With artificial intelligence, systematic investing is entering a new era of disciplined decision-making. Yet, firms face many snags. Rigorous implementation requires collaboration among skillful investment, technology, and quantitative capabilities.
My guest today is here to talk about an asset class that is often misunderstood. It wasn't until recently that all investors had access to collateralized loan obligations (CLOs). Institutional investors have benefitted from the ownership of CLOs for over 25 years, and the asset class has grown to over $1 trillion.
These are not the same bonds that eroded the economy in 2008 during the global financial crisis. It's a similar name in "C blank O," but a very different asset class. John Kim and his team at Panagram are experts in CLO investing. He is here to explain how they work, why now for individual investors, the benefits of owning CLOs, and dispel some of the myths about this often-misunderstood asset class. John will share what Panagram is doing to educate and explain why advisors should consider an allocation.
The choice to use an advisor in retirement is one that will cost clients and their beneficiaries millions of dollars in fees and opportunity costs as I show in this article.
How worried should we be about AI and what should we do about it? There is risk on both sides: of not taking warnings about AI seriously enough, and of taking them too seriously.
While a goals-based approach divides a retiree’s liabilities (future spending goals/needs) and assets into separate pieces with separate mandates, it can be useful to see how they all stack together.
Investors are growing more confident that a year-long slump in profits for Corporate America is about to end. Yet a fragile economic outlook, wary consumers and the highest interest rates in 16 years mean any relief for stocks could be short-lived.
Franklin Templeton Fixed Income Research Analysts Ashley Allen and Bryant Dieffenbacher discuss the food, water and energy sectors and what their convergence means for investors.
A money market fund is a type of mutual fund that invests in debt securities, specifically those characterized by short maturities and minimal credit risk. A money market fund generates income with little to no capital appreciation, making it a low-risk, low-return investment.
Our September Cyclical Forum was the first to be held in London, where the economic situation today reflects what’s happening around the world.
As a strategist, I work with financial advisors every day creating custom fixed income portfolios based on client’s financial needs and goals – with a keen eye on the importance of a balanced portfolio.
US housing affordability worsened to a fresh record low in August as Americans continue to bend under the weight of soaring mortgage rates and sticky prices.
When US banks kick off the third-quarter earnings season Friday, it will mark the first in a long line of hurdles the group needs to clear in order to assuage investor fears.
As the second quarter came to a close, the Fed’s elusive soft landing appeared to be within reach. However, inflation resurfaced during the third quarter, substantially complicating the near-term economic outlook.
When your system, whatever it may be, is working extremely well, we used to say it’s “firing on all 8 cylinders.” What does that mean?
The spike in bond yields presents an opportunity for fixed income investors to earn capital gains and diversify portfolios.
Amazon.com Inc. crowed over this week’s Prime Day sales, boasting that the two-day discount promotion “outpaced” last year’s event. Such a flashy description suggests the unofficial kickoff to the holiday season has set up the broader retail industry for a bright few months.
After three quarters of improving economic outlook amid increasing expectations for a painless decline in global inflation, markets and pundits alike have become less optimistic about a soft landing as they reacted to frustration from the Fed.
However, $22 billion moved into fundamentally weighted equity index ETFs, while dividend and momentum ETFs had outflows. This is sizable and warrants some added attention.
Slower growth and rising interest rates have tapped the brakes on private deal activity this year. But as banks continue to retreat from lending, we see plenty of opportunity for investors to pick their spots across the broad private credit universe.
The first nine months of 2023 have seen significant growth. Despite this growth, questions remain. Income is top of mind as many investors worry about the potential of a recession, the ongoing high-rate environment, and market uncertainty. Enter the Income Strategy symposium.
A liquidity gap is growing as banks curtail specialty lending, providing specialty finance investors opportunities for potential better risk-adjusted returns than we’ve seen since the GFC.
In this second episode, Franklin Templeton Institute’s Tony Davidow discusses opportunities in alternative credit strategies with Richard Byrne from Benefit Street Partners.
In his latest memo, Howard Marks provides a follow-up to Sea Change (December 2022). He argues that the trends highlighted in the original memo collectively represent a sweeping alteration of the investment environment that calls for significant capital reallocation.
