At the turn of the century, investing in China was viewed as a risky proposition. Foreign access to a notoriously volatile, retail-driven equity market was heavily restricted. The lack of a credible regulatory framework and legal protections deterred US venture capitalists from making direct investments in Chinese companies. In many cases, Chinese banks and the country’s fledgling private equity industry also balked. So, when Chinese technology firm Alibaba received its first $25 million investment from Goldman Sachs in 1999, investors sat up and took notice.
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Quants Corner: Energy funds in a time of war
This blog will examine the impact the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has had on global energy markets and the calls investors have made during 2022.
Quants Corner: Retail flows | The wisdom of “dumb money”
In this blog, we utilize some of EPFR’s oldest strategies to test the predictive powers of the retail flows captured in the universe of 150,000 mutual fund and ETF share classes encompassing some $47 trillion in AUM that EPFR tracks on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.
Quants Corner: Separating the wheat from the chaff in China
Of the $82 billion that investors committed to all EPFR-tracked Emerging Markets Equity Funds through the first 10 months of 2022, three-quarters found its way into dedicated China Equity Funds.
Quants Corner: Inflation is on the rise. So is fear
Driven by supply chain, labor market and energy supply issues, consumer prices are surging at a rate last seen in the 1970s and 1980s. To what degree this could have been foreseen is the subject of increasingly acrimonious debate.
Quant Insights: Mutual funds data and strategies
Join our Quants Corner MeetUp group, hosted by Quants for Quants. Our first MeetUp, ‘Quant in a cold climate: Talk mutual fund data and strategies for a post-QE world with the EPFR team,’ will be hosted virtually on March 31st at 12PM EST/ 5PM GMT for our Boston and London Quants Corner groups.
Quants Corner: Signs of a thaw for Club Med
Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain were hit badly in Europe’s 2009 sovereign debt crisis. However, equity funds dedicated to the Club Med are recovering in 2021.
Quants Corner: Out with the old, in with the other
In the financial world, the search for the ‘new normal’ started in the aftermath the great financial crisis as central banks unleashed unprecedented levels of quantitative easing on global asset markets. Among hedge funds, those offering established strategies – long/short, commodity trading, multi-strategy – have seen modest asset growth over the past decade while those offering something different have fared much better.
Quant Insights: Pace of green – One fund steals march ESG
It’s amazing how much money one fund can gather when it hits a sweet spot. Last month, money poured into the Mexican ESG category, continuing a strong run that started in August last year, according to EPFR data. But all these flows were driven by just one exchange-traded fund (ETF) – iShares ESG MSCI Mexico.
Quant Insights: Swiss ESG bonds ride market wave
ESG funds soaked up inflows again in March, and the Swiss bond market was the biggest sponge.