ARX Series
New and Notable
Editor's selection
Overview
ARX receives up to 100 new submissions each month: academic papers, industry research, white papers, market analysis and others. Here is a curated selection of new and noteworthy posts from our institutional and individual contributors.
To browse or search ARX's repository of more than 4,000 posts, select "Research" in the upper left-hand corner of the page.
Resource Allocation Among Competing Innovators
In allocating resources to competing innovators, a trade-off exists between the risk of innovation failure and rent dissipation. Venture capital and public funding authorities need to consider the incentives of entrepreneurs when providing support.
25 January 2021 | HKUST Institute for Emerging Market Studies (IEMS): Yangguang (Sunny) Huang
WEBINAR: Global Factor Performance: Is Value's rebound sustainable?
November 2020 was a great month for Value. Are we on the cusp of a sustained Value rotation? What are the catalysts for a sustained Value reversal? FTSE Russel’s Mark Barnes and Marlies van Boven answer these and other questions.
22 January 2021 | FTSE Russell Global Investment Research: Mark Barnes, Marlies van Boven | Video: 20 min.
Why Do Migrant Domestic Workers in Hong Kong Borrow So Much?
Many migrant domestic workers (MDWs) in Hong Kong appear to finance foreseen expenditures through high-interest loans rather than through savings, thereby incurring a sizable cost.
22 January 2021 | HKUST Institute for Emerging Market Studies (IEMS): Sujata Visaria
How to Invest in Bitcoin: A look at Bitcoin's investment profile for institutional investment
At various times Bitcoin has been seen as a technology asset, a store of value, a hedging instrument and for pure speculation. We take a brief look at these use-cases for institutional investors.
22 January 2021 | Thomas Kuhn, CFA
How to Create a Digital Asset Portfolio: Ideas for investors in a new asset class
Digital assets are an exciting new asset class without consensus on how they should be treated. We discuss various assets available to investors and consider how portfolios may be constructed in sound ways.
22 January 2021 | Thomas Kuhn, CFA
Russell Growth and Value Indexes: The enduring utility of style
The first Russell US Style indexes, the Russell 1000 Growth and Value Indexes, which split the market into growth and value buckets, were developed to provide benchmarks for active managers that specialized in growth or value investing.
22 January 2021 | FTSE Russell Global Investment Research: Mark Barnes
Brokerage Firms in Pakistan - An Overview
More than 200 licensed brokerage firms operate in Pakistan. Nine of them are listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange. It is common for brokerage firms to offer other financial services, such as money management, tax advice and financial consultation.
1 January 2021 | The Pakistan Credit Rating Agency Limited: Saniya Tauseef, Insia Raza
VIDEO: Indexing Biodiversity: Examining Water as an Asset Class
Water is one of the world’s most essential commodities, but it is at risk from overuse, pollution, and soaring demand. S&P DJI’s Tianyin Cheng joins Redsand Ventures’ Colleen Becker to explore new tools for accessing water assets.
18 January 2021 | S&P Dow Jones Indices: Tianyin Cheng; Colleen Becker | Video: 8 min.
WEBINAR: The Impact of Covid-19 on Pensions
Industry experts discuss the changes to the 2020 Mercer CFA Institute Global Pensions Index and the diverse efforts by governments across the world to support their communities’ health and finances.
19 January 2021 | CFA Institute | Video: 1 hr 7 min.
Hong Kong’s Intermediary Role on Funding the BRI: How Does it Fare Against Singapore?
Given the scale and cross-border nature of the Belt and Road Initiative, it is clear that major offshore centers should play a role in funding, but is Hong Kong well placed to have a central role in intermediating overseas capital for BRI projects?
21 January 2021 | HKUST Institute for Emerging Market Studies (IEMS): Alicia Garcia-Herrero, Hanrui Li, Gary Ng
Regional Innovation Policy Experiments in China: Should City E-Hailing Measures be Generalized?
