Investing

[ad_1] Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings should reflect the risks that such factors pose to a company’s financial performance and how well equipped that company is to manage those risks. Such ratings may assess carbon emissions (E), health and safety in the workplace (S), and executive compensation structures (G), […]

[ad_1] Interest rates are like the weather. We can prepare for typical fluctuations, but sudden changes can still catch us by surprise. After the global financial crisis (GFC), for example, we enjoyed a decade of clear skies and low rates. Even as the winds rose in 2019 and the economy […]

[ad_1] The cannabis sector is slowly emerging from its long period of prohibition, and the investment opportunities are turning heads. Retail investors believe in the industry’s future and want to participate before regulations change. The institutions covering the sector are keeping a close eye on it even if most have […]

[ad_1] The Economics of the Stock Market. 2022. Andrew Smithers. Oxford University Press. Judging by the behavior of the stock market, we are living in challenging times for mainstream finance. Under the hypothesis that markets are efficient and investors are rational, neoclassical theory assumes away the problem of financial bubbles […]

[ad_1] “It often happens that a player carries out a deep and complicated calculation, but fails to spot something elementary right at the first move.” — Alexander Kotov, Chess Grandmaster Introduction The FX impact on corporate earnings and guidance should be front of mind for both corporates and the analyst […]

[ad_1] Factor selection is among our most important considerations when building financial models. So, as machine learning (ML) and data science become ever more integrated into finance, which factors should we consider for our ML-driven investment models and how should we select among them? These are open and critical questions. […]

[ad_1] Portfolio managers report their risk-adjusted performance using Sharpe, Treynor, information, and Sortino ratios, among other popular metrics. Of course, with various measures to choose among, might fund managers be tempted to cherry-pick those that reflect most favorably on their performance? Perhaps, but the potential for strategic selection only becomes […]

[ad_1] The legendary musician Prince exhorted us to “Party like it’s 1999,” but today, as a small-cap stock investor, I’d flip the calendar one year ahead, to 2000. That’s because by March 2000, the NASDAQ had peaked at 5048 and by April had plunged by almost 35%. The following 18 […]

[ad_1] Investing in U.S. Financial History: Understanding the Past to Forecast the Future. 2024. Mark J. Higgins, CFA, CFP. Greenleaf Book Group Press. Chronicling the United States’ entire financial history from the 18th century onward is a highly ambitious but essential undertaking. The most recent such effort, prior to the […]

[ad_1] Three investment return trends related to the green transition concern me. These apply across all sectors but to automotive in particular. Here is how I see it. 1. Pricing is challenging. The strong automotive demand during the COVID-19 pandemic was fueled largely by wealthier customers and is on the […]