While the coronavirus crisis is impacting many real assets, people still require food and therefore still require farmland. The asset class is a stable one and a long-term diversifier, says Bernice Miedzinski, president of StarBridge Capital Ltd., noting the current low-interest rate environment is challenging. “Even thinking about a plain vanilla strategy, investing in Canadian […]
Hedge fund activism is associated with higher short- and long-term returns, but is this because activists are value creators? Or are they just good stock pickers? New research suggests the latter — that positive returns can be explained by the fact that hedge fund activists are good stock pickers with strong timing skills. “There has […]
As part of the federal government’s debt management strategy, it’s increasing long-term debt issuance. In particular, the government will be increasing issuance of the 10-year and 30-year bonds for 2020-2021 to an unprecedented combined amount of $106 billion, according to the federal economic and fiscal snapshot from July 8. The issuance is roughly five times […]
Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, in-person visits by institutional investors have been drastically reduced, temporarily short circuiting qualitative due diligence and leading to slightly more reliance on quantitative analysis, says Jeff Schwartz, president of Markov Processes International Inc. Quantitative analysis can help identify red flags and indicate when a deeper dive is required, for example. “That’s […]
Global consulting firm Aon is launching a new pooled employer retirement plan on Jan. 1, 2021. U.S. defined contribution plan sponsors will be able to transfer their assets and members to the pooled employer plan — or PEP. Aon will be managing the investment lineup and taking care of the whole ecosystem involved with offering […]
In the current low-yield environment, many pension funds are looking for alternatives to fixed income to earn the returns required to pay pension obligations. The answer for some may be private credit. “We like private credit because we see a lot of excess yield compared to the same risk and return that you can achieve […]
It appears some institutional investors are aware of activist campaigns before they become public, according to new research. A working paper by three assistant professors of finance — the University of Northern Iowa’s Ryan Flugum, the University of Rhode Island’s Choonsik Lee and the University of South Carolina’s Matthew Souther — found some institutional investors […]
The Saskatchewan Pension Plan is improving investment choice for members in the accumulation phase and introducing new options to help them through decumulation as well. Leading up to retirement, SPP members are defaulted into a balanced fund, which has been in place since the plan started in 1986. In 2010, it introduced a short-term fund, […]
Since 2004, Canada has held a AAA rating from all major ratings agencies, but on June 24, it suffered a blow when Fitch Ratings Inc. downgraded the country to AA+. “The rating downgrade reflects the deterioration of Canada’s public finances in 2020 resulting from the coronavirus pandemic,” said the Fitch in a rating action commentary […]
New research suggests that hormones play a role in financial decision-making. Specifically, cortisol, a hormone that marks stress, is positively related to the disposition effect, meaning holding on to underperforming assets for too long or selling overperforming assets too soon, according to the research by John Nofsinger, the William H. Seward chair in international finance […]