A case study of four Chinese cities shows that measures designed to regulate the business e-hailing have not been generalized across all regions/cities in China, but instead reflect conditions and factors that are specific to each of the cities.
20 January 2021 | HKUST Institute for Emerging Market Studies (IEMS): Naubahar Sharif
Funders of Last Resort: Legal Issues in Using Central Bank Balance Sheets to Bolster Growth
Central banks can promote growth when they directly buy their country companies' stocks and bonds. However, in some countries, such 'developmental' purchases may make managers lazy. We review the best legal provisions for each jurisdiction.
20 January 2021 | Bryane Michael
Oil Refinery Industry - An Overview
An overview of the global and Pakistan’s oil refinery industry and its performance following the economic slowdown caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and a decline in energy consumption.
2 November 2020 | The Pakistan Credit Rating Agency Limited: SaniyaTauseef, Sarmad Masood
The FinTech Dividend: How Much Money Is FinTech Likely to Mobilize for Sustainable Development?
Does FinTech offer a new way of funding sustainable development? We find that roughly 3%-13% of funding required for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals – or around $50 billion to $125 billion – could come from a FinTech dividend.
20 January 2021 | Bryane Michael
Covid-19, City Lockdowns, and Air Pollution: Evidence from China
The rapid spread of Covid-19 is a global public health challenge. To prevent the escalation of its transmission, China locked down one-third of its cities and strictly restricted personal mobility and economic activities.
18 January 2021 | HKUST Institute for Emerging Market Studies (IEMS): Guojun He
Survey: Making ESG Mainstream in Asian Portfolios
Although sustainable investment themes and practices are making steady in-roads across the region, the pace would increase with greater asset choice and standardised data, finds the latest AsianInvestor / S&P Dow Jones Indices ESG poll.
7 December 2020 | S&P Dow Jones Indices, AsianInvestor
SFC Consultation Paper on Climate-related Risks: A Response by CFA Institute and CFA Society Hong Kong
CFA Institute and CFA Society Hong Kong respond to the Consultation Paper on the Management and Disclosure of Climate-related Risks by Fund Managers, issued by the Securities and Futures Commission in Hong Kong SAR.
15 January 2021 | CFA Institute: Mary Leung, CFA; CFA Society Hong Kong: Richard Mak, CFA
WEBINAR: Navigating 2021 - Market Outlook Forum
With COVID-19 being one of the biggest determinants of financial markets over the past year and as we move into 2021, CFA Society Malaysia proudly welcomes you to our panel forum on the market outlook for global and local markets for 2021.
15 January 2021 | CFA Society Malaysia: Faridq Ridzuan, CFA, Woon Khai Jhek, CFA, Yeoh Keat Seng, CFA, Teng Yue Xiang, CFA | Video: 1 hr 39 min.
A Commitment to Professional Development at Moody's: Case Study
This case study aims to understand the origins and development of an internal CFA community within Moody’s and how the company has become an exemplary employer that supports CFA Institute and CFA® Program.
15 January 2021 | CFA Institute
How to Build a Simple ML-Powered Stock Movement Classifier
We harness computing power and machine learning to build a classifier tool to predict whether a stock will go up or down on any given day. It helps investment managers boost their predicting power in their investment management practices.
5 January 2021 | Analytics Vidhya: Zain Farrukh
2021 Real Estate Trends to Watch
COVID-19 has significantly accelerated a number of secular shifts that were already starting to have fundamental impacts on the role real estate plays in the economy as well as investment portfolios. We’ve identified the five key real estate trends.
12 January 2021 | MSCI Inc: Will Robson
Do Factors Carry Information about the Economic Cycle? Part 1: The Investment Clock: Linking factor behavior to the economic cycle
Institutional investors are often faced with the question which factor strategies should be implemented in different phases of the economic cycle. In this paper, we examine how factors behave across economic cycles for the US market.
