, we explore this assertion to see what the actual profile of capital gains has looked like historically. While a strategic allocation may only

Information does not flow into the market at a constant frequency or with constant magnitude. By sampling data using a constant time horizon (e.g. “200-day simple moving average”), we may over-sample during calm market environments and under-sample in chaotic ones. As an example, we introduce a

Cash balance plans are retirement plans that allow participants to save higher amounts than in traditional 401(k)s and IRAs and are quickly becoming more prevalent as an attractive alternative to defined benefit retirement plans. The unique goals of these plans (specified contributions and growth

Successful investing requires that investors navigate around a large number of risks throughout their lifecycle. We believe that the two most daunting risks investors face are the risk of failing fast and the risk of failing slow. Slow failure occurs when an investor does not grow their investment

It can be difficult to disentangle the difference between luck and skill by examining performance on its own. We simulate the returns of investors with different prediction accuracy levels and find that an investor with the skill of a fair coin (i.e. 50%) would likely under-perform a simple

Trend equity strategies seek to meaningfully participate with equity market growth while side-stepping significant and prolonged drawdowns. These strategies aim to achieve this goal by dynamically adjusting market exposure based upon trend-following signals. A naïve example of such a strategy would

Trend following’s simple, systematic, and transparent approach does not make it any less frustrating to allocate to during periods of rapid market reversals. With most trend equity strategies exhibiting whipsaws in 2010, 2011, 2015-2016, and early 2018, it is tempting to ask, “is this something

Trend following is unique among style premia in that it has historically exhibited a convex payoff profile with positive skew. While the historical premium is anomalous, the convexity makes sense when we use options to replicate trend following strategies. We explore reasons why frequent rebalancing

In this commentary, we discuss what we mean by the phrase, “no pain, no premium.” We re-frame the discussion of portfolio construction from one about returns to one about risk and argue that without risk, there should be no expectation of return. With a risk-based framework, we argue that

Long/flat trend-following strategies have historically delivered payout profiles similar to those of call options, with positive payouts for larger positive underlying asset returns and slightly negative payouts for near-zero or negative underlying returns. However, this functional relationship

While retirement planning is often performed with Monte Carlo simulations, investors only experience a single path. Large or prolonged drawdowns early in retirement can have a significant impact upon the probability of success. We explore this idea by simulation returns of a 60/40 portfolio and

Recent market volatility has caused many tactical models to make sudden and significant changes in their allocation profiles. Periods such as Q4 2018 highlight model specification risk: the sensitivity of a strategy’s performance to specific implementation decisions. We explore this idea with a

Portfolio risk is traditionally quantified by volatility. The benefits of diversification are measured in how portfolio volatility is changed with the addition or subtraction of different investments. Another measure of portfolio risk is the dispersion in terminal wealth: a measure that attempts to

As 2018 comes to a close, we are thankful for all those who have read, commented upon, and shared the research that we have published this year. This year, we wrote 53 new research commentaries, averaging north of 3,000 words per piece. And we hope our approach of accessible and thoughtful

This week’s commentary is a short addendum to last week’s piece, attempting to serve as a (very) brief and simplified summary of process diversification. Volatility is only one way of measuring risk; dispersion in terminal wealth is another. Using simulations of dart-throwing monkeys, we plot

Portfolio risk is often measured as the variance of returns over time. Another form of risk is the variance of terminal wealth that can arise from small variations in strategy inputs or asset returns. Strategies or portfolios that are more sensitive to small changes in inputs are inherently

The risk-free rate is an important concept in financial theory, but the risk-free rate accessible to most investors can vary significantly in level. The variation in risk-free rate not only has an important impact on the theoretically optimal portfolio, but it can have a very real impact upon

Diversification within a portfolio can be quantified using the diversification ratio, which measures how much the volatility is reduced relative to a scenario where all assets are perfectly correlated. By maximizing the diversification ratio, we can construct the most diversified portfolio for a

Portfolio construction decisions tell us about more than just our objective: they tell us about our beliefs. In practice, our beliefs extend beyond views of returns, volatilities, and correlations; we also hold views about our ability to measure these concepts and our confidence in those measures.

Rolling 12-month returns for the Newfound Multi-Asset Income strategy are currently ranked 47th of 49 since strategy inception in September 2013. We reflect upon research performed over the last several years that continually points back to one critical idea: yield matters. We rebuild this

The benefits of diversification are often touted, but many investors feel disappointed in diversified portfolios because of the dispersion in performance of the individual holdings. In the context of three different unconstrained sleeves, we look at a way to measure and visualize the benefit (or

Research suggests that simple heuristics are often far more robust than more complicated, theoretically optimal solutions. Taken too far, we believe simplicity can actually introduce significant fragility into an investment process. Using trend equity as an example, we demonstrate how using only a

In this commentary we attempt to identify the sources of performance in long/short equity strategies. Using Kalman Filtering, we attempt to replicate the Credit Suisse Long/Short Liquid Index with a set of common factors designed to capture equity beta, regional, and style tilts. We find that as a

In this paper we discuss simple rules for timing exposure to 10-year U.S. Treasuries. We explore signals based upon the slope of the yield curve (“carry”), prior returns (“trend”), and prior equity returns (“hedge”). We implement long/short implementations of each strategy covering the

Last week was a good reminder that there is no ironclad law that rates and equities can’t sell-off at the same time. Strategic diversification with bonds is akin to an uncertain insurance policy whose price and ultimate payoff in the event of a market crash is highly dependent on the level and

Risk tolerance, capacity, and need all factor into determining whether a portfolio is appropriate for an investor. Capacity and need are generally straightforward to quantify and map to an appropriate portfolio, but risk tolerance is more difficult, with many questionnaires potentially

We introduce the simple arithmetic of portfolio construction where a strategy can be broken into a strategic allocation and a self-financing trading strategy. For long/flat trend equity strategies, we introduce two potential decompositions. The first implementation is similar to equity exposure with

Trend-following strategies exploit the fact that investors exhibit behavioral biases that cause trends to persist. While many investment strategies have a concave payoff profile that reaps small rewards at the risk of large losses, trend-following strategies exhibit a convex payoff profile, one that

Constructing an asset allocation that never lost money over given rolling periods leads to unsettling allocations: large positions in small-caps, long-term U.S. Treasuries, and precious metals. In many investment analyses, past results may be a downright misleading guide to the future because one

Can the monetary policy environment be used to predict global equity market returns? Should we overweight/buy countries with expansionary monetary policy regimes and underweight/sell countries with contractionary monetary policy regimes? In twelve of the fourteen countries studied, both nominal and