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FeaturesInvestors are paying for hedge funds' reluctance to use hurdle rates
Although two years have now passed since the US Federal Reserve started rapidly hiking interest rates, the likelihood that your hedge fund manager will have a ‘hurdle rate’ – a minimum rate of return before performance fees kick in – has not changed. Only a quarter of hedge funds, by our count, have such a threshold in place and the practice does not yet show signs of becoming more widespread, even though the risk-free rate has now exceeded 4% for well over a year.
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FeaturesReluctance to drop interest rates disappoints the markets
US rates markets entered the year enthusiastically pricing in over 160 basis points of cuts through 2024, and have since had to push back hard on both the timing and magnitude of interest rate cuts now expected by year-end.
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FeaturesAn inflection point for India bonds
The impending inclusion of Indian government bonds (IGBs) in JP Morgan’s widely tracked $240bn (€220bn) Govern ment Bond Index-Emerging Markets (GBI-EM) index is seen as a milestone. However, while some asset managers hope it is the beginning of a more open investment culture, others are more circumspect.
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FeaturesIPE Quest Expectations Indicator - April 2024
The shadow of the US presidential elections is longer than normal because Trump is under several legal clouds. He could still get barred from participating but that seems unlikely. He does have a liquidity problem, a self-destructive streak, a mercurial character and no credible alternative waiting in the wings, though.
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FeaturesSecuritised credit keeps on shining
For a market with a difficult past, some could even say an image-problem, securitised credit has been performing remarkably well in recent years.
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FeaturesContrasting global economic growth fortunes
Economic growth patterns across the world paint a picture of contrasts, ranging from surprisingly robust in the US to soft and struggling in China, with the stagnant euro area narrowly avoiding a technical recession after posting zero GDP growth in the fourth quarter of 2023, following a 0.1% decline the previous quarter.
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FeaturesA bumper year for convertible bond issuance
The convertible bond market ended 2023 on a strong note with its main index – the Refinitiv Global Focus – returning 6% in the fourth quarter. The optimism has continued into 2024 on the back of reasonable valuations, historically low equity volatility and better opportunites.
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FeaturesIPE Quest Expectations Indicator - March 2024
Climate change is coming to a trend break as the low-hanging fruit has been picked.
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FeaturesConflict and elections set to dominate the investor landscape
Middle Eastern tensions are running high, with violence flaring up across the wider region. Combined with the ongoing attritional destruction in Ukraine, this is impacting world trade, and it seems certain that international conflict will continue to be a source of great concern in 2024.
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FeaturesMiFID II reforms: Bye bye unbundling?
A key part of the 2018 MiFID II package, the requirement to unbundle research from execution costs shook up the European asset management industry and changed the relationship between investment managers and their clients.
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FeaturesIPE Quest Expectations Indicator - February 2024
IPE’s monthly poll of market sentiment, asking 50 asset managers about their six to 12-month views on regional equities, global bonds and currency pairs
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Features
Insurance-linked securities wind brings good news for investors
In the two decades prior to 2022, the negative correlation between stock and treasury bond market returns has been a key driver of institutional investor portfolio construction. Fixed income allocations provided investors significant relief during equity market downturns and increased expected risk-adjusted returns for the popular 60/40 stock/bond portfolio.
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FeaturesNet zero’s bond index problem
The fixed-income space has not been short of sustainability innovations over the years.
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FeaturesNLP can help identify linkages between equity market peers
Natural language processing in AI provides a way to gain insights from unstructured data at scale, allowing access to information across a broad set of investment opportunities
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FeaturesWill delayed economic bad news hit the market this year?
Global economic growth was below potential in 2023, but still markedly stronger than the forecasts had been indicating at the start of the year, with the US leading the way and even the likes of Europe and the UK, though hardly stellar performers, posting better than expected economic activity.
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FeaturesIPE Quest Expectations Indicator - January 2024
It is safe to predict that 2024 will be a year of desperate campaigning. Political surprises in the US and UK are possible and, this time, they do make a difference to markets
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FeaturesIs the US economy finally heading for a soft landing?
Having come to terms with the higher-for-longer mantra, markets are grappling with ‘higher-for-even-longer’, as US economic resilience continues to challenge expectations of weakness while reducing the prospects for earlier interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve.
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FeaturesPrivate debt managers bullish despite uncertainty
When the global financial crisis wreaked havoc across the banking sector, private credit emerged as a potential winner.
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FeaturesAvoided emissions: measuring carbon that didn’t enter the atmosphere
A few years ago, a footwear producer’s claim that it was reducing carbon emissions in the economy because its customers walked rather than took the car provoked amusement among investment managers. It wanted to prove its product was healthier and greener than competing transport modes by claiming credit for emissions prevented from petrol use. This autumn, assessments of the role played by individual low-carbon products in replacing fossil fuels are again under scrutiny in the finance sector.
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FeaturesQontigo Riskwatch – December 2023
*Data as of 31 October 2023. Forecast risk estimate for each index measured by the respective US, World and Emerging Markets Qontigo model variants
