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Research

The real factor exposures in “smart beta” indexes

Investors relying on nomenclature of smart beta indexes as an accurate reflection of their factor exposures should take a closer look. New research, using a “factor efficiency ratio”, finds that most smart beta indexes are unable to provide desired factor exposures without taking on substantial unintended exposures. Importantly the paper finds that some smart beta […]
Amanda WhiteDecember 12, 2014
Investor Profile

Japan’s GPIF allocates to smart beta

The $1.3 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund of Japan will use factor investing, or smart beta, as a third way of implementing equity mandates, alongside active and passive, following a six-month research project conducted by MSCI that investigated how to best implement the growing interest in factor exposures.   The research project conducted by MSCI […]
Amanda WhiteJuly 11, 2014
Opinion

Challenges facing the world’s biggest funds

In the coming weeks, Towers Watson will be writing a series of articles, exclusive to conexust1f.flywheelstaging.com, that look at key challenges facing large asset owners. These will focus on specific practicalities that many global funds are encountering such as the role of internal teams. To put these challenges in context, this first article by global […]
 May 23, 2014
Research

Smart beta versus smart alpha

With the advent of smart beta it was only a matter of time before the appropriate use of “smart” was analysed and questioned. A paper to be published in the forthcoming summer 2014 issue of The Journal of Portfolio Management looks at the active choices of smart beta strategies and how and when they can […]
Amanda WhiteMay 14, 2014
Uncategorised posts

ATP: experiments with alpha and beta

“There is very little pure alpha” said Henrik Jepsen, chief investment officer of ATP, at the Fiduciary Investors Symposium in Amsterdam when reflecting on the giant Danish fund’s experiences with the return class. The DKK 624-billion ($114-billion) ATP decided to merge the alpha and beta platforms of its investment portfolio earlier this year. This wound […]
Dan BillinghamOctober 30, 2013
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