11 January 2021 | FTSE Russell: Marlies van Boven, PhD
Saudi Arabia Government Bonds: An Investible Asset Class with Modest Valuations
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia embarked upon a significant economic reform program in 2016 (Vision 2030), seeking to diversify away from oil dependence and high economic cyclicality, and to increase the size of the non-oil and private sectors.
11 January 2021 | FTSE Russell: Robin Marshall
Factors in Focus: Val-come Back! Shifting Factors as the Cycle Turns
We reflect on the historical relationships between factor returns and macro cycles, which have provided useful information for investors looking to take an active stance on factor exposures based on their outlook.
11 January 2021 | MSCI Inc: Hitendra D Varsani, Waman Virgaonkar
Appraising Home Bias Exposure: Mexico
Despite the increased integration of the world’s economies and financial markets, studies show that pension funds worldwide continue to skew their portfolios to domestic securities. This paper looks at investment effects of home bias in Mexico.
11 January 2021 | FTSE Russell: Sandrine Soubeyran, Marcos Morales
How Exposed Are U.S. Investors to China?
U.S. investors have invested more in China than the official statistics indicate, but remain less important as a financing source for Chinese companies than policymakers and the media may imagine.
8 January 2021 | Seafarer Capital Partners, LLC: Nicholas Borst
Why the US Dollar is Losing Trust
We look at the US dollar as a store of value, a settlement currency, its holdings in strategic portfolios, and the US policy decision-making. We find that it has been losing trust within the global financial system it dominates.
8 January 2021 | Thomas Kuhn, CFA
VIDEO: How and Why Are Market Participants Accessing REITs in the Current Climate?
Can REITs help unlock potential income opportunities in today’s markets? S&P DJI’s Priscilla Luk and Samsung Asset Management’s Alex Yang take a closer look at practical applications for REITs in the current environment.
7 January 2021 | S&P Dow Jones Indices | Video: 10 min.
ASIFMA IBOR Transition Readiness Survey Results and Action Plan
In August of 2020, ASIFMA conducted a regional survey among its members to identify key issues that require attention before end-2021. In general, four main themes emerged from the survey results with regard to transition away from LIBOR.
7 January 2021 | ASIFMA
EU Low Carbon Benchmark Regulation: FAQ
The EU Low Carbon Benchmark Regulation, effective as of 23 December 2020, requires administrators of benchmarks to comply with new requirements to disclose ESG factors in their methodology documents and benchmark statements.
22 December 2020 | S&P Dow Jones Indices
Australia Persistence Scorecard: Mid-Year 2020
Does past performance matter? We track how likely it is for a fund that outperforms its peers and benchmark to keep up the pace over the course of three- and five-year periods.
14 December 2020 | S&P Dow Jones Indices: Priscilla Luk
2021 ESG Trends to Watch
Climate, ESG bubbles, disclosure, social inequality, biodiversity — the topics don’t get much bigger or more systemic. Here’s our analysis of the five ESG trends that will matter most to companies and their investors in 2021.
7 December 2020 | MSCI Inc: Linda-Eling Lee, Meggin Thwing Eastman, Arne Philipp Klug
China Tech Investing: An Indexed Approach
Cutting overcapacity and finding new areas of growth have been the top priorities for the Chinese authorities. During the past few years, technological innovation was identified as a key enabler to transform China’s economy into a dynamic economy.
2 December 2020 | MSCI Inc: Wei Xu, Kumar Neeraj, Devika Ghatech
Nusantara’s Sovereign Tapestry
Japan and the US are making significant commitments to Indonesia’s SWF, foreshadowing the country’s central position in ASEAN’s economy and geopolitics.
16 December 2020 | CAPER
Geographic Links and Predictable Returns
Using detailed information on establishments owned by U.S. public firms, we construct a novel measure of geographic linkage between firms. We show a significant lead-lag return effect among geography-linked firms.
