All Ahead of the Curve articles – Page 2
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FeaturesAhead of the curve: solving the Russian share ban
Index investors inherently choose to follow the market through exchange-traded and index funds, but the recent prohibition on trading Russian stocks and their removal from global benchmarks has created something of a conundrum.
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FeaturesAhead of the curve: tie executive pay to climate targets
AllianzGI and Cevian Capital take very different approaches to how we manage equity portfolios, but we are both long-term and active owners of companies. Following a series of conversations about how to best implement ESG criteria in our portfolios, we have found a common perspective.
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FeaturesAhead of the curve: China treads a careful path
Since the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 the Chinese Communist Party has not put a foot wrong domestically. It has pursued economic growth alongside social cohesion, entrenching its prime objective of staying in power.
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FeaturesAhead of the curve: The future looks bright for African private equity
The Russian-Ukrainian war and its related global impact may have a mixed effect on economic recovery in Africa, which is being driven by worldwide economic trends such as elevated commodity prices, a relaxation of lockdowns, and increased global trade. With further increases in commodity prices having a positive impact, increased inflation and further possible roll-backs in globalisation weigh on the recovery.
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FeaturesAhead of the curve – Late-stage growth: a growing priority in PE portfolios
With additional options to fund growth outside of an initial public offering (IPO), start-ups are staying private longer. The average age at which venture capital-backed companies go public has increased from about 4.5 years during the 1990s to about 6.5 years today.
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FeaturesAhead of the curve: The rise of altcoins and potential institutional adoption
It is interesting to sit between traditional investors and the crypto-native communities: one has just started on the Bitcoin adoption curve while the other might already consider Bitcoin to be a ‘boomer coin’.
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FeaturesAhead of the curve: M&A revival a potential risk to investment grade fundamentals
Following a brief but sharp decline, 2021 merger and acquisition (M&A) volumes have surpassed pre-pandemic levels as large corporations seek to gain scale and position themselves for continued growth in years to come.
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FeaturesAhead of the curve: Factors in political change
The evacuation of US and coalition troops and civilians from Afghanistan and the Taliban takeover in August prompted us to examine other episodes of regime change and how equity markets reacted.
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FeaturesAhead of the curve: The good, the bad and the ugly of momentum investing
Last year proved a remarkable one for momentum strategies. The tech giants that had done so well in recent years continued to outperform at the beginning of 2020, and the same high momentum names were further buoyed by investors’ preference for the digital over the physical economy with the onset of COVID-19.
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FeaturesAhead of the curve: The future of quant credit
The past several decades have seen quantitative strategies established as an important feature of global equity markets. In 2019, less than one quarter of the more than $30trn (€25trn) of US equities was held by human-managed funds.
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FeaturesAhead of the curve: Will rising rates see value stocks win?
There is growing global anticipation that central banks are likely to increase short-term rates. The spectre of inflationary pressure on longer-term rates looms large. What does this mean for value and growth stocks? Value might be expected to come up top and growth to lose out. But this is not the whole story. We examined stock returns during several historical periods of rate increases in the US and UK to see which factor would ultimately come out on top, and when.
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FeaturesAhead of the curve - Green assets: An alternative to green bonds
Policy performance bonds, in which returns are linked to ESG outcomes, would be a positive alternative to green bonds
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FeaturesAhead of the curve: Crypto assets
It is no longer prudent to ignore the potential of crypto assets
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FeaturesAhead of the curve: Occupation could trump sex
There remains a great deal of popular debate about such things as the sex-linked glass ceiling, cliff, escalator and the ‘sticky’ floor, all of which imply that career opportunities are different for men and women.
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FeaturesAhead of the curve: Modelling the unmodellable
In January 2020, the world was on the verge of a pandemic. It would empower the state, increase the might of technology firms, speed up technological adaptation, upend cities and accelerate China’s rise.
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FeaturesAhead of the curve: Alternatives investing in a low-yielding world
Investors hoping to replicate bond-like returns (low to mid-single digit, low volatility and drawdown) are facing an unenviable predicament. How can they generate acceptable, positive returns without simultaneously suffering illiquidity, valuation uncertainty, gap risk, and other hard to quantify risks?
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FeaturesAhead of the curve: Has the period of painless diversification ended?
With interest rates falling to historical lows the reality of a new financial landscape is confronting investors. It is one where the typical relationships between assets has come into question. In addition, basic ideas around diversification and portfolio construction no longer seem to match with the available investment opportunities.
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FeaturesAhead of the curve: Options trading as a portfolio diversifier: pilot or passenger?
Options can provide insurance against market volatility, but require detailed knowledge to ensure success
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FeaturesAhead of the curve: Grasping intangible assets
Even the name hints at the challenge: intangible assets are hard to value. Recently, investors have looked to these assets to explain a decade of underperformance by value stocks. But new research suggests no tangible performance benefit from adjusting for intangibles.
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FeaturesAhead of the curve: Gold all set to shine during uncertain times
Which asset has no cash flow or yield, has a volatility similar to equities even though its long-term performance lags behind equities, and which has also had long periods of negative returns? Gold.
