Debt and demographic restraints on the global economy and the deepening U.S.-China rivalry may subdue equity returns while rising interest rates should support above-average bond performance, especially compared to the past 10 years. Download our Capital Market Assumptions 10-Year Outlook: 2024 Edition to explore our return…

The last 30 years have seen a steady growth and acceptance of alternative asset classes in institutional portfolios as investors seek diversified sources of income and return. These asset classes are sometimes called illiquid or private asset classes because one important characteristic is that they are not publicly listed…

The asset management industry has reached a turning point that will require rethinking the business model that has served it so well in the past. Market performance has been responsible for 90% of the industry’s revenue growth for nearly two decades. In 2022, however, rapidly rising interest rates caused both stock and bond…

In “Back to the Future,” Marty McFly accidentally ends up 30 years in the past while using Doc Brown’s time-traveling DeLorean.

We explore why the equity performance of Taiwan and Korea, though both heavily weighted in Tech industries – diverged in the past one to two years.

Momentum strategies, which tend to thrive in trending markets, have recently delivered strong performance due to continued economic strength and positive market sentiment. In the past 12 months, the S&P 500 Momentum Index posted notable outperformance compared with some other S&P 500 factors, as well as the S&P…

The S&P High Yield Dividend Aristocrats tracks companies that have grown their dividends for a period of at least 20 consecutive years, offering equity participation and the potential for enhanced dividend income.

Investors in private infrastructure will play a critical role in meeting these needs. In what follows, we summarize the results of our in-depth analysis of the current and future state of private infrastructure investing, trends in fundraising and dealmaking in three major sectors of the asset class, and investment…

ESG in a pandemic world is RBC Global Asset Management’s fifth annual global survey of institutional investors’ perceptions regarding responsible investment. For this year’s report, RBC GAM surveyed 805 institutional asset owners, investment consultants and investment professionals in the United States, Canada, Europe and…

The S&P Persistence Scorecard attempts to distinguish a manager’s luck from skill. One key measure of successful active management lies in the ability of a manager to outperform his peers consistently. This report’s results show that, irrespective of asset class or style focus, few fund managers consistently outperformed…

Here, we show that a professional investor's decision-making is directly linked to their portfolio's performance. Using the daily holdings of professional investors, we show that part of a portfolio's performance is explained by its Behavioral Alpha (BA) Score. Moreover, a portfolio with a BA Score > 50 is…

At 14% CAGR over the past five years, there is continuous growth in the assets allocated to impact investing strategies. The dynamics between large and small investors are particularly intriguing, suggesting that investors are increasingly playing to their strengths — a sign of a maturing market.

Five core private equity sectors have displayed strong performance over the past 15 years.

An efficient way to improve the expected performance of an equity strategy would be to systematically exclude penny stocks, as well with high asset growth and extreme past returns, especially if they have low profitability (and exclude funds that don’t screen out such stocks).

Canadian farmland has provided robust returns in S&P down and up markets over the past 30 years giving it a unique downside/upside capture ratio. Farmland also outperforms many other more conventional asset classes in defensive performance.

Relative performance of the hedge fund industry has dominated a majority of asset classes over the past 5 years, marking one of the strongest stretches in the history of the industry. Seen below, the HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index has outperformed most liquid assets with the exception of the S&P 500. However, this…

We examine compensation for endowment Chief Investment Officers (CIOs) overseeing portfolios with significant alternative asset allocations. Our study shows that large endowments with high alternative allocations hire CIOs with stronger backgrounds, pay them more, and structure compensation based on past investment…

An income-focused strategy requires a different approach to those focused on generating growth. Traditional sources of income include dividend-paying stocks and coupon-paying bonds. The economic landscape of the past 18 months has been shaped by persistent inflation, rising interest rates and general market uncertainty, all…

Tail risk is the probability that an asset performs far below or far above its average past performance. Tail risk is an investor’s worst enemy. Extreme market moves can lead to changes in our risk preferences and cause us to act based on emotion rather than reason. We might buy when we would be better off selling, and sell…