Overview
ARX is designed to bring together investment professionals in Asia Pacific and other regions to share their views, knowledge and experience, so that they can learn from their peers and thought-leaders. Here is the list of most often downloaded posts within the last three months.
To browse or search ARX's repository of more than 3000 posts, select "Research" in the upper left-hand corner of the page.
Understanding the Investment Fundamentals of Airlines
Perhaps it’s the thrill of voyaging to a far-flung, unfamiliar place. Maybe it’s the teasing prospect of a seat or—even better—an earnings upgrade. Whatever our reasons, we remain seduced and frustrated by the airline industry.
In a 2007 letter to shareholders, Warren Buffett observed that: The worst sort of business is one that grows rapidly, requires significant capital to engender the growth, then earns little or no money—think airlines. Here a durable competitive advantage has proven elusive ever since the days of the Wright Brothers. Indeed, if a farsighted capitalist had been present at Kitty Hawk, he would have done his successors a huge favor by shooting Orville down.
1 September 2018 | CFA Institute | 1 CE
Understanding the Investment Fundamentals of the Insurance Sector
Insurance is a curious sector. In years gone by, it was regarded as something of a cash cow, with the likes of Warren Buffett treating the float as a source of money to be invested elsewhere. Insurance companies were also seen as sclerotic, with time-consuming processes that often placed the customer last. It’s not because these firms didn’t care. Instead, the characterisation reflected an
ingrained culture that didn’t quite know how to change.
28 January 2019 | CFA Institute | 1 CE
ESG Trends to Watch in 2019
Trade wars. Technological disruption. Political dysfunction. Rising volatility and vulnerability. The beginning of 2019 has already been described in a multitude of ways, but the overarching themes coming forth tend to follow a clear narrative: The bull market may be ending, and everyone is bracing for the long haul.
For an ESG investor, the long haul already has started. Underlying many of the 2019 themes are potentially overlooked costs and opportunities, and our 2019 ESG Trends to Watch have one thing in common: Acting today could make the difference tomorrow.
17 January 2019 | MSCI | 1 CE
Understanding the Investment Fundamentals of the Property Development Sector
In a complex and fast-moving financial world, it’s comforting to know that some sectors remain relatively easy to understand. A case in point is property development. The property developer acquires land and an architect then designs the building and obtains planning approval before passing the baton to the construction team.
At this stage, the developer could choose to undertake marketing and sales before construction is complete or wait until the last brick falls into place. Either way, you can then calculate the gross development value (GDV) of a project or profit from the project, of which the sum of GDV, excluding the developer’s liabilities, will yield the value of the development.
28 June 2018 | CFA Institute | 1 CE
ESG Integration in Asia Pacific: Markets, Practices, and Data
Portfolio managers and analysts are increasingly incorporating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors in their investment analyses and processes. However, ESG integration remains in its relative infancy, with investors and analysts calling for more guidance on exactly “how” they can “do ESG” and integrate ESG data into their analysis.
A new report by CFA Institute and Principles for Responsible Investment highlights best practices in ESG integration in six APAC markets: Australia, China, Hong Kong SAR, India, Japan, and Singapore.
4 June 2019 | CFA Institute | 5 CE
Professionalising Financial Advice
The Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry (Hayne Royal Commission) has exposed significant problems in the financial industry in Australia. These include advisers failing to act in the best interest of their clients, conflicted remuneration structures that lead to poor or inappropriate outcomes for clients, and an industry dominated by vertically integrated firms that puts the interests of the firms before those of their clients. As a result, the public has lost confidence in the industry and has little trust in it. It is imperative that the financial industry and other stakeholders, including government and regulatory authorities, take decisive, visible actions to restore public trust and confidence.
Following the Hayne Royal Commission, CFA Institute and CFA Societies Australia present policy recommendations on best interest duty, conflicted remuneration, independence of financial advice and the industry culture.
13 May 2019 | CFA Institute | 1.25 CE
Is the Low-Volatility Anomaly Universal?
Portfolio managers have run defensive equity strategies for decades. Low volatility has become an important factor in the 10 years since the 2008 financial crisis. The low volatility anomaly challenges the conventional wisdom about risk and return—low volatility stocks, by definition, exhibit lower risk, but they have also outperformed their benchmarks over time. This phenomenon is observed universally across the globe. Low volatility strategies also exhibit a distinctive pattern of returns that is observable across capitalization tranches and geographic regions. They offer protection in down markets and participation in up markets. Low volatility’s performance benefits from an asymmetry. Return dispersion tends to be above average when low volatility outperforms, and below average when low volatility underperforms.
7 May 2019 | S&P Dow Jones Indices
Why Pension Schemes Can Lead on Climate Change
The long-term investment timeframe that pension schemes take poses enormous challenges but can also lead to innovative investment approaches to difficult issues. In this guest Q&A, Owen Thorne, portfolio manager, monitoring & responsible investment at the Merseyside Pension Fund (MPF) explains how the Fund approached the climate change challenge.
28 May 2019 | FTSE Russell
VIDEO: Startup Valuation and Fundraising
The speech of Mr. Waseem Alim, CFA, Founder and CEO of Chaldal, on startup valuation and fundraising at a continuing education event organized by CFA Society Bangladesh on March 21, 2019 in Dhaka.
28 May 2019 | CFA Society Bangladesh | 0.75 CE | Video: 59 min.
About the Author(s)
Director: Scott Lee
Content manager, Editor: Piotr Zembrowski, CFA
Coordinator: Natalie Yiu