Like a watched pot that refuses to boil, the much-anticipated recession of 2023 has yet to materialize. In our latest Strategic Income outlook, we examine the reasons and discuss what might finally cause the temperature to rise.
Making the case for municipal bonds today with Stephen Dover, Head of Franklin Templeton Institute.
The Federal Reserve (Fed) only controls one rate of interest, and it is a very short-term rate called the federal funds rate, the rate that banks charge each other for overnight, intra-bank loans.
The financial planning landscape is undergoing a great transformation, driven by emerging trends that have accelerated in recent years.
“Very strict enforcement” is a euphemism used by the American Automobile Association to warn motorists of places where even minor traffic violations will likely be caught and punished with heavy fines.
Most voters aren’t going to get hot under the collar about battles in Washington, DC, over bank capital requirements, but they definitely relate to stories about home loans becoming more expensive or less available. That doesn’t mean debate is straightforward, especially once each side starts throwing numbers around.
After investment losses tore through the US financial system this year, a fresh slump in bank stocks shows some investors fear the problem — which at its most extreme claimed a handful of lenders — hasn’t gone away.
As the Federal Reserve signals it will keep interest rates higher for longer, the market appears to be reflecting the uncertainty about the path of policy going forward.
Advisors have choices to face with their fixed income allocation. Should they take on credit risk to be rewarded with a high level of income? What about taking on interest-rate risk and owning longer-duration bonds?
When you are trying to build trust with a new prospect, one of the worst things you can do is sell your “value proposition” – an extinct notion that no longer applies in today’s highly competitive market.
In the next year, we will see the introduction of the fully functioning, digital-human financial advisor.
For two decades, Amy Wu Silverman has tracked fear and greed across Wall Street by keeping a close eye on the twists and turns in the Cboe Volatility Index.
Even as stocks rallied back during the monetary panic last week, big disruptions in the world of Treasuries threaten fresh pain for a host of hedging strategies on Wall Street.
Medical Properties Trust is a very controversial healthcare REIT. Most estimates range the fair value somewhere between $10 and $20 a share and the stock trades at around $5, just a little bit better than $5 a share.
With the widely followed Markit iBoxx USD Liquid High Yield Index down almost 3% over the past month and in the red on a year-to-date basis, this might not be one of those times.
When the media speaks of the yield curve, they are likely referring to the Treasury yield curve. It is the point of reference for interest rate levels and investment comparison.
VettaFi’s Roxanna Islam discusses the underwhelming debut of ethereum futures ETFs. Baird’s Rich Lee talks recent ETF trading volumes, S&P 500 concentration risk, active management, and ETFs moving to T+1 settlement. Texas Capital’s Ed Rosenberg spotlights the Texas Capital Texas Equity Index ETF (TXS).
The reasons people choose to live in high-cost-of-living locations are clearly emotional.
Advisor Perspectives has announced its Venerated Voices™ awards for commentaries published in Q3 2023.
Michael Kitces just published the results of his new software survey. Many of the results confirmed what Joel Bruckenstein and I have been reporting for years. But there were some key differences.
In investing, you can have a safe present or future value, but not both!
Denied the dubious spectacle of a cage match between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, the world may yet be treated to a contest pitting the Tesla chief executive against an underdog from Indiana.
When Congress voted in 2018 to give regional banks a break from stiffer post-crisis capital rules, it created a two-tier banking system in the US.
Once again, due to the ongoing lack of fiscal responsibility in Washington, the markets and the economy faced a Government shutdown.
Risks remain tilted to the downside. Uncertainty about the strength and speed of monetary policy transmission and the persistence of inflation are key concerns. The adverse effects of higher interest rates could prove stronger than predicted, and greater inflation persistence would require additional policy tightening that might expose financial vulnerabilities.
Global central bank hiking cycles have dominated financial market headlines for the last 18 months, keeping many investors on the sidelines, hiding out in cash as inflation and the resulting rate hikes were serious headwinds to returns.
Rising rates and inflation acted as a wrecking ball to investment portfolios in 2022. U.S. equities and investment-grade fixed income witnessed double-digit declines, leaving investors scrambling for protection.
