Blog
Strategy Update I Reviewing Financial Conditions I September 2023
Overview The decline in inflation at record low unemployment rates is welcome news, but there is uncertainty about how much further it will fall. This will keep rates higher for longer and ensure full pass-through of the work done thus far. A US recession is only...
Thematic ETFs: Correct Narrative, wrong prices: A history of attention-grabbing wealth destruction?
Overview Thematic investing has generated significant interest across the investment community in recent years. In tandem, thematic index investing is increasingly making headlines as investors seek passive options that offer the same exposure as an active thematic...
Understanding ETF Trading Dynamics: The Role of Market Makers and Bid-Ask Spreads
Overview Unlike equities, ETF trading is heavily influenced by institutional brokers/investors referred to as authorised participants (APs) or market makers. Though these two terms are sometimes used interchangeably, they have distinct functions. APs manage the...
Cyclical Strategy Update I Short Term Resilience Insufficient to Change Base Case I June 2023
Short Term Resilience Insufficient to Change Base Case Key Points Better-than-expected economic data over the past few months does not mean a recession is not around the corner. The market has latched onto more resilient economic data, particularly in the US...
Remaining Defensive as Evidence Supports Rising Probability of a Global Recession
Foresight Cyclical Asset Allocation View Key Points ➢ A global recession remains our base case. Gradually tightening financial conditionsare grinding the global economy into a recession. The speed of the slowdown could wellbe frustrating for those...
Perspectives on Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) | Market Insights | March 2023
Key Points The recent collapse of 3 regional US banks is a timely reminder of the impact of tighter monetary policy on liquidity. These banks carried idiosyncratic risks and leveraged into either speculative venture capital or high-risk lending. At this stage, there...
Australian Private Debt Market Review – Opportunities and Risks for Investors
Summary Foresight Analytics’ Australian Private Debt whitepaper provides investors a practical framework for evaluating the strategies available to Australian investors and offers insights on position sizing and allocation layering. Titled ‘Australian Private Debt...
Cross Asset – March 2022
Key Points: In our latest Cross-asset review, we note the materially positive moves in Commodities, AUD and to some extend the Australian equity market; reflecting war-related supply shocks in the commodity market. On the other hand, Gold price and VIX (US and...
Strategies for Adopting Gender-Lens Investing & Insights on Yielding Return and Impact
Summary This article examines Gender-Lens Investing as a growing investment framework that can influence social impact and achieve gender equality through financial mechanisms. It highlights some of the strategies fund managers and investors can adopt within private...
Australian Equity Factor Performance Report – April 2021
In Foresight’s monthly Australian Equity Performance review, we look at the performance of key market factors: the various structural drivers of Australian share market. Foresight factor premiums show the returns attached to...
Cross Asset Review April
In this month’s Cross Asset Review, we assess the past performance of various asset classes and draw implications for multi asset investors. In April, risk on theme continued with real assets rebounding strongly. The top performing assets were the Australian Micro and...
Long Short Manager Diligence
Source: iStock This article explore how the GameStop shorting squeeze frenzy is forcing many long-short managers to re-think about their strategy. While this herding behaviour from ‘main street’ investors is a real risk for long-short funds, it remains to be seen...
Truth or Tale: Does Climate Change Reduce Economic Growth?
Source: iStock This blog piece reiterates how studies around climate change and how they do not negatively affect a nation's GDP are largely inconsistent, particularly when considering the variations among developed and developing nations economies and climate...
Climate Change Action: How do we invest in it and what do we need to keep in mind?
Source: iStock This blog piece discusses the urgency required for climate change action, as well as how investors can contribute to climate impact through mechanisms of selective capital allocation and shareholder engagement. It explains the frameworks that should be...
Elevated dispersion and volatility due to rising geopolitical and policy risks make a strong case for active management in Emerging Markets
Key insights Global emerging markets have provided very strong returns for long term investors. However, investors have to be prepared to accept higher volatility over shorter periods of 3 years and less. Significant performance dispersions across regions, countries,...
