Cameron Brandt
Director of Research
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USA
22+ years of experience
As director, Cameron mines EPFR data to isolate themes and identify relevant trends—whether a spike in leveraged bear bonds or shifts in emerging markets—to help buy- and sell-side institutions make more informed decisions. He heads a team of 10 quantitative and qualitative researchers for the database, which tracks around 130,000 share classes and represents roughly $40 trillion of assets under management.
Cameron co-authored an International Financing Review (IFR)-published study of fund flows and produces regular reports on trends that emerge from the data, directing the focus of the research based on clients’ interest.
He previously worked as a journalist at a number of regional papers in the U.S., as well as the managing editor of now-closed World Paper in Boston, publishing a theme-driven international affairs supplement in emerging economies.
Cameron, who grew up in Scotland and Ireland, spends most of his time outside work with his two teenaged children. He also spends much of his time fishing for tuna, trout, carp and salmon, partaking in a pastime he sees as one of the last bastions of true social diversity.
“I spent years as a journalist canvassing communities and interviewing people to find the most compelling stories for our readers. At Informa, my job is no different—I scour data tracking trillions of dollars looking for stories our clients can’t see. I build powerful narratives they can use to grow as a firm.”
EPFR - fund flow & allocations data
By Cameron Brandt 06 Jan 2023
Over $110 billion – a 131-week high – flowed into EPFR-tracked Money Market Funds during the week ending Jan. 4 as investors surveyed an investment landscape still being reshaped by inflation, tighter monetary policy and geopolitical forces.
Topic Industry News
EPFR - fund flow & allocations data
By Cameron Brandt 03 Jan 2023
The final week of 2022 saw EPFR-tracked Bond Funds post consecutive weekly outflows for the first time since mid-October, capping a year when the overall group smashed its previous outflow record as central banks scrambled to contain inflation running at multi-decade highs.
Topic Industry News
EPFR - fund flow & allocations data
By Cameron Brandt 29 Dec 2022
A year ago, the prospect of central bank action to curb inflation and rising Covid-19 caseloads helped to chase over $40 billion out of EPFR-tracked Equity Funds. It was the same story during the week ending December 21, as surging Covid cases in China and fears that the monetary tightening cycles on both sides of the Atlantic have further to run prompted investors to pull nearly $42 billion out of those Equity Funds.
Topic Industry News
EPFR - fund flow & allocations data
By Cameron Brandt 26 Dec 2022
A year ago, the prospect of central bank action to curb inflation and rising Covid-19 caseloads helped to chase over $40 billion out of EPFR-tracked Equity Funds. It was the same story during the week ending December 21, as surging Covid cases in China and fears that the monetary tightening cycles on both sides of the Atlantic have further to run prompted investors to pull nearly $42 billion out of those Equity Funds.
Topic Industry News
EPFR - fund flow & allocations data
By Cameron Brandt 16 Dec 2022
The second week of December ended with the US Federal Reserve raising its key interest rate by another 0.5% basis, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping 0.6% and EPFR-tracked US Equity Funds recording their biggest daily inflow since mid-March. Any euphoria that the pace of US rate hikes is moderating was, however, largely offset by fears that the peak of the current tightening cycle may still be as much as 100 basis points away.
Topic Industry News
EPFR - fund flow & allocations data
By Cameron Brandt 09 Dec 2022
Despite China’s first steps away from the zero-Covid policies that have sapped its economy and some optimistic forecasts for 2023, investors tapped EPFR-tracked Emerging Markets Equity Funds for $2.4 billion – a 13-week high outflow – in early December. But Emerging Markets Bond Funds posted their first inflow since mid-August and their biggest since the first week of 2Q22.
Topic Industry News
EPFR - fund flow & allocations data
By Cameron Brandt 02 Dec 2022
November closed with one benchmark US equities index returning to ‘bull’ territory. It also ended with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell remarking in a speech that “it seems to me likely that the ultimate level of [US interest] rates will need to be somewhat higher than thought at the time of the September meeting” but going on to say the pace of hikes to get there could slow as soon as December.
Topic Industry News
EPFR - fund flow & allocations data
By Cameron Brandt 29 Nov 2022
The glow from October’s better-than-expected US inflation data did not take long to fade. Going into the Thanksgiving holiday, investors found themselves digesting record levels of Covid infections in China, rising levels of industrial action, falling temperatures in Central Europe, imploding cryptocurrency markets and more layoffs in America’s previously high-flying technology sector.
Topic Industry News
EPFR - fund flow & allocations data
By Cameron Brandt 21 Nov 2022
By an underwhelming margin, October’s headline number for US inflation came in below expectations of a 0.1% drop to 8%. But the reaction from investors during the second week of November to the 7.7% figure suggested that many believe the inflationary tide in the US has turned and peak interest rates will arrive sooner, and at a lower level, than previously feared.
Topic Industry News
EPFR - fund flow & allocations data
By Cameron Brandt 11 Nov 2022
Investors came into November anticipating a pivot towards Republicans in the US mid-term elections and fearing that October’s inflation data would set the stage for another 75 basis point rate hike by the US Federal Reserve after their December meeting. But the ‘red wave’ was blunted by a green breakwater of younger voters and price growth in the world’s largest economy last month slowed to 7.7% year-on-year.
Topic Industry News
EPFR - fund flow & allocations data
By Cameron Brandt 04 Nov 2022
In the US, November is – among other things – National Gratitude Month. For investors, however, it is already shaping up to be another month of twists, turns and developments that can cut both ways. Finding mercies, even small ones, in this environment is proving difficult.
Topic Industry News
EPFR - fund flow & allocations data
By Cameron Brandt 28 Oct 2022
Impending rate hikes from the European Central Bank and US Federal Reserve. The striking selloff experienced by Chinese assets. Mixed earnings reports. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine heading into its ninth month. That may be yesterday’s news, if flows to EPFR-tracked Equity and Bond Funds during the fourth week of October are any indication.
Topic Industry News
EPFR - fund flow & allocations data
By Cameron Brandt 21 Oct 2022
With rising prices and higher interest rates joining, for the moment, death and taxes on the list of life’s certainties, investors kept reducing risk and unshackling themselves from fixed income assets in mid-October. EPFR-tracked Bond Funds posted their ninth consecutive outflow, a run that has seen over $80 billion pulled out of this group, while redemptions from Alternative and Balanced Funds since the final week of August stand at $17 billion and $31 billion, respectively.
Topic Industry News
EPFR - fund flow & allocations data
By Cameron Brandt 14 Oct 2022
Risk reduction and defensive positioning remained high on most investors’ lists during the second week of October as the Nasdaq index it its lowest level since late 3Q20 and US 30-year mortgage rates tested the 8% level. With the UK’s bond market giving investors a reminder of what a collision between recession-fighting fiscal policy and inflation-fighting monetary policy looks like, missiles flying out of Russia and North Korea, the latest US core inflation doing nothing for hopes of restraint by the US Federal Reserve in early November and the third quarter earnings season on the horizon, investors had plenty of other reasons to tack towards safety.
Topic Industry News
EPFR - fund flow & allocations data
By Cameron Brandt 07 Oct 2022
In early October two of the major ratings agencies downgraded the outlook for British sovereign debt from stable to negative. For investors it was a familiar story. For much of 2022 stability has turned to instability, certainty to uncertainty and hope to fear across most asset classes. The result has been growing market volatility and a growing defensiveness on the part of those investors.
Topic Industry News