How to assess the risk of an equity portfolio today? Calculating the beta has traditionally been a good way to assess the risk associated to a stock in a portfolio. The beta measures the sensitivity of the stock price to a market index. The higher the beta, the higher the…
How far can the divergence go? The difficulties of emerging markets Emerging markets (“EM”) have suffered since the beginning of the year. It is difficult to consider emerging markets as one entity as China has become such a large stand-alone economy and market related issues arise each year in specific…
Alpha generation is back! Equity markets have entered into a new volatility regime since February 2018. This could have been expected with the beginning of the end of QE decided by all major central banks since almost 10 years following the global financial crisis. During this period of massive liquidity…
Low volatility does not mean low risk! In an environment characterized but high political and policy risk, low levels of market volatility seem paradoxical. Volatility expectations for stocks and bonds have sunk to levels not seen since 1990. The VIX Index, which reflects a market estimate of future equity volatility,…
Following the Brexit vote, a Bloomberg article was published on June 27 titled “The USD 100 Trillion Bond Market’s Got Bigger Concern than Brexit”. The same day, and like every Monday morning, the Notz Stucki Team held its weekly investment meeting. While passionate debates over the consequences of Brexit were taking…