What’s up with the yellow metal?
Gold is currently trading around $2,375 per ounce, just below its recent all-time high of $2,450 per ounce. Gold prices historically rise when inflation is increasing, when investors are looking for a safe investment in anticipation of a recession or because they fear the dollar is weakening. Yet none of these conditions seems to hold. […]
The case for bonds (as rates inch towards normalisation)
Chartology
Trade finance made simple
What is trade finance? Trade finance can best be viewed of as a sub-set of the loan market. It is relatively short-term loans used to finance the physical flow of goods, using those goods as the primary source of collateral within the loan. How is our approach to trade finance different? The Federated Hermes approach […]
10 questions for 10 years: The Global Equity ESG Fund
Fast reading The Global Equity ESG Fund offers a hybrid quantitative and fundamental investment approach which has been successful not only in identifying global outperformers across sectors, but has grown to become one of the largest ESG funds available in the market. The quant model identifies the best companies to evaluate in greater detail. Our […]
The curious case of Korea’s preference stock discount
Fast reading The small price differentials at which stock classes with differing voting rights trade at on US stock markets shows that investors don’t place a high value on greater voting power even in a market where greater voting power might result in better treatment in the event of a takeover. Korean preference shares are […]
SDG Engagement Equity Q2 2024 case study
Eagle Materials
Artificial intelligence and investing: it’s all about the data
Fast reading ChatGPT and the interest it spawned is the latest step in the broader field of artificial intelligence, which has had a long and colourful history. Generative AI has substantial promise, but the current generation of models poses significant challenges for use in investing. As this field evolves, MDT Advisers will seek to identify […]
Your Questions Answered: Asia ex-Japan
China stocks are ‘cheap’ and are your biggest overweight, yet many investors are shunning the region. What will lead to a sustained rally in Chinese equities? If you’re looking for a sustained rally, a lot of people are waiting for two things to happen. One is signs of the bottoming out of the property market, […]
Bonds, bullets and barbells – what happens after yield curve inversion?
While there is no single ‘right’ approach for extending portfolio duration, there are two basic ways to consider as a starting point. For example, an investor may use a barbell approach, allocating 50% to cash and 50% to an intermediate or long-duration fixed income strategy. Conversely, the investor could choose a single investment offering a […]
China: The Comeback Kid?
As contrarian investors, we believe it often pays to bet against the crowd. Bargains can sometimes be found where there is controversy and when performance has been poor. China has been the world’s unloved market since 2020, with 2023 marking the fourth consecutive year of losses for the Hang Seng Index. The US, by contrast, is […]
