News & Research

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.

Through both installed software and cloud-based SaaS solutions, Qontigo has a long history of developing and offering API-based solutions for software challenges.

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.

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.

Direct Indexing has exploded in popularity and more financial advisors are incorporating it into client portfolios than ever before. Increased adoption, advances in technology and appreciation for the tax benefits of Direct Indexing will likely continue to accelerate its rapid growth. How will this impact the advisors’ perception and use of ETFs going forward? Qontigo’s Rob Reina, and other expert panelists addressed the pros and cons of each when constructing portfolios for your clients and offer in-depth analysis on their most appropriate applications.

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.

The devil is in the details when it comes to performance attribution. Here we explain the differences between risk-based vs. Brinson attribution and how using equity risk models can help you understand your drivers of portfolio risk and return.

For years, factor investing has demonstrated its potential to outperform the general market.

In this video, we give an overview of what a financial portfolio optimizer does, how it works and some of the ways you can set up – and solve – your optimization problem.