19 December 2020 | Zuben Jin, Frank Weikai Li
Information Acquisition and Expected Returns
Using a novel dataset containing investors' access of company filings through the SEC's EDGAR system, we show that the abnormal number of IPs searching for firms' financial statements strongly predicts future stock returns and firm fundamentals.
8 August 2018 | Frank Weikai Li, Chengzhu Sun
Is Carbon Risk Priced in the Cross Section of Corporate Bond Returns?
We study the pricing of a firm's carbon risk in the cross-section of corporate bond returns. Contrary to the "carbon risk premium" hypothesis, we find bonds of firms with higher carbon emissions earn significantly lower returns.
12 October 2020 | Tinghua Duan, Frank Weikai Li, Quan Wen
Security Analysts and Capital Market Anomalies
We examine the value and efficiency of analyst recommendations through the lens of capital market anomalies. We find that analysts do not fully use the information in anomaly signals when making recommendations.
1 July 2018 | Li Guo, Frank Weikai Li, K.C. John Wei
Short Selling ETFs
We provide novel evidence that arbitrageurs use exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as an avenue to circumvent short-sale constraints at the stock level.
1 May 2018 | Frank Weikai Li, Qifei Zhu
The Information Content of Sudden Insider Silence
We find routine-based insiders strategically choose to be silent when they possess private information not yet reflected in stock prices. A long-short strategy that exploits insiders' strategic silence generates abnormal returns of 6% to 10% annually.
14 February 2018 | Claire Yurong Hong, Frank Weikai Li
Effective Scoring to Capture Quality and Value in China
We evaluate two methods used to normalize and combine the financial ratios—z-scores and SNDZ-scores—on how they resulted in different portfolio characteristics for quality and value in the China A market from 2006 through 2019.
19 November 2020 | S&P Dow Jones Indices: Priscilla Luk, Liyu Zeng
Physical versus Synthetic Gold: Know Your Gold Exposure
Two of the more popular gold investment instruments professional investors use are gold futures, including financial instruments based on gold futures, and exchange-traded products (ETPs) based on physical gold.
5 November 2020 | S&P Dow Jones Indices: Fiona Boal
Blended Finance: Catalysing Bankable Nature Solutions
Bankable Nature Solutions aim to reduce negative pressure on ecosystems, drive sustainability, and generate positive returns. Through blended finance, they create an environment for private investors to adopt a financially self-sustaining approach.
11 December 2020 | Thiaga Nadeson, Adam Ng, Katherine Lim, Siti Rizkiah, Norizan Mohd Mazlan, Sharon Lo, and Belinda Lip
Exploring S&P PACT Indices Weight Attribution
We aim to provide transparency around the S&P PACT Indices, a sophisticated index solution to align with a 1.5°C trajectory and mitigate a range of potential financial risks, while assessing opportunities companies may face from climate change.
4 December 2020 | S&P Dow Jones Indices: Ben Leale-Green, Barbara Velado
Korean Listed Companies 2019 ESG Incident Report
This report is based on Who’s Good ESG Incident Analysis, powered by artificial intelligence algorithms and news data from 90+ local and national news media providers in Korea. It provides an overview of the corporate ESG incidents in 2019 for Korean listed companies.
11 December 2020 | Who's Good: Duk Chan Yoon, Maxim Nam, Vasundhara Dehiya, Soo Young Kim, Ju Yeon Lee, Emily Kim
SREITs and Property Trusts Chartbook: December 2020
Singapore has 43 REITs & Property Trusts with a combined market cap S$104B, representing c.12% of Singapore’s overall listed stocks. SGX Research presents its quarterly overview of the sector's performance.
7 December 2020 | SGX Research: Candace Li, Emelia Tan
Does ESG Affect Fundamentals?
ESG investing market has shown significant growth over the past decade, and it continues to grow rapidly. It has been proved that systematic analysis of ESG incidents in addition to using traditional ESG scores improves portfolio's returns.
