Steven Xinlei Shen
Manager of Quantitative Strategies
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USA
+8 year(s) experience
Steven works primarily with clients in Asia-Pacific (APAC) markets and U.S. clients investing in APAC markets, helping them mine the firm’s EPFR database of mutual fund and exchange-traded fund flows and positioning data across global markets. He illustrates the predictive power of the data through modeling, based on the distinct mandates of clients.
He specializes in fund flow quantitative strategy development, new data product development, maintenance of all asset allocation strategies, and fund flow product and research consultation. Previously, he maintained all global asset allocation strategies as well as developed Asia dedicated country and sector strategies from the firm’s Shanghai office.
Steven, a native of China, is a recreational race car driver outside the office whose record speed is 200 mph at the track.
“Most people think quantitative analysis is extremely complex. And it is. But sometimes, it’s beautiful in its simplicity. Sometimes, a simple dataset exposes an extraordinary condition lurking just below the surface. And a whole new market strategy emerges.”
EPFR - fund flow & allocations data
EPFR started tracking equity fund flows in the first quarter of 1996. It started tracking its first funds with socially responsible (SRI) or environmental, social and governance (ESG) mandates in 2000. But it was not until late 2016 when flows into SRI/ESG Equity Funds really took off. That take off has been followed by astonishing acceleration, both in terms of flows to these funds and the assets they manage. After more than a decade of being incidental, the AUM of SRI/ESG Equity Funds has grown to the point where they represent approximately 4.17% of all the assets managed by all EPFR-tracked Equity Funds...
Topic Industry News
EPFR - fund flow & allocations data
For decades, global investors have become conditioned to the term Asia ex(cluding) Japan. It’s a term that reflects Japan’s individual place in the current investment universe. In this week’s Quants Corner, we illustrate how Japan’s stock market is different - from a fund flow perspective – compared to the rest of Asia, and how we can generate alpha at a stock level in such a unique market.
Topic Industry News
EPFR - fund flow & allocations data
Our latest technical paper discusses China as an asset class from the perspective of the EPFR China Flows and Positioning datasets. China Share Class Allocations (CSCA) is the latest in a progression of datasets offered by EPFR that shed light on China, stretching back to Emerging Markets Equity Fund flows in 1995. CSCA data, and EPFR Fund and Country Flow data, illustrates the desire of many investors - and some fund managers - to get exposure to China’s growth story with a minimum of direct involvement in China’s retail-driven domestic markets. Foreign listed Chinese shares remain the only group where EPFR-tracked managers are overweight the benchmark and, at times this year, flows have bypassed dedicated China Equity Funds in favor of Greater China and Taiwan Equity Funds.
Topic Industry News
EPFR - fund flow & allocations data
The EPFR Chartbook is our single report comprising of numerical and qualitative snapshots of the major fund groups tracked by EPFR. Flows are illustrated over several timescales with charts and statistical tables, and the pages are annotated with analysis of key factors driving current flow trends.
Topic Industry News
EPFR - fund flow & allocations data
In the previous quants corner piece released in May, Chinese Share Classes: Getting past the letter A, we noted the increasing allocation by active fund managers to Hong Kong listed Chinese securities (H shares, Red chips and P chips) and, as a result, the steady drop in their underweight relative to the benchmark...
Topic Industry News
EPFR - fund flow & allocations data
The EPFR Chartbook is our single report comprising of numerical and qualitative snapshots of the major fund groups tracked by EPFR. Flows are illustrated over several timescales with charts and statistical tables, and the pages are annotated with analysis of key factors driving current flow trends.
Topic Industry News
EPFR - fund flow & allocations data
The COVID-19 pandemic, a resurgence of Sino US trade tensions and protests against police brutality in the US have not stopped global equity markets from zigzagging higher. From a mutual fund perspective, the correlation between equity fund flows to and from developed markets and benchmark performance remains relatively stable – 38.4% YTD -- and recent inflows are pushing the markets back to where it was four months ago...
Topic Industry News
EPFR - fund flow & allocations data
Over the past two decades China has been steadily increased foreign access to its domestic A and B Share markets. This process started in 2002 with the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) program – greatly expanded in 2012 – and was followed by the Hong Kong-Shanghai and Hong