Gold has been one of the best performing assets so far in 2020, functioning as a hedge for investors. As we look forward, there may a deceleration of gold consumer demand but this will likely be offset by strong investment demand as investors look for effective ways to protect their wealth and improve portfolio performance.

The COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing economic lockdowns have slashed global growth forecasts for 2020.

With varied expectations around the speed of the economic recovery, we analyse the potential performance of gold across four hypothetical scenarios provided by Oxford Economics: 1) swift recovery 2) US corporate crisis 3) emerging markets downturn 4) deep recession

Our analysis shows that higher risk and uncertainty combined with lower opportunity cost will likely be supportive of gold investment demand in 2020. This could offset the negative effect of lower consumer demand on gold performance as economic activity contracts.

Peer selection and understanding relationships between companies play a pivotal role in many areas of finance. Previously, we had shown how similarity score matrix could be used to identify pairs or groups of similar companies (peers), which have numerous potential applications. In this paper, we analyze ways to use this data for modeling simple hedging portfolios, minimum-volatility (min vol) portfolios and optimized hedging portfolios.

A global research study reveals that only half of institutional investors have fully implemented their investment plans for China—indicating that widespread asset allocation changes appear to be on the horizon. Learn more about how are institutional allocations to China changing.

Sparked by the rapid pace of innovation, the business of managing money is being reshaped by five key trends: fierce competition, vulnerable economics, emboldened investors, complex regulation and transformational technology. Find out how firms can meet the challenges head-on.

Factor investing is not new and has not been discovered recently however, changes in the way the returns generated are accessed can offer additional value and innovative benefits to investors. Read this report to know how acceleration in data and technology have made factors the foundation of investing.

Could factor investing offer a risk-return edge in USD investment-grade corporate credit? We simulated the past performance of six fixed-income factors — value, low size, quality, momentum, carry and low risk — that broadly align with MSCI’s equity factors. You will find out in this paper.

Intech illustrates factor investing’s fragile alpha potential and increasing constraints. Understand factor exposure beyond advertised claims of compensated risks. You may find the need to diversify – even limit – your exposure to them because of the uncompensated risks they represent.

ESG investments are already norm. Asset owners who are ahead with ESG investments will need to understand the risk characteristics of high ESG-rated stocks, when managing ESG incorporated portfolios. You will find out the hint in this paper.

The Chinese market is second only to the U.S. in breadth, depth and liquidity, yet it is an afterthought in global benchmarks. Discover what makes China a compelling, stand-alone investment opportunity and why an active-management approach is an optimal method for harnessing this opportunity.

CME Group recently collaborated with Pensions & Investments (P&I) to survey the attitudes and allocation preferences of today’s institutional investors, given the current market environment and the use of alternative investment strategies. Examine the findings in this whitepaper.

The growing chorus of concern (and scrutiny) over the leveraged loan market has not gone unnoticed – but is it warranted? In this paper, we take a closer look at leveraged loans and how today’s market differs from pre-crisis times.

Benchmark selection matters--even when indices seek to measure the same market segment, their risk/return profiles can differ. Find out what's driving performance differences between the S&P SmallCap 600® and the Russell 2000.

At State Street Global Advisors, we are committed to creating long-term sustainable value for investors. In 2018, we focused our efforts on three key sectors (retail, pharmaceuticals and materials) and five themes (climate risk and reporting, gender diversity, sustainability and long-term strategy, compliance with corporate governance principles and pay strategies). We also unveiled our groundbreaking ESG scoring system, R-FactorTM.

Launched in 2018 just prior to the global financial crisis, the MSCI Minimum Volatility indexes’ behavior “out-of-sample” since launch, have led to adoption by a large number of asset owners. Here, we investigate changes in the indexes’ behavior before and after launch across regions.