MDT: Do quants dream of electric sheep?*

*« Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? » is a 1968 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. The book served as the basis for the 1982 film Blade Runner directed by Ridley Scott and featuring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer and Daryl Hannah. Fast reading Quant investing typically sifts through vast amounts of data to […]
Credit investors threatened with tax hike on US income

Fast reading The US is weighing up legislation that could see foreign investors hit with a tax hike. In the event that section 899 is triggered, entities from “discriminatory foreign countries” would be hit by a tax increase on US income of up to 20%. The proposal raises the possibility of a slowdown in foreign […]
South Korea’s new dawn

market snapshot
Fed may do little in this push-me-pull-you market

It’s become a cliché but bond markets remained volatile in May, with investors ultimately discounting the latest tariff tantrums and re-embracing risk. US Treasury yields spiked once again as the federal budget and deficit took centre court, but this time other forms of fixed income investment (asset-backed, corporate, international and municipals) benefitted by comparison to […]
Equitorial: ESG is here to stay – and we’re better for it

Fast reading We first started researching environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors in 2007, with the aim of establishing whether there was a relationship between ESG and performance. The first link was established in 2014, where our seminal research paper demonstrated that governance was additive to returns. Subsequent research over the intervening period established the […]
The answer is, ‘No’

This is one of those instances when it is best to be direct. As soon as the news hit about Moody’s recent downgrade of the US credit rating, we knew cash managers would be fielding questions about its impact on US money market funds. There are no ramifications: the rating agency has affirmed its Aaa-mf […]
Riding the storm

Video transcript How have we navigated the volatility? ‘Liberation Day’ brought a tonne of volatility and uncertainty to the markets, and in trying to navigate through that we set up a series of five milestones to help confirm our bullish stance. The first thing we wanted to see was more dovish trade talk, talk about […]
Trump’s tariff rollout hits roadblock

market snapshot
What does the US debt downgrade mean?

market snapshot
The ECB’s road ahead

navigating the certain uncertainties