Remain diversified within the fixed income sector, allocating assets to international and high-yield bonds where appropriate, for example, to help smooth investment performance. Opportunities exist for these sectors to perform comparatively better within the context of a rising U.S. interest rate environment.
It is interesting to note that more than 13% of equities now offer dividend yields in excess of the yield available on the average corporate bond. Could equities be a better source of income? While this is debatable, we think the discussion has merit and investors should be inclined to take more equity-like risk based on relative values.
In building emerging market allocations into a portfolio, investors should adopt a well-structured investment process, evaluate those allocations at the portfolio level, pursue constrained optimization techniques and use a risk model to continuously control their risk exposures.
Analysis shows the inflation hedging benefits of long-term investments in commodities, which have a low correlation over time with equities. Diversification with a broad basket of commodities is best to smooth out the volatilities of individual commodities, such as oil or gold.
We believe emerging markets investment in significant size will be essential to achieving above average portfolio growth in equity markets, public or private. Currently, we believe a commitment to emerging markets should fall in the range of 25% to 30% of marketable equities and private equity.
This comparison of ultra-short duration fixed income funds with money market and short-term bond funds helps investors understand the nuances of ultra-short duration funds and, thus, make an informed decision of whether to include these investments in their portfolios.
This historical study suggests that monthly rebalancing appears to have minimal or no benefit in terms of end-of-year portfolio values except in years of high volatility. A look at rebalancing a 60/40 portfolio either monthly or annually from 1960 through 2009 showed an average annual difference between the two strategies of only 8 basis points.
Successful investing is often seen as the ability to consistently and accurately make predictions about the economy, markets and specific securities. In reality, success comes less from predicting the future with blinding accuracy and more from selecting securities and vehicles that perform well when an investment thesis proves correct and perform ...
Most investors believe an index-based ETF, ETN or swap will give them an experience similar to the equity markets, where an index-based product represents an unbiased view of the market portfolio, using market capitalization as weights. Unfortunately, this intuition proves misguided due to important differences in how these indexes are constructed.
Commodity allocations in model portfolios have moved from being exotic to commonplace. The benefits being sought by such allocations typically include protection against inflation and diversification. While commodity allocations can serve both of these roles handily, the manner in which some clients implement these strategies potentially reduces th...
Private equity investing is not without its challenges. However, long-term returns argue for exposure to this asset class for sophisticated investors. The most important considerations are structure of the investment program, access to top-tier performers, and knowledge about emerging private equity firms.
In normal markets, typical long/short funds show beta behavior similar to that of long-only funds. With certain specialized short positions, a declining equity market generates both higher profits and higher levels of short exposures. However, these funds may require large liquidity reserves for rebalancing.
U.S. investors can build international equity by investing directly in overseas markets or by purchasing shares of American depositary receipts. The method selected will have important implications for transaction costs, ongoing fees and benchmark tracking.
The author explores the advantages and disadvantages of the outsourced CIO model relative to non-discretionary models and suggests how investors might think about choosing between the two models.
Senior security, floating interest payments and covenant protection make these loans a unique asset class. Their historically steady returns, low volatility and negative correlation with investment-grade fixed income could enhance returns while reducing portfolio volatility.