Tariffs, Tensions, and Opportunities
Understanding the interplay of policy, market sentiment, and regional dynamics is critical for successful investment positioning in this era of renewed protectionism and global economic realignment.
Xponance Celebrates Five Years of Recognition as a Best Place to Work in Money Management by Pensions & Investments
Press Release Philadelphia, PA (Dec. 9, 2024) – Xponance, Inc., a multi-strategy investment firm, was recognized in the 2024 Best Places to Work in Money Management awards announced by Pensions & Investments today. This is the fifth year in a row that the company...
The Precariat Are Still Mad! Real Talk on Immigration – Part II
This is the second of a three-part series on the two issues that led to 2024’s anti-incumbent party backlash. This paper evaluates salient macroeconomic, demographic, and social factors that have or should inform immigration policy, as well as the policy solutions put forward by the incoming administration to address unauthorized workers in America.
The Precariat Are Still Mad! An Analysis of 2024’s Incumbent Party Shellacking – Part I
The electorate is in a foul mood. Not just in the U.S., but globally, where incumbent parties have faced unprecedented levels of reversal. In each of the 10 major countries tracked by the Financial Times’ ParlGov global research, incumbent leaders were either given the boot or a painful thrashing.
Laboring Under Pressure: Are Labor Supply Trends Breeding Long-Term Stagflationary Conditions?
As risk-on traders take a victory lap amid surging equity markets and now renewed monetary policy accommodation, the expectations for a soft landing in the U.S. economy now form the base case scenario for a preponderance of U.S. investors.
Yielding to Temptation: Pigs Get Fat, Hogs Get Slaughtered: Q3 2024 Fixed Income Update
As we approach the end of 2024, market volatility persists, with the market narrative frequently shifting in response to new economic data releases. But what does this mean for fixed income markets and portfolio decisions in the fourth quarter of 2024 and beyond?
Navigating Market Crosscurrents: Systematic Global Equities Q3 2024 Update
Market narratives have shifted significantly this year—from excitement surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) to apprehensions about big tech expenditure, and from recession worries to confidence in the resilience of the U.S. economy
Time For a Resurgence in the Performance of SMID Cap & Small Cap Companies
Large Cap companies have dominated their smaller brethren since the end of the Great Financial Crisis in 2008. After the economy started recovering from the crisis in 2009, market leadership was initially powered by small names but as the recovery stabilized, larger names started to gather strength and have been on a tear since. With more than 13 years of large cap leadership on the books, it may be time for a change.
When does the Tortoise beat the Hare in Value Investing?
Within low turnover value strategies, we explore how the market conditions at the time of a strategy’s inception can have a lasting impact on its performance for years.
What? Me Worry? Geopolitics in the Age of Fiscal Largesse
The summer of 2024 threatens to ignite transnational conflict with an unprecedented array of flashpoints never seen in the modern world.
AI’s Power Surge: Systematic Global Equities Q2 2024 Update
In this update, we begin by reviewing the state of the economy as we enter the second half of the year. We then pivot to discussing the potential impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on the Utilities sector and the performance of the Technology sector, driven by ongoing AI trends.
Navigating the Economic Landscape in Mid-2024: The Only Certainty is Uncertainty: Q2 2024 Fixed Income Update
As we reach the midpoint of 2024, the economy grapples with familiar question that has persisted over the past couple of years. When will the substantial increase in interest rates significantly impact economic conditions?
Intermediate Government/Credit
Yield Advantage Intermediate Government/Credit Q1 2025 | March 31, 2025 Read PDF Version Read Commentary Annualized Returns (%) QTD YTD 1 Year 3 Years 5 Years 7 Years 10 Years Since Inception1 Gross of fees 2.31 2.31 5.92 2.73 2.11 2.79 2.4 3.52 Net of fees 2.28...
This Time Is Different in Japan: Part 2: Q1 2024 Multi-Manager Platform Update
There is reason to be bullish on Japanese equities, due to market reforms and interventions over the past decade. In this note, we will recap those reforms we see as most relevant for global stock pickers, followed by insights from a selection of our high conviction boutique managers.
Shifting Market Narratives Forecast Smooth Sailing Despite Gathering Storm Clouds: Q1 2024 Fixed Income Update
As we close the books on the first quarter of 2024, we are once again struck by the contradiction between careful data analysis and changing narratives regarding market direction.
Systematic Global Equities: Q1 2024 Update: Balancing on a Tightrope
As we enter the second quarter of the year, market participants appear to be performing a balancing act on a tightrope amidst the crosscurrents of the macroeconomic data flow.
