Where Retail Rules: Buying Into China’s Alpha Opportunity

Insights, Publications

Even before the recent trade war, the U.S. president had a hand in China’s market, by way of “concept” stocks. They are just one of the quirks found in retail heavy emerging markets like China, whose inefficiencies—and alpha opportunity—are traced to non-professionals trading as much for entertainment as for profit. In the research below, we investigate the evolution of retail participation in China A shares, the remarkable inefficiencies that creates, and the implications for professional investors.

Q2 2019 Asset Class Update

Asset Class Updates

More than the weather is heating up. The EU’s threat to Swiss independence makes China’s view on Hong Kong look benign, while Iran’s militarized response to US pressure and the US-China Trade War are moving even Brexit off the front page. The US bull market is now at an all-time high.

ESG in Need: Beyond the ‘Good Karma’ Lens

Insights

ESG investing has become more in vogue in the past five years. Part of this may be driven by an on-faith belief, supported by shallow anecdotal evidence, that investing in ethical companies (high ESG companies) must lead to better investment outcome. You could call this belief the “good karma” principal in investing.

Illiquidity and Factor Returns

Insights

Factor returns are often reported as the average of factor returns among large stocks and the factor returns among small stocks. However, factor returns among small, illiquid stocks are significantly higher than those among larger, more liquid stocks, suggesting that the factor returns in the literature are exaggerated and cannot be implemented with substantial assets.