Tag Archives: multi-asset
The S&P Systematic Global Macro Index – Trending to New Highs
The S&P Systematic Global Macro Index (S&P SGMI) is a trend-following strategy that takes long or short positions in 37 constituent futures across equites, commodities, fixed income, and FX. In 2020, the S&P SGMI did particularly well during the COVID-19-related drawdowns, finishing March up 11.3%, and closing the year at an all-time high. Thus far in 2021,…
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Putting Defensive Indices to the Test
In January 2019, we highlighted several indices designed to reduce the impact of large equity market drawdowns. Here we analyze the same suite of indices divided across three broad categories: defensive equity, multi-asset, and volatility. This analysis simply reviews performance since the S&P 500®’s high on Feb. 19, 2020, through the close on Friday, March…
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Multi-Asset Income Strategies in a Low Interest Rate Environment
One of the most significant characteristics of the post-financial crisis world has been the global persistence of low, or even negative, interest rates. The entire U.S. Treasury curve yielded below 1% for the first time in history on March 9, 2020, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, before the long end reverted recently on…
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The Importance of Asset Class Diversification: A Performance Analysis of the S&P MARC 5% Index
Recent selloffs in the equity markets and a significant rise in volatility signal an end to the 11-year bull market (Bye Bye Bull Market: Reaction to Coronavirus). While most broad market domestic equity indices have declined, the performance of the S&P MARC 5% Index (ER) has held up (1.84%). The answer to its resiliency lies…
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Staying the Course: S&P MARC 5% Q3 2019 Performance
Despite still ending the quarter higher, Q3 2019 was relatively subdued across asset classes when compared to the stellar performance we saw in equities in Q1 and Treasuries and gold in Q2. Exhibit 1 shows that the gains captured in Q1 and Q2 continued to compound in Q3, with the YTD performance of the S&P…
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Not All Strategies Are Created Equal: A Look at the S&P MARC 5% (ER) Index versus Other Multi-Asset Strategies
In this blog, we compare the S&P MARC 5% Excess Return (ER) Index with a peer group of 16 multi-asset 5% volatility-controlled excess return strategy indices currently in the market.[1] Overall, we observed that the diversification and weighting strategy of the S&P MARC 5% (ER) Index provided potential for upside while avoiding some of the…
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S&P Risk Parity Indices Surge on the Back of a Rally in Treasuries
Expectations have diverged in 2019, as equity markets welcomed a dovish Fed, while the bond market exhibited pessimism. In the second quarter, the S&P 500® finished up 4.3% despite ongoing trade tensions, while the yield on the 10-Year U.S. Treasury Bond fell 40 bps to 2.0% and the U.S. Treasury curve remained inverted. The S&P…
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Synchronized Gains Push the S&P Risk Parity Indices to New Highs
The first quarter of 2019 was one of synchronized gains across stocks, bonds, and commodities. Stocks soared, with the S&P 500® up 13.6%, recording its largest first quarter gain since 1998. Amid a dovish tone from the Fed, U.S. Treasury yields declined, with the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury Bond falling to its lowest…
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Positioning for Market Volatility Using Passive Strategies
Fluctuating periods of “risk-on” and “risk-off” mean that spikes in equity market volatility and large drawdowns are increasingly common in today’s economy. Exhibit 1 shows events throughout the current market cycle causing notable rises in volatility and large drawdowns. With more of these likely in the future, as our long bull market cycle ages, how…
S&P MARC 5% ER 2018 Performance: Diversification and Allocation Provide Stability
Despite a rocky start and end to 2018 that negatively affected the performance of all the asset classes within the S&P MARC 5% Excess Return (ER) Index,[1] the index maintained a relatively stable performance throughout the year, although it ended the year in red. When you look at the asset classes in the S&P MARC…
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