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Active Management
The main criticism of active management is that the cost of performance is expensive relative to passive investing and that most active managers underperform. But funds which have a high “active share” typically outperform. “Active…
Week in review: What the Fed said
A familiar sense of anticipation settled over investors awaiting the result of the US Federal Reserve’s September deliberation. By and large, analysts and commentators expected the central bank’s interest rate-setting committee to hold firm and…
Behavioural economics and finance
The central tenets of modern portfolio theory and beliefs in rational markets have been found wanting. Critics have observed that Sharpe’s “Capital Asset Pricing Model” (CAPM) and the Modigliani-Miller theorem were written during periods of…
Market review: market jitters
As we move towards autumn, signs of volatility are creeping back into markets. One of the main questions at the forefront of investors’ minds is how soon the Federal Reserve (Fed) will move to raise…
Market review: slow progress
The Brexit discussions rumble on. Two and a half months on from the 23 June vote, the details of Britain’s proposed departure from the European Union (EU) remain unclear. Perhaps worried that the phrase is…
Transparency
Transparency makes investors confident they understand what they have bought and builds trust. The global financial crisis witnessed a failure of transparency around mortgage-backed securities. Openness helps to counter market ills such as moral hazard,…
Week in review: taxing times
It’s been another interesting week with Apple the latest multinational company to be accused of tax dodging. In market news, European inflation failed to accelerate in August, adding to concerns about the economic outlook ahead…
Week in review: Political Olympics
Just four days after the closing ceremony of the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, the final proceedings in the impeachment of Brazil’s former President Dilma Rousseff began. Re-appointed by the Brazilian electorate less than two…
Week in review: League of nations
As the Rio Olympics draw to a close, newspapers and television alike are obsessing about Team GB’s place in the medal table. Will we outrank China? Celebrating individual excellence seems to have taken second place…
Week in review: Her name is Rio …
It was all eyes on Rio de Janeiro this week, as the Games of the XXXI Olympiad got into full swing. As is now traditional at such celebrations of human sporting prowess, the efforts of…
Long-termism
Concerns about short-termism in markets, government thinking and corporate strategy have only increased in the wake of the global financial crisis and the resulting levels of uncertainty surrounding investor and business behaviour have led to…
India: The Giant Awakens
This is indeed India! The land of dreams and romance, of fabulous wealth and fabulous poverty, of splendour and rags, of palaces and hovels, of famine and pestilence, of genii and giants and Aladdin lamps,…
Week in review: Desperate times
On Wednesday the result of the most wide-ranging survey of British businesses since the Brexit vote was released. The purchasing managers’ index showed the sharpest fall in business activity for 20 years, and follows a…
China: finding the next growth engine
The Chinese economy is likely to be subdued over the medium term, but pockets of growth and potential remain. Nicholas Yeo, Head of Equities, China and Hong Kong, explains.
Simplicity
Simplicity is not just a business and regulatory imperative. Investor revulsion at the global financial crisis has led to a renaissance for simplicity. Certainly the complicated mathematical models so beloved in some quarters of finance…
Week in review: the last “hurrah”
The FTSE 100 index broke through 6,700 this week, hitting a one-year high and closing at 6,712 at Thursday’s close. Meanwhile, the domestically focused FTSE 250 has near enough erased its post-Brexit losses. Investors were…
Welcome to Asia in 2030 (video)
Think long term. Think Asia. Watch the video below to find out why you should consider investing in Asia.
Risk is not a number (video)
Risk means different things to different people; its essence is embedded in the eye of the beholder. Watch the video below to find out more.