Trend Following
The Raisons d'être of Managed Futures
August 17, 2022
Managed Futures strategies have an implicit dual mandate, First, to deliver positive returns on average and second, to generate especially attractive returns during large equity market drawdowns. This is one of the big reasons managed futures strategies can be valuable in a portfolio. Unfortunately, by and large, the industry—intentionally or not—has been optimizing for one at the expense of the other by introducing carry and market beta exposure.
Value
We Are Not Just Value! Except, You Know, When We Are...
July 12, 2022
Our systematic stock selection process is far from just “value.” And yet from 2018-2020 for the bad and 2021-2022 for the good, our world has indeed been all about value. What gives? This post reviews our correlation to value, delving into a few periods when it became the dominant part of our process. We find that when value dominates, it has usually been in bubble periods of irrational losses for value (and in their more pleasant aftermaths).
Alternative Investing
Time to Diversify – But into What?
Q4 2021
The last 10 years were exceptional for traditional stock/bond portfolios. But with stock market valuations near all-time highs and bond yields near all-time lows, prospective returns look bleak. We make the case for diversifying out of equities and explain the valuable role liquid alternative strategies can play.
Tax Aware
Why You Might Defer Your Gains, Even When Tax Rates Are About to Increase
November 17, 2021
With the current proposals for (and the future expectations of) various tax rate hikes, investors with appreciated portfolios might feel like sailing into a storm and wondering, is it still better to defer gains if tax rates were to increase?
Tax Aware
The Value of Integrating Income and Estate Planning
September 2, 2021
In this post, we discuss challenges of wealth preservation and growth faced by high net worth families. While a family that invests with income tax and estate tax efficiency in mind is more likely to achieve its financial legacy goals, the numerical advantages of tax efficiency are quite striking. In addition, we show that there is a significant value in integrating income tax efficiency and estate tax planning.
Value
Are Value Stocks Cheap for a Fundamental Reason?
August 30, 2021
By far the most popular question we get from value skeptics is “are the fundamental prospects for value stocks unusually poor today, justifying their low valuations versus expensive stocks?” Well, we now have an answer that doesn’t require a four-hour time commitment nor a PhD.
Are Value Stocks Cheap for a Fundamental Reason?
August 25, 2021
The value spread remains unusually high, which has led investors to be concerned that value may be cheap for a reason. In this short presentation, our Portfolio Solutions Group (PSG) explains how we evaluate this spread and illustrates our view that the current high value spread is forecasting higher expected returns, and not low fundamental growth rates.
Fixed Income
What Drives Bond Yields?
July 26, 2021
In this overview of the various factors that influence government bond yields, we show that both in theory and in the data, non-monetary policy factors drive significant variation in yields, particularly at longer maturities. Despite the exceptionally low yield environments we have witnessed, fundamentals continue to drive bond markets.
Tax Aware
Improving Direct Indexing: 130/30 and 150/50 Strategies
July 6, 2021
In this post, we expand on our analysis which studies the tax benefits of a hypothetical tax-aware direct indexing strategy with 1% tracking error.
Tax Aware
Direct Indexing and the Proposed Biden Tax Plan
June 9, 2021
There are two basic ways to invest in a stock market index: you can buy an index fund, or you can directly buy a stock portfolio that tracks the index. If you are a taxable investor, a benefit of the direct approach is that you can harvest losses on individual positions. But how high are those benefits—and what happens to them under the proposed Biden Tax Plan?