11 December 2020 | Who's Good: Maxim Nam
VIDEO: Evolution in Investment Management - What Is Happening, and Why?
S&P DJI’s Craig Lazzara examines the effectiveness of indexing in building a stable core and takes a closer look at why passive investing is here to stay in markets around the globe. (Video: 20 min.)
26 November 2020 | S&P Dow Jones Indices: Craig Lazzara | Video: 24 min.
WEBINAR: Practices and Opportunities in Islamic Capital Markets
Capital market practitioners and Islamic finance experts discuss the fundamental principles of Shariah law governing capital markets, opportunities for companies to issue sukuk for funding projects, and more. Part 3 of the Islamic finance webinar series.
15 December 2020 | CFA Institute, CFA Society Indonesia, CFA Society Malaysia, CFA Society Pakistan | Video: 1 hr 32 min.
Pakistan's Rice Industry: A Global Perspective
Most rice is grown and consumed in Asia. China is the largest consumer, while India is the largest exporter, accounting for nearly 30% of rice trade. Rice is the second main staple food crop for Pakistan.
1 November 2020 | The Pakistan Credit Rating Agency Limited: SaniyaTauseef, Qurat-ul-Ain
WEBINAR: The Rise of Decentralized Finance: Disruption or Opportunity?
Decentralized finance (DeFi) – financial products and services based on the blockchain technology – has seen a surge of interest and new developments in 2020. New applications in areas such as lending, insurance, derivatives, and exchanges, expand our understanding of what services DeFi can support. Experts from BCG Platinion and Crypto.com discuss trends, challenges, and opportunities in decentralized finance.
8 December 2020 | CFA Institute, BCG Platinion, Crypto.com | Video: 1 hr 14 min.
WEBINAR: The Battle for Business Ethics
To celebrate the Global Ethics Day 2020, ACCA and CFA Institute collaborated for the first time to launch an Ethics Essay Competition for our members and student population. The competition endeavored to promote ethics and integrity in finance and investment management.
3 December 2020 | CFA Institute, ACCA | Video: 1 hr
Indexing Risk Parity Strategies
The S&P Risk Parity Index Series provides a transparent, rules-based benchmark for equal-risk-weighted parity strategies. It uses futures to represent multiple asset classes and the risk/return characteristics of funds in the risk parity space.
14 October 2020 | S&P Dow Jones Indices: Berlinda Liu, Tianyin Cheng, Phil Brzenk
Oil Marketing Companies: An Overview
Oil has the highest share of ~33% in the global energy mix. The industry holds a strategic importance in the Pakistani economy as well as a vital position in the country's oil and gas sector, contributing ~9% to the GDP.
1 November 2020 | The Pakistan Credit Rating Agency Limited: SaniyaTauseef, Aimen Noor
Climate Finance Markets and the Real Economy: Sizing the Global Need and Defining the Market Structure to Mobilize Capital
The report calls for coordinated and concerted action by the public, social, and private sectors to significantly scale the Climate Finance Market Structure (CFMS) over the next three decades.
7 December 2020 | GFMA, BCG
VIDEO: Understanding the Market Impact of the U.S. Election
Sam Stovall shares his post-election outlook for global equities, walking us through what history has to say about which sectors and markets could benefit most from an evolving political landscape. (Video: 24 min.)
30 November 2020 | S&P Dow Jones Indices: Sam Stovall | Video: 24 min.
Institutional Factors and the Value Relevance of Accounting Information: Evidence from Chinese AH Shares
Research shows that the IFRS convergence could promote higher quality of accounting information in China, as the value relevance increases when Chinese firms switched from complying with the China GAAP to the IFRS-based accounting standards.
16 November 2020 | Feng Zou, Ervina Alfan
Where Do You See Yourself in 5 Years? China Stocks Up ahead of 5-Year Plan
Recent rebounds in economic data points point to an increased appetite from China for industrial metals compared to what was witnessed during the doldrums of the COVID-19 global lockdown earlier this year and in the past two years.
