Category: Investment Methodology
188 posts categorized as "Investment Methodology"
Risk Budgeting Basics: Can U.S. Treasuries be Riskier Than Emerging Market Stocks?
August 22, 2018
Content Provided by Case Eichenberger, CIMA – Client Portfolio Manager Risk can be defined in multiple ways: beta to the stock market, standard deviation of returns, relative standard deviation to the stock market, probability of catastrophic loss, probability of not realizing goals, or probability of not sticking with investments, among others. None are correct or…
Sir John Templeton: The Humble Approach
July 10, 2018
Content Provided by Rusty Vanneman, CFA, CMT – Chief Investment Officer One of the most important days in my development as an investment manager occurred in the spring of 1987. It was during my undergraduate days at Babson College. It was Founder’s Day, which is Babson’s oldest tradition, a day established to recognize the school’s…
Behind the (Research) Curtain
June 29, 2018
Content provided by Grant Engelbart, CFA, CAIA, Portfolio Manager There are five areas of analysis we utilize to review investment ideas (see our Risk Budgeting White Paper pages 9-10). To help our readers understand these analyses and our investment processes, let’s take a look at a real life example applicable to many, if not all,…
Reason #29 Not to Use Stock-to-Bond Ratios to Manage Risk
June 11, 2018
Content Provided by Case Eichenberger, CIMA, Client Portfolio Manager Income-Based Portfolios Which portfolio would you expect to be riskier? A or B? Or, put another way, which portfolio would you expect to be more volatile? Tough call, isn’t it? They both look very similar in terms of stock-to-bond ratios. Let’s call it a wash…
Return Drivers of Commodities
June 7, 2018
Content Provided by Jackson Lee, CFA, Quantitative Investment Research Analyst “Be Creative” is a new CLS Investment Theme that was introduced the beginning of this quarter. To recap its introduction, “Be Creative” means CLS will add more exposures to asset classes such as alternative and real assets. The benefits of investing in these segments rather…
Demystifying Liquid Alternatives
May 17, 2018
Content provided by Grant Engelbart, CFA, CAIA, Portfolio Manager One of our latest investment themes, Be Creative, emphasizes the use of alternative assets in portfolios. Alternatives is a broad and often confusing category of investments that encompasses unique assets, such as commodities, and alternative strategies, often called liquid alternatives, packaged in a systematic way. Some…
Time to Be Active
May 16, 2018
Content provided by Michael Hadden, Junior Research Analyst Now that summer is around the corner, I assume it’s safe to say most New Year’s resolutions have fallen to the wayside. For many, myself included, that resolution involved getting to the gym and being more active. And while I haven’t been great at making it to…
DOL Rule: UPDATE
March 21, 2018
Content provided by Mike Forker, Chief Compliance Officer Late last week, the DOL fiduciary rule was addressed by the courts. Here are the main takeaways you need to know. On Thursday, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision that vacated the Department of Labor’s (DOL) fiduciary rule. The ultimate fate of the rule…
Three Reasons Not to Get the Jitters about Market Volatility
February 23, 2018
Content provided by Joe Smith, CFA, Senior Market Strategist The first quarter of 2018 has so far seen a bout of market volatility that in some ways is long overdue. At the end of January, markets began to move — falling from slightly positive to near-correction territory by early February. Although much of the sell-off…
A Perfectly Natural, Normal Thing
February 15, 2018
Content provided by Kostya Etus, CFA, Portfolio Manager To quote someone that I’ve learned quite a bit from, you and I are a perfectly natural, normal thing. Perfectly natural. — Jim Levenstein, American Wedding (2003) We knew the historically low levels of volatility couldn’t last forever. It wasn’t normal and bound to end. We experienced…