Sefian Kasem

  • Sefian Kasem
    Special Report

    Faith-based investing: how to build Shariah-compliant investment portfolios

    ETF Guide (2023)

    Ethical investing can be a nuanced task, as aligning one’s investment principles with their beliefs can often be contradictory. On the one hand investors want to maximise their return and minimise their risk to ensure they benefit from the best possible investment outcome. However, on the other hand, they may want to ensure they don’t fund any enterprise which derives revenue from provision of ‘unethical’ goods or services.

  • Starting universe of companies
    Special Report

    Adding to the biodiversity protection toolbox

    ETF Guide (2022)

    Biodiversity is intricately linked with economic growth and development. Since the industrial revolution ecosystems have been under constant threat with the advent of large towns, cities and industrial complexes. The rate of deterioration has accelerated over time and we are now destroying natural capital at an unprecedented rate, which will have long-term consequences for economies, societies and the planet.

  • Relative AUM growth of select themes
    Special Report

    Theme regime: thematic investing and asset allocation

    ETF Guide (2021)

    Portfolio construction has come a long way from the early work of Markowitz back in the 1950s. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, investors found more sophisticated quantitative methods to assess risk, expected return and the associated investment opportunities through mathematical machinery such as factor modelling.