17 November 2020 | S&P Dow Jones Indices: Jim Wiederhold
Maintaining Confidence in Financial Markets
This paper explores the ethical issues surrounding disclosures of material non-public information, stock-based compensation, and insider trading, particularly as they relate to the case of Eastman Kodak disclosures and compensation.
3 December 2020 | Adrian (Ching-Hsiang) Chan
TCFD Disclosure on the IFRS Financial Statements: Notes from an online workshop for Japanese Investors
The TCFD final report requires companies to discuss the impact of climate change in their financial statements. Japanese investors discuss whether such disclosures are feasible and useful, considering the impact of Covid-19.
2 December 2020 | Chie Mitsui
Operational Challenges in Hong Kong and Singapore Capital Markets
The report sets out the operational challenges identified in Hong Kong and Singapore during the COVID-19 pandemic and proposed solutions to address or alleviate these operational challenges in the short-term and/or the long-term.
30 November 2020 | ASIFMA; Latham & Watkins; PwC Hong Kong
Is the S&P 500 Doing Its Job?
Have all the changes made over the years by the Index Committee helped the index accurately represent the U.S. large-cap market?
6 October 2020 | S&P Dow Jones Indices: Raymond McConville
Features and Trends in European Listed Real Estate
The European commercial real estate is estimated to represent some EUR 7.27 trillion of assets. While still small compared to the US and Asia, it has been undergoing significant changes in recent years. This paper outlines those key changes.
20 November 2020 | FTSE Russell: Ali Zaidi, Sergiy Lesyk
WEBINAR: ESG Integration in Fixed Income in Practice
In this webinar, second in the series on ESG in credit, we have invited investment managers and asset owners to provide real life examples of how ESG is integrated into fixed income in practice, such as ESG evaluation methods, performance measurements, reporting practices and the design of ESG investment products.
17 November 2020 | CFA Institute ARX | Video: 1 hr 11 min.
Valuation Effect of Corporate Name Change in Chinese Technology Stocks
Each year, hundreds of firms change names in China, for legitimate reasons or as a trend-riding strategy. Do investors truly reward such corporate actions? We examine the short-term valuation effect of name changes for China technology stocks.
24 November 2020 | Li Hui, Tan Yeng May
Risk-Friendly Ways to Consider a Bitcoin Allocation
The rapid development of institutional grade financial infrastructure has made digital assets such as Bitcoin more accessible to investment institutions. However, questions about allocation to assets and risk mitigation are not widely considered.
20 November 2020 | FTSE Russell: Martin Howard
Outlook 2021: Value Strikes Back
As several indicators indicate continuing recovery in China’s market, value sectors – the traditional and cyclical sectors with low valuation – are outperforming. Financials, industrials, materials, energy and consumer discretionary will benefit.
20 November 2020 | BOCOM International: Hao Hong, CFA
FTSE Russell China Bond Research Report: Q3 2020
The internationalisation of China’s debt markets is accelerating especially investment into China’s policy bank bonds. China’s regulators make a move aimed at making trading convenient for investors outside of China time zone.
20 November 2020 | FTSE Russell
Dissecting Performance Characteristics of Growth Factors in Australia
In this blog, we examine the performance cyclicality, factor exposure, risk/return decomposition, and factor correlation for the long-term growth factor portfolios.
19 October 2020 | S&P Dow Jones Indices: Arpit Gupta
The Right ETF Starts with the Right Index
There are many different passive strategies to choose from, but having so much choice for each situation can be confusing. Advisers need to understand how indexes work in order to help their clients achieve their goals.
17 November 2020 | FTSE Russell
Charting a Course for the Continued Rise of Passive in India
While India has taken to passive investing in a big way, there are still a few hurdles preventing serious growth. We explore how passive’s rise in other markets could help inform a path forward in India.
26 October 2020 | S&P Dow Jones Indices: Tyler Carter
CMBS and the Fed: Is There a Crisis Brewing in the Office?
