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Risk Aversion and Dollar Strength
by Rick Harper of WisdomTree, Inc., 10/16/14
Since the dollar is the primary reserve currency of the world, investors typically seek exposure to the dollar via short-term assets when market sentiment begins to shift. As we explain, the U.S. dollar can serve as an effective hedge to market uncertainty when volatility unexpectedly spikes.

Rising Rate Strategy Performance in a Falling Rate Environment
by Rick Harper of WisdomTree, Inc., 10/14/14
In our view, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) can provide powerful tools for fixed income investors both big and small. Even some of the most sophisticated investment managers have used ETFs to gain broad-based exposure to certain subsets of the fixed income market.

Japan Strategist Roundtable: Jesper KollWhat Is Different This Time?
by Jeremy Schwartz of WisdomTree, Inc., 10/10/14
When I spoke with Jesper Koll from J.P. Morgan Securities, one particular theme appeared in our conversation: Prime minister Shinzo Abe is an important catalystbut not necessarily the primary factorfor what is different this time in Japan.

A Japan Strategist Roundtable: What’s Next for Japan?
by Jeremy Schwartz of WisdomTree, Inc., 10/8/14
The start of 2014 was a challenging time for the Japanese equity markets. But recently things started to perk up. I recently spent time in Tokyo and want to share my observations from the trip.

What’s Next from the Bank of Japan
by Jeremy Schwartz of WisdomTree, Inc., 10/6/14
I had the opportunity to meet with Takeshi Yamada of the Market Intelligence Group at the Bank of Japan (BOJ), and I attended a presentation at the Mizuho conference by Eiji Maeda, the director-general of the Research and Statistics Department.

How Vulnerable Is Short-Duration Fixed Income to Fed Tightening?
by Rick Harper, Bradley Krom of WisdomTree, Inc., 9/30/14
In recent research released by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and echoed in statements by several Fed regional bank presidents, Fed officials have voiced concerns that the market is underestimating the probability and timing of a change in monetary policy.

Playing Defense in Emerging Market Fixed Income
by Bradley Krom of WisdomTree, Inc., 9/25/14
When looking around the global fixed income landscape, investors searching for income potential have essentially two choices: non-investment grade debt or emerging markets (EM). While high yield flows continues to dominate the headlines, emerging markets have generally flown under the radar in recent months. In this discussion, we focus on how investors may be able to best position against a change in Federal Reserve (Fed) policy while maintaining income potential from investments in emerging markets.

India: A Bright Spot in Emerging Markets
by Christopher Gannatti of WisdomTree, Inc., 9/24/14
In 2013, emerging markets were the laggards of the global equity markets. 2014 has seen some bright spots, but various uncertainties, most notably with respect to Russia, have tended to constrain equity rallies. However, there is one market that seems to have completely shrugged off 2013 concerns and emerge as an extremely strong performer thus far this year.

The U.S. Dollar is Rising, Interest Rates Could Be Next
by Rick Harper, Bradley Krom of WisdomTree, Inc., 9/23/14
Since bottoming July 1, the U.S. dollar has mounted an impressive rally against virtually every major foreign currency. While many analysts have been predicting a secular appreciation in the U.S. dollar on account of stronger economic fundamentals, the current rally has caused even casual market participants to take notice.

Yellen to the Markets: Come to Me
by Bradley Harper of WisdomTree, Inc., 9/22/14
By most accounts, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) statement released September 17 failed to break much new ground in terms of changes to policy or language. The Federal Reserve Board (Fed) met expectations with another measured step in its tapering process, by trimming $5 billion of Treasury and $5 billion of mortgage-backed securities purchases from its asset purchase program.

Fed Policy: From Tapering to Tightening
by Rick Harper, Bradley Krom of WisdomTree, Inc., 9/17/14
Over the past nine months, the Federal Reserve (Fed) has gradually reduced the pace of its asset purchases in conjunction with an improvement in the strength of the U.S. economy. With tapering expected to end October 29, we believe that investors should now look beyond 2014 and start to focus on when, not if, the Federal Reserve will raise the Federal Funds Rate.

