SPECIAL: Trend following
Passive investment vehicles and price distortions
The share of passive investment vehicles in financial markets has soared over the past 20 years. In the U.S. equity market it has risen...
Trend following and the headwinds of rising yields
The decline in bond yields over the past decades has supported profitability and diversification value of trend followers. Returns have been boosted by a...
Cash hoarding and market dynamics
Institutional asset managers can aggravate market swings due to the pro-cyclicality of redemptions, internal leverage and cash positions. A new empirical analysis shows that...
SYSTEMIC RISK
How systemic financial risk is measured
Public institutions have developed a wide range of methods to track systemic financial risk. What...
How convenience yields have compressed real interest rates
Real interest rates on ‘safe’ assets such as high-quality government bonds had been stationary around...
How regulatory reform shapes the financial cycle
Ambitious regulatory reform has changed the dynamics of the global financial system. Capital ratios of...
Predicting equity volatility with return dispersion
Equity return dispersion is measured as the standard deviation of returns across different stocks or...
Low rates troubles for insurances and pension funds
A CGFS report highlights the pressure of a ‘low for long’ interest rate environment on...
SYSTEMATIC VALUE
Commodity carry
Across assets, carry is defined as return for unchanged prices and is calculated based on...
Understanding the correlation of equity and bond returns
The correlation of equity and high grade sovereign bond returns is a powerful driver of...
CDS term premia and exchange rates
The term structure of sovereign credit default swaps (CDS) is indicative of country-specific financial shocks...
Realistic volatility risk premia
The volatility risk premium compensates investors for taking volatility risk. Conceptually it is based on...
Variance term premia
Variance term premia are surcharges on traded volatility that compensate for bearing volatility risk in...
POPULAR POSTS
The four components of long-term bond yields
A BOJ paper proposes an affine terms structure model for bond yields under consideration of the zero lower bound. It estimates the contribution of...
Leverage in asset management
Asset managers can use leverage to enhance returns. Outside hedge funds, such leverage is modest as share of assets under management. However, considering the huge...
Basic theory of momentum strategies
Systematic momentum trading is a major alternative risk premium strategy across asset classes. Time series momentum motivates trend following; cross section momentum gives rise...
Understanding market beta in FX
The beta of an investment measures its sensitivity to “market returns”. Unlike in equity, in FX the relevant benchmark for a beta cannot be a...
VIX term structure as a trading signal
The VIX futures curve reflects expectations of future implied volatility of S&P500 index options. The slope of the curve is indicative of expected volatility...
Lessons from long-term global equity performance
A truly global and long-term (116 years) data set for both successful and failed financial markets shows that equity has delivered positive long-term performance...