This Time Really Is Different in Japan, But Maybe Not for the Reasons You Think
Japan had been hiding in the same place where it was last seen in 1989 off the coast of north east China; but apparently while no one was watching (or at least no one in the American financial press) the Japanese stock market’s bell weather index, the Nikkei 225, surpassed its historical high set in 1989.
Xponance Alts Solutions Announces Strategic Investment in The Copia Group
Press Release PHILADELPHIA, March 19, 2024 – Xponance Alts Solutions (“XAlts”), a subsidiary of Xponance Inc, announced today that it has entered into a strategic partnership with private investment firm The Copia Group (“Copia”). XAlts...
S&P 500 Value Rebalance: Everything Value Is Growth Again
This post builds on the analysis of the 2022 rebalance, examining the S&P 500 Value Index’s December 15, 2023 rebalance to assess trends and methodologies. High turnover and major sector and risk factor exposure shifts can impact both passive and active strategies, potentially increasing costs and requiring careful risk management.
Xponance Diverse & Emerging Manager CEO Roundtable
In December 2023 Tina Byles Williams, Founder, CEO and CIO of Xponance, hosted 24 CEOs from among the firm’s currently funded sub-advisors to participate in a roundtable discussion on the most pertinent challenges to emerging and diverse investment management companies.
Too Good to Be True: The Failure of Defensive Managers During Recent Inflationary Shocks
The failure of the returns-based approach, along with some interesting dynamics observed in factor contributions, opens an extremely interesting avenue for future analysis. What role did the macroeconomic regime (inflation, top line growth, and interest rates) play in the “defensiveness” of strategies, and what can be done to avoid misclassifying strategies during sharp regime changes?
U.S. Fixed Income: Q4 2023 Update
The 4th quarter Treasury and spread rally rescued the broad fixed income market from another year of negative or barely positive (depending on sector) returns. In traditional bond market fashion, however, we find much to worry about with stretched valuations in most of the spread sectors and an uncertain path forward for the economy and interest rates.
The View From the Top: What the Markets Look Like at a Potential Top of the Rate Cycle
Investors’ 2023 New Years’ resolution was apparently to forgive and forget their travails of 2022, as global markets spent 2023 shrugging off the prior years’ anxieties. Excluding emerging East Asia, major global markets have already fully recovered from their losses related to the inflation induced rate cycle kicked off in early 2022.
Systematic Global Equities: Q4 2023 Update
As 2023 drew to a close, the financial markets began to manifest the early signs of a soft-landing scenario, marked by a robust rally in equity markets in the fourth quarter, showcasing double-digit gains. This period was characterized by broadening of market strength, with notable outperformance by small-cap stocks, heavily shorted names, lower-quality companies, unprofitable tech, and a mix of long-duration, meme, cyclical, and value stocks.
Mastering Equity Markets: A Deep Dive Into Factor Vetting
This article offers an incisive look into the factor vetting process, crucial for developing effective stock selection models in finance. It highlights the importance of distinguishing robust factors from mere statistical noise, minimizing multicollinearity, and preventing overfitting to enhance model performance.
U.S. Fixed Income: Q3 2023 Update
In this quarter’s update, we begin by looking at interest rates at the very broadest levels, i.e. Treasury markets and Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) actions. We then take stock of the fixed income landscape, looking at current market metrics against a historical backdrop.
Multi-Manager Platform: Q3 2023 Update
In recent years, the investment landscape has been significantly influenced by unprecedented monetary and fiscal stimuli, leading investors to focus on changes in inflation. But the front lines for significant government and central banks’ war against inflation have significantly diverged.
Systematic Global Equities: Q3 2023 Update
The key question going into the final quarter of 2023 and glancing towards 2024, is whether U.S. consumers, that account for roughly two-thirds of its total activity, will continue to keep the economy afloat.
Time for a New China Strategy? The Case for Decoupling Asset Allocation in Chinese Risk Assets: Q3 2023 Market Outlook
Already responsible for an estimated $5 billion in stimulative consumer spending – the equivalent of the entire annual earnings of Starbucks, American Airlines, or FedEx – the Taylor Swift ‘Eras’ Tour is doing more than its part to save the global economy. However, the economic phenomenon being dubbed ‘Swiftonomics’ will forsake China, as the pop legend’s tour plays four dates in Japan and a record six dates in Singapore, but not in the world’s second largest economy.