Diversifying With the Yen? Not if Japanese Equities Are Involved
by Jeremy Schwartz of WisdomTree, Inc., 9/11/14
The discussion of currency-hedged strategies has shaken some of the core beliefs of investors. Traditional investment vehicles that package equity risk plus a secondary currency risk on top of the equity risk have been referred to as the traditional plain vanilla exposure because they were the first to the market, and it is what investors have been using for so long.

Why Take Currency Risk if Diversification Benefit is Declining?
by Jeremy Schwartz of WisdomTree, Inc., 9/10/14
We have been exploring the case for layering in foreign currency (FX) on top of foreign equity returns. One of the most common arguments I have heard for taking on FX risk in international equity portfolios in an unhedged fashion is that FX can be a portfolio diversifier.

Is it Time to Take the Euro Out of Europe?
by Jeremy Schwartz of WisdomTree, Inc., 9/9/14
On September 4, the European Central Bank (ECB) took further accommodation to support the economic growth environment in Europe. As a result, the euro collapsed about 1% immediately after the news, while European stocks rose on prospects for more monetary policy easing. This reaction mirrors what we saw in Japan in 2013, and it strengthens the case for taking the euro out of Europe.

Inspiring Economic Dynamism within Japan
by Christopher Gannatti of WisdomTree, Inc., 8/21/14
WisdomTree has been excited about Abenomics since its genesis in November of 2012. We believe that markets have responded well to the progress made on the first two arrowsnamely decisive monetary policy and increases in fiscal spending.

A Peak at Yellen’s Labor Market Dashboard Highlights Fed Concerns
by Rick Harper of WisdomTree, Inc., 8/20/14
In this piece, we attempt to re-create the labor market dashboard and assess the progress the economy has made post-financial crisis. While many indicators suggest a full recovery (or at least substantial progress), a few indicators hint at little progress from crisis lows.

Time to Consider Korea Hedged Equities
by Jeremy Schwartz of WisdomTree, Inc., 8/13/14
The Korean won has been on a tear as one of best-performing emerging-market currencies in 2014. And this has the Korean government and central bank officials worried that the rising Korean won is eroding the competitiveness of Koreas exports.

Federal Reserve Tapering Part II: Emerging Market Local Debt Performance
by Bradley Krom of WisdomTree, Inc., 8/12/14
In part two of our discussion, we focus on the impact of recent changes in Federal Reserve (Fed) policy on locally-denominated fixed income across emerging markets (EM).

Federal Reserve Tapering Part I: Emerging Market Currency Performance
by Bradley Krom of WisdomTree, Inc., 8/7/14
While many investors tend to focus on changes of currency spot rates, a primary reason we have long advocated that investors allocate to EM currencies is the income potential driven by the higher interest rates in many emerging market countries. In todays yield-starved environment, EM currencies remain one of the most significant means of generating income in a portfolio while limiting interest rate risk.

What Asset Class Rallied Last Week amid the Sell-Off?
by Luciano Siracusano III of WisdomTree, Inc., 8/6/14
Last Thursdays sell-off in U.S. stocks (the Dow was down 317 points, the S&P 500 Index was down nearly 2%) marked the biggest stock market decline in nearly four months. The S&P 500 Index closed at 1,930 after it broke its 50-day moving average for the first time since April.

Opportunities in Developed International Equities
by Christopher Gannatti of WisdomTree, Inc., 7/31/14
Each year, WisdomTree screens the universe of dividend payers in developed international markets so that we can refocus the weights of constituents back to relative value and away from simply holding increasing amounts of stocks that have performed well. The rebalance was recently completed, suggesting that this is an opportune time to review the positioning of our broad developed international Indexes.

Are You Concerned about Small-Cap Valuations?
by Tripp Zimmerman of WisdomTree, Inc., 7/31/14
Stocks often move more than is justified by changes in their underlying fundamentals, and as a result, investors run the risk of paying too much for stocks that have become more expensive relative to their fundamentals.

How to Blend In a Currency Hedge
by Jeremy Schwartz of WisdomTree, Inc., 7/29/14
Looking across developed markets today, a common thread is that central bank policies have pushed interest rates to very low levels to support their economies.