To prevent a re-run of the 2008/09 collapse in the US financial system, the US Fed again stepped into the agency-Mortgage Backed Securities market, after the COVID-19 shock emerged in Q1, buying almost $600 billion of agency-MBS in Q2 2020 alone.
12 November 2020 | FTSE Russell: Robin Marshall, Luke Lu
WEBINAR: Employee, Shareholder, and Banking Email Fraud
Kevin Bowers, partner at Bowers, a Hong Kong law firm, speaks about fraud in shareholder disputes, employee fraud, how to recover money lost in email bank fraud, and how to insure yourself against IT fraud.
28 August 2020 | CFA Society Hong Kong, Kevin Bowers | Video: 1 hr 13 min.
Indian Investments in Global Equities: From Zero to Hero
Indian investors have for a long time strongly favoured domestic assets. But there is a compelling case for global diversification, which can help balance country risks and access returns.
22 October 2020 | S&P Dow Jones Indices: Koel Ghosh
WEBINAR: Invest in Your Career to Reach the Top: Equity Research
Equity research analysts work at a variety of companies, such as asset managers, investment banks, insurance, hedge funds, pension funds, and brokerages, which need to crunch data to spot trends or to decide on a valuation.
11 November 2020 | CFA Society Philippines: Charles William Ang, CFA | Video: 1 hr 2 min.
Continued Dominance of Growth Style Investing
Growth style investing has outperformed value for over a decade but its relative returns against value so far in 2020 have been unprecedented.
12 October 2020 | S&P Dow Jones Indices: Hamish Preston
The Asia Pacific IOI Charter
The Asia Pacific IOI Charter is a supplement to the 2017 AFME/IA Framework for Indications of Interest, providing additional guidance for market participants who issue and react to Indications of Interest (IOIs) on a bilateral basis in Asia Pacific.
10 November 2020 | ASIFMA: Lyndon Chao
A Brain-Focused Approach to the Equity Premium Puzzle
A new unified explanation for the equity premium puzzle, the countercyclical equity premia, the value effect, and the size effect emerges from an analysis of the human brain as the ultimate scarce, efficient, and rational resource.
10 November 2020 | Hammad Siddiqi
The Great Covid Conundrum: An update on the market and the economy
A general overview of the financial markets during the Covid-19 pandemic and the measures taken by the central banks of the USA and India, and by the Indian government, to help mitigate the effect of the crisis.
9 November 2020 | Siddhartha Chabria
SPIVA Japan Scorecard: Mid-Year 2020
The semi-annual SPIVA Japan Scorecard reports on the performance of actively managed Japanese mutual funds against their respective benchmark indices over 1-, 3-, 5-, and 10-year investment horizons.
6 November 2020 | S&P Dow Jones Indices: Priscilla Luk, Arpit Gupta
Investing in Water for a Sustainable Future
The world is facing water shortages. Companies that address the crisis represent long-term opportunities. The S&P Global Water Index provides a liquid, diversified exposure to companies involved in water-related business activities.
8 October 2020 | S&P Dow Jones Indices: Tianyin Cheng, Claire Yi
Global Emerging Markets Chartbook: October 2020
Key rating trends and drivers for emerging market sovereigns, financial institutions and non-financial corporates.
29 October 2020 | Moody's Investors Service
SPIVA India Scorecard: Mid-Year 2020
The semi-annual SPIVA India Scorecard compares the performance of actively managed Indian mutual funds with their respective benchmark indices over 1-, 3-, 5-, and 10-year investment horizons.
22 October 2020 | S&P Dow Jones Indices
S-REITs Continued to Pursue Acquisitions in October 2020
In October, five S-REITs - ARA Logos Logistics Trust, Mapletree Logistics Trust, Elite Commercial REIT, Suntec REIT and Lendlease Global Commercial REIT - announced proposed property acquisitions.
