Alternative Investing
Exceptional Expectations: U.S. vs. Non-U.S. Equities
May 9, 2025
We analyze the persistent outperformance of US equities compared to non-US equities, focusing on the drivers of relative performance, including fundamentals and valuations. We examine historical data, valuation trends, and the implications for future returns, highlighting the potential for mean reversion and the benefits of global diversification.
Equities
Go Small or Go Home
May 6, 2025
This article explores why small caps, especially in the international and emerging regions, present a compelling investment opportunity driven by the potential for higher expected market returns, attractive earnings growth, strong diversification benefits, and rich alpha opportunities.
Alternative Investing
How Do Investors Form Long-Run Return Expectations?
April 28, 2025
We provide an overview of the contrasting ways investors form long-run return expectations and examine the tensions between "objective" yield-based expected returns and "subjective" rearview-mirror expectations. We also discuss the dangers of a rearview-mirror mindset and emphasize the importance of forward-looking measures.
Asset Allocation
Portable Alpha: Why Now?
February 20, 2025
As stock market valuations continue to rise and expected returns correspondingly fall, many investors are hoping to rely more on alpha from active management to make up for a potential future return gap. Unfortunately, long-only active management has struggled during recent history. We review why portable alpha may be an attractive alternative solution in today’s market environment. We also discuss what aspects of a portable alpha solution are important for investors to consider when selecting between implementations.
Equities
A New Paradigm in Active Equity
February 5, 2025
Equity market concentration and technological innovation are two hot topics for active equity investors today. We argue that a systematic approach is uniquely positioned to capitalize on these topics.
ESG Investing
Sustainable Commodities Investing
January 22, 2025
Investors seeking to incorporate sustainability considerations into their commodities portfolios may have a variety of ESG objectives. In many ways, assessing which commodities are sustainable is the easy part. The more difficult part is identifying what investment action in commodities will achieve an ESG goal. This paper explores several types of commodities-related sustainability motivations, and how they may be mapped to consistent investment action.
Alternative Investing
Seeking Resilient Growth: Why It’s Time for the LGPS to Consider Liquid Alternatives
November 1, 2024
Most Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) investment portfolios rely on substantial equity allocations to drive growth over the long term, but heroic rates of earnings growth would be needed to maintain recent strong equity performance. While LGPS have been turning to private assets to seek future returns and diversification, we make the case for truly diversifying liquid alternatives as a viable and versatile complement to existing portfolios, and explore the benefits of a transparent, quantitative approach.
Arbitrage
Are SPACs Still Alive?
October 30, 2024
The recent rise and fall of SPAC issuance and the poor returns of SPAC mergers might suggest that SPACs are a flash in the pan, but this is far from the truth. To the contrary, SPACs have been a compelling asset class for more than two decades. We explore the SPAC market, its history, and its investment characteristics, including why we believe SPACs are a safe investment when managed properly, with the potential for significant upside.
Macroeconomics
An August of Discontent
September 5, 2024
We cover why investors should not shrug off the August market reversal as a blip. In an environment of continued macroeconomic uncertainty, episodes of volatility will likely persist. We discuss the importance of building a well-diversified portfolio that is resilient to a wide range of future economic scenarios.
Long-Short
Portable Alpha: Still A Great Solution For Improving Return Outcomes
July 30, 2024
In the face of lower-than-average expected returns for equities, some investors may be considering adding active management to their equity allocations. However, the evidence supporting active long-only equities has long been underwhelming. We review an alternative approach – portable alpha.