Indian Budget: Converting Promises into Policies
by Jeremy Schwartz of WisdomTree, Inc., 7/28/14
India has been a hot market in 2014, as investors anticipated the election of business-friendly prime minister Narendra Modi. If Election Day was the most important day of the year, perhaps the second most important day was the release of the annual budget on July 10.

Small Caps in Focus Following Fed Comments
by Jeremy Schwartz of WisdomTree, Inc., 7/24/14
In conjunction with Janet Yellens testimony before Congress on July 15, the Federal Reserve produced a Monetary PolicyReport1 that provides an update on monetary policy, economic conditions and financial markets.

Long Commodities, Short Contango via Commodity Currencies
by Rick Harper of WisdomTree, Inc., 7/23/14
On the back of a resurgence in Chinese economic data and rising geopolitical risk in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, increases in global commodity prices have reinvigorated investor interest in allocating to commodity-based investment strategies.

Cause and Effect: Bank of Japan Becomes Governments Largest
by Bradley Krom of WisdomTree, Inc., 7/22/14
Although central banks often use their holdings of government debt to affect monetary policy, the meteoric rise in the expansion of the BOJs balance sheet is unprecedented. With the BOJ continuing to signal its willingness to aggressively stimulate the economy, we highlight here what we believe are the most significant implications of these policies.

Smart Beta in Action: Taking Chips Off the Small-Cap European Table
by Jeremy Schwartz of WisdomTree, Inc., 7/21/14
European equity markets performed strongly throughout much of 2013 and into the first five months of 2014. While it is difficult to time market tops and bottoms for individual stocks on a consistent basis, we believe there are benefits to undertaking a disciplined practice to rebalance weight based on changes in relative valuation.

How the Europe Small-Cap Portfolio Changed at the Rebalance
by Jeremy Schwartz of WisdomTree, Inc., 7/17/14
A key differentiator of the WisdomTree Index methodology is our annual rebalance to focus on changes in relative value. In this blog, we will zoom in on how this approach led to changes in exposure in the WisdomTree Europe SmallCap Dividend Index (WT Europe Small).

Dissecting the Japan Hedged Equity Rebalance
by Jeremy Schwartz of WisdomTree, Inc., 7/16/14
We think it is important to be mindful of how an annual rebalance back to an underlying fundamental such as dividends can help manage valuation risks. With market capitalization-weighted indexes, when constituents increase in price compared to other stocks, they gain greater weight and increase their impact on the performance of the index.

Is the Euro the New Yen?
by Jeremy Schwartz of WisdomTree, Inc., 7/15/14
Currency-hedged equity strategies broke onto the exchange-traded fund (EFT) investment scene in late 2012 following significant weakening of the yen, which led to a wide disparity in performance between unhedged and currency-hedged Japanese ETFs.

Rising Rates and the U.S. Dollar
by Bradley Krom of WisdomTree, Inc., 7/14/14
While interest rates in the U.S. have fallen so far year-to-date, we continue to believe that rates may be poised to rise in the second half of 2014. Over the last several weeks, we have seen increased interest from clients about how best to prepare their portfolios for an eventual rise in U.S. interest rates.

Europes Dividend Growth Explained
by Jeremy Schwartz of WisdomTree, Inc., 7/10/14
An interesting aspect of the WisdomTree annual rebalance process is identifying trends in aggregate regional Dividend Stream of major markets. As we just rebalanced our developed world Indexes, including Europe, we wanted to provide some insight into how Europes dividends grew in the 12 months prior to the rebalance.

U.S. & European Flows: Potential Opportunity in European Debt?
by Bradley Krom of WisdomTree, Inc., 7/9/14
In discussions with our clients, we often notice their interest in hearing where WisdomTree or the industry is seeing inflows in order to gain new ideas for investment. As the market for global exchange-traded products continues to evolve, we believe that investors will increasingly look to global ETP flows for investment ideas.

Managing Valuation Risk by Rebalancing
by Tripp Zimmerman of WisdomTree, Inc., 7/8/14
We think it is important to be mindful of how an annual rebalance back to an underlying fundamental such as dividends can help manage valuation risksa key factor in why the non-cap-weighted indexes are included in the smart beta category of indexes.
Results 401–435 of 435 found.