28 October 2020 | SGX Research: Geoff Howie
Integration of ESG in Valuation – A Summary
With ample empirical evidence on how ESG factors affect corporates’ operating and financial performance, ESG has become a factor in investment decision making, presenting material risks and opportunities.
14 October 2020 | CFA Society India: Labanya Prakash Jena
VIDEO: Assessing Gold's Ascent
What’s driving demand for gold this year? S&P DJI’s Jim Wiederhold and CME Group’s Blu Putnam explore what’s pushing gold prices up and how investors are putting the precious metal to work in portfolios.
6 October 2020 | S&P Dow Jones Indices | Video: 8 min.
WEBINAR: Digitising for A More Agile Capital Market
Chin Wei Min, Executive Director of Digital Strategy and Innovation at Securities Commission Malaysia, and Justin Ong, CFA, President of CFA Society Malaysia, discuss the digital and innovation agenda for the Malaysian capital market, and the road ahead to foster greater innovation in the industry through the use of technology.
5 November 2020 | CFA Society Malaysia: Chin Wei Min, Justin Ong, CFA | Video: 1 hr 4 min.
The Firm as a Data-Generating Mechanism
Big data is a strategically important resource. It is more likely to be a source of competitive advantage if it is generated in-house. Firms will be larger and more diversified because data analysis benefits from economies of scale.
5 November 2020 | Mark A DeWeaver
Stewardship 2.0: Awareness, Effectiveness, and Progression of Stewardship Codes in Asia Pacific
An overview of stewardship codes in Australia, Hong Kong SAR, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand shows how institutional investors apply them in their professional capacity.
10 August 2020 | CFA Institute: Mary Leung, CFA, Eugene Hsiao, CFA
ESG-Screening and Factor-Risk-Adjusted Performance: The Concentration Level of ESG-Screening Does Matter
The benefit of ESG-screening outweighs the cost of increasing diversifiable risk until about 50% of low score funds are excluded from the eligible universe. Investors need to treat the concentration level of ESG-screening as a search parameter.
29 October 2020 | Ick Jin
Evaluating Passive Value Strategies
Value investing is a well-known strategy that seeks to exploit perceived differences between a security’s price and an assessment of its true underlying worth. An investor should consider carefully which is the most appropriate value index to use.
25 September 2020 | S&P Dow Jones Indices: Jason Giordano, Jason Ye
Fixed Income ETFs Show Maturity in March Market Mayhem
There is little evidence that the liquidity infrastructure around ETFs, driven by authorized participants, failed during the March/April 2020 period, and trading spreads were much narrower in fixed income ETFs than in the underlying bonds.
28 October 2020 | FTSE Russell: Robin Marshall
ESG Taxonomy for Securitized Products
Investors increasingly recognize the value of incorporating sustainable investment principles in financial analysis, but integration of these within fixed income has typically lagged behind equity due to complexity and data reliability.
28 October 2020 | FTSE Russell: Katie Prideaux, Vlad-lonut Ene
How to Build a Climate-Adjusted Government Bond Index
As climate risks accelerate, they are increasingly gaining attention from government bond investors, However, there remains a lack of climate-based investment products in fixed income, particularly in sovereigns.
28 October 2020 | FTSE Russell: Douglas Bourne Analyst, Lee Clements, Guillaume Emin, Thomas Lorans
Examining Small-Cap Growth Strategies in Australia
Many market participants invest in small-cap equities seeking high-growth potential and portfolio diversification. How have growth factors performed in Australian small-cap equities?
21 September 2020 | S&P Dow Jones Indices: Arpit Gupta
The Growth of Multi-Asset Investing
Multi-asset investing has grown dramatically in popularity during the last decade. Together with passive investing, it is currently one of the fastest-growing segments of the global asset management business.
28 October 2020 | FTSE Russell
About the Author(s)
Director: Scott Lee
Content manager, Editor: Piotr Zembrowski, CFA
Coordinator: Natalie Yiu