AUD weakness underpinned by soft fundamentals, the case for hedging foreign currency exposure remains weak
Key Insights AUD index against major trading partners shows clear negative trend for currency since its peak in 2012. Over the past 12 months, AUD has weakened against most major currencies, largest weakness was noted against the USD. AUD weakness is also evident over...
Longer term outlook for India remains highly positive, an expected Modi win bodes well for secular economic and capital market outlook
Key Insights The USD$2.6 trillion Indian economy is expected to grow by 7% in 2019, placing it amongst the fastest growing economies in the world. India’s economic growth is underpinned by structural drivers of private consumption, fixed asset investments and public...
Foresight ASX Small Cap Report
Foresight Emerging Market Report
Foresight Australian Mid Cap Report
Active Managers Deliver: Evidence from the Australian Micro-Cap Sector
Active Managers Deliver: Evidence from the Australian Micro-Cap Sector Foresight’s latest analysis of the Australian equity strategies reveals some interesting insights. While the big-caps have done very well over the past 10 years, Micro and Small caps have delivered…
FAANGs and Fundamentals – Part 1
A lot has been written about FAANGs in recent times. These fast-growth companies have outperformed their industry peers and the broader market in recent years as their market capitalisations have soared. They’ve led mega-caps to outperform and masked much of the…
How to reduce fund selling, hiring and firing mistakes by using factor insights?
By Jay Kumar, September 2017. In a crowded market of active management, investors need to focus on unique drivers of alpha and assess their sustainability through a complete investment cycle. The recent proliferation of passive ETFs, fundamental-indexing and…
Realised factor premiums much stronger in Emerging markets
Global Developed markets experienced notable reversals in factor premiums since December 2016. So far in 2017, Value style factors recorded negative premiums while Growth and Momentum style factors delivered positive premiums. The YTD factor premium experience is…
Do active managers in Emerging Markets add Value?
Key Points Emerging Markets (EM) have been outperforming Developed Markets (DM) and this trend is likely to continue given the fundamental backdrop. Factor premiums across EM have been very strong and broad-based. Intra-market correlations between EM countries have…
Global Listed Infrastructure: Active Strategies to offer better downside protection going forward
Global listed infrastructure investors have earned very healthy returns over the past decade. Despite increasing allocations in the past decade, the asset class is still under owned by many Superannuation funds. Strong secular returns have been underpinned by earnings…
Growth, Quality and Momentum factors drive world equity market returns
Global Equity – Developed Markets. Growth momentum and quality factor premiums highly persistent over 3, 6 and 12 months Value factors underperform, led by dividend yield and earnings yield Medium-term Momentum recorded the highest positive premium globally over the…
Global Small Caps provide a rich source of idiosyncratic growth for global equity portfolios
Despite the high certainty of global small caps out-performing global large caps (aka the ‘small cap effect’) over the long term, Australian institutional and wholesale investors have been reluctant to allocate equity capital outside the global large caps and global…
Growth assets outperform, weak Australian dollar boosts unhedged asset returns
Key Insights UN PRI and UN SDGs provide strong encouragement and a defined framework for investors to assess impacts of their investment decisions including carbon emissions and its impact on climate. Australia has the highest per capita greenhouse gas emissions in…
GREITs Landscape Review – Outlook for institutional allocation positive but caution warranted on active managers
Key Insights Superannuation asset allocation towards listed and unlisted real estate has steadily increased since 2013. Retail funds have the highest exposure to GREITs, aging demographic profiles of several non- retail funds is expected to increase the demand for…
Carbon Scorecard for Global Equity Portfolios
Key Insights UN PRI and UN SDGs provide strong encouragement and a defined framework for investors to assess impacts of their investment decisions including carbon emissions and its impact on climate. Australia has the highest per capita greenhouse gas emissions in…