Markets have just witnessed the biggest decline in crude prices since the Gulf War. What does this mean for commodity investors in the U.S. and around the globe? A closer look at what might have caused the oil collapse reveals how it can impact investor expectations for the near term.
Responsible investors often express that they don’t want to buy companies that greenwash; rather, they want the real thing. And they want investment managers who can tell the difference. But businesses are complex organisms, and sustainable business practices are rarely as simple as good versus bad. However, there are pointers that can help steer you in the right direction.
In periods of market stress and heightened uncertainty, it can be difficult enough to take the plunge and rebalance, much less overweight risky assets like equities. In this webinar, Margaret Chen moderates a discussion with Celia Dallas and Kevin Rosenbaum addressing when the right time to rebalance is, and our approach to using multiple lenses to tune out the emotion and dial in on hard data and most probable outcomes even in the face of great uncertainty.
The Alternatives Landscape provides a broad overview of the current environment for the primary alternative asset classes: hedge funds, private equity, private credit, real assets, and real estate. The landscape begins with a look at the broad hedge fund universe, which saw managers in higher beta-oriented strategies generating the best returns.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused investors around the globe to ditch risky assets in favor of safer alternatives. Many have looked to gold as the place to park capital in hopes that the commodity will gain value during the current market rout. Gold is viewed as a safe haven, expected to deliver a degree of protection when equity markets become more volatile. With so much uncertainty surrounding equities, why is gold underperforming?
In what feels like a distant memory, the first quarter of 2020 began on a positive note, with the S&P 500 rising to a record high on February 19. Markets quickly retreated as investors digested the impact of COVID-19 on the global economy. The S&P 500 plummeted, losing 34% in 23 trading days, the fastest decline of that magnitude in history. Global central banks and governing bodies responded quickly, injecting historic levels of monetary and fiscal stimulus which pared losses.
The unprecedented speed, intensity, and uncertainty of COVID-19 has created a host of new and complex challenges for wealthy families that are playing out across both financial and family dynamics. There's no doubt it is a financial and business challenge, but it is also a very human one. To assist family office leaders and the families they support see and solve the issues in the most effective ways, a set of discussion questions are provided to help leaders prioritize and address both the financial and logistical considerations, as well as the very human ones.
Liquidity risk is a critical issue for investors, and it has been heightened in the COVID-19 environment that has brought on the end of the bull market. We take a closer review of the factors that have changed market liquidity conditions over the past decade, how the “new liquidity reality” has impacted several markets during the recent market downturn, and the potential steps to take going forward.
April is setting up to be a transformational month for understanding how the global economy and financial markets will recover from the COVID-19 pandemic gripping the world. Investor’s patience are being tested, and low prices may tempt some investors to rush into equities. But are there still too many unknowns?
Predicting the future path of inflation is notoriously difficult; just ask any economist. The best protection against future uncertainty is a well-constructed portfolio, tailored to meet the asset owner’s risk tolerance, portfolio objectives, and spending needs. While there are trade-offs associated with all solutions to protect a portfolio against inflation, there are ten things that investors have come to appreciate.