News & Research

Melissa Brown, Qontigo’s Head of Applied Research, discusses the impact of the Ukraine conflict on markets, sectors and volatility.

Portfolio customization: Have you ever heard of it? If you’re a wealth manager, the answer is probably ‘yes’. But trying to keep up with investor demand to incorporate individual preferences across hundreds, if not thousands, of portfolios cost-efficiently, is a tall order requiring the right underlying technology and support across your organization.

Investor sentiment in 2021 can be summed-up in one word: “concerned”. Generally speaking, investors know there are only a handful of events that can spark a turning point in a market cycle — and in 2021 most expected tapering to be one of them.

When the Axioma Global Multi-Asset Class Risk Model (AXGMM) is combined with the industry-leading Axioma Portfolio Optimizer, the ability to track, tilt and hedge multi-asset class portfolios is exceptional. But its prowess in handling fixed income portfolios on their own should not be overlooked.

The mood of investors in Q3 2021 was decidedly undecided—and increasingly skeptical. Questions about the strength of the economic recovery, persistent inflationary pressures, the world’s ability to overcome the pandemic, and the timing of any tapering efforts by major central banks kept sentiment on the negative side of the neutral zone.

The votes from Germany’s federal election have been counted, but the result was far from decisive. We may be weeks, or even months, away from knowing who will succeed Angela Merkel as the next chancellor.

We work closely with Omega Point – a provider of advanced portfolio intelligence solutions – to help fundamental managers make winning investment decisions

Over time, market-moving events generate either more need or want for portfolio rebalancing. Using each metric’s contribution to the overall market ROOF scores, we can track the motivational nature of the aggregate market move each day (i.e., are they driven by want or need?).

Qontigo’s Tax-Managed Investing solution enables asset managers to improve post-tax returns through tax savings. Two new whitepapers investigate the benefit of active tax management for investment strategies, focusing on a broad cap-weighted equity market index and on factor-based strategies.

The recent release of the Axioma Macroeconomic Projection Equity Factor Risk Model highlights the risk and return impact of economic variables on equity strategies. Quantitatively driven portfolios are usually constructed (and invested in) without considering the potential impact of big moves in economic variables.

Rising interest rates are customarily accompanied by gains in stock prices and increasing consumer prices, which are usually seen as signs of a healthy, growing economy. There may come a point, however, when (expected) inflation becomes so high that the central bank may feel compelled to tighten monetary conditions.

The new Axioma Worldwide Macroeconomic Projection Equity Factor Risk Model offers a unique way to identify a portfolio’s exposures to macroeconomic factors, such as interest rates and inflation, while maintaining the structure and benefits of a more traditional fundamental equity factor risk model.