News & Research

Italian risk premium continues to rise, as political uncertainty persists; Gilt yields and pound rise on higher inflation; Portfolio risk falls on lower equity volatility.

Country volatilities ease, despite surging pandemic; Asset correlations drop to 12-month low, driving down risk; Is the sector rotation over?

The absence of clear economic and immunization success stories globally, has turned investors into hypochondriacs, debating who’s feeling bullish and who’s not and who’s not now but was a few weeks ago or isn’t bearish yet but thinks they might be soon, etc..

In capital markets investing, the greater fool theory1 states that an investor buying a risk asset, no matter its current valuation, can always find a “greater fool” to buy it later at a higher price. The theory rests on the subjectivity of valuations and the fact that beauty (the attractiveness of the investment) is always […]

In a surprising turn of events, most equity markets finished 2020 with sizable gains—and the fourth quarter unquestionably did its part. Benchmark risk continued to slide in Q4—except for a blip in November—but still ended the year higher than where it started. Factor returns went wild in Q4 and many regions saw outsized returns for the year.

Risk appetites keep rising; Emerging markets industry risk at 12-month high; US market wobbles as risk remains relatively flat.

Italian risk premium rises after cabinet resignations; Dollar strengthens on safe-haven flows; Portfolio risk falls, as share prices and exchange rates decouple.

This week, sentiment in the US weakened further ahead of a potential reaping this coming Wednesday. But, as they did then when they chose to ignore those shenanigans two weeks ago, markets rose last week and seemed to refute investor sentiment by observing that their Propter Hoc isn’t even a Post Hoc (i.e., markets didn’t fall after the (first) violence).

Qontigo announced today the appointment of Brian McArthur-Muscroft as Chief Financial Officer. McArthur-Muscroft was formerly CFO of Micro Focus International plc, the British multinational software and information technology company, where he also served as a member of the board of directors since 2018.

While taking risks by not wearing a mask offered zero upside in 2020, taking sentiment-savvy risks with your portfolio delivered bigtime. Using the Qontigo Sector ROOF Scores, we developed a methodology to construct Risk-On and Risk-Off variants of the STOXX USA 500 index portfolio.

Treasury yields surge ahead of expected fiscal stimulus; Regional sovereign bonds diverge on inflation outlook; Increased diversification mutes portfolio risk.

US stocks continue to rally in 2021; Growth keeps outperforming; Brazil—one of the hardest hit emerging markets.