News & Research

The ROOF portfolios use the sector ROOF Scores to construct sentiment-tracking portfolios designed to capture the returns from the implementation of a bullish or bearish strategy. For the second year in a row, constructing portfolios aligned with the overall negative sentiment in the market generated significant outperformance relative to ‘holding’ the benchmark portfolio or adopting a contrarian bullish strategy.

We look into the economic risks of employing factor-style strategies such as those in the STOXX Factor Indices, by screening them through Axioma’s Macroeconomic Projection model. The findings show that some styles have more economic exposure than others, and that macro variables can be correlated with industry, country and style factors, to different degrees.

The FAANGs — Facebook (now Meta), Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google (i.e., Alphabet) — are having an annus horribilis. But they still have gains to show for the past three years, and, importantly for investors, the group’s influence on the US market has only decreased so much.

Conventional wisdom has it that higher interest rates make a currency more attractive to foreign investors, whereas a weaker exchange rate can be good news for export-oriented economies. Neither is true for the United Kingdom right now.

In a new research paper, we showcase how a portfolio manager can replicate fixed income indices using the Axioma Portfolio Optimizer and the new Axioma Credit Factor Model to create optimal US high- yield portfolios. In the workflow, we replicate a US high yield index with liquid bonds and a set of derivatives and test the solution from a risk perspective. The end goal is to create a set of portfolios that is more cost efficient, as (or more) liquid and as diversified as the index.  

Our stress tests generated in Axioma Risk indicate that further rate hikes could mean even more bad news for stocks and bonds alike, even if, or rather because, they help bring down anticipated consumer-price growth.

As part of the recently announced partnership between CEPRES and Qontigo, we are developing a suite of factor risk models that provide broad coverage of the private market space in Axioma Risk.

The ROOF portfolios use sector and style ROOF Scores to construct sentiment-tracking portfolios designed to capture the returns from the implementation of a bullish or bearish strategy. In a difficult first half of the year, aligning portfolios with the overall negative sentiment in the market generated significant outperformance relative to ‘holding’ the entire market or ignoring the average investor’s outlook.

The ROOF methodology can capture the ‘sentiment’ of a portfolio relative to its benchmark. We run ROOF scores to determine the risk appetite of investors holding four portfolios aligned with respective Sustainable Development Goals.

Courtney Scharff, Qontigo’s Global Head of Strategic Partnerships recently spoke with RepRisk’s CEO, Dr. Philipp Aeby to discuss the partnership. The conversation touched on how RepRisk differentiates its ESG data offerings through full transparency, the challenges of creating ESG data and how asset managers should think about ESG.

Historically, bear markets have been rare. Since 1982 there have been five drawdowns of 20% or more (the ‘official’ bear market definition), including the current one, with a cycle of seven to 13 years in between each one. The present case is unusual, as it has only been two years since the last one.

A new Qontigo white paper analyzes the effect of changes in term spreads, or the difference between long- and short-term sovereign bond yields, on the performance of the iSTOXX Developed and Emerging Markets ex USA PK VN index. The findings show a rise in term spreads has, overall, helped returns for the global real estate index since 2019, but the relationship varies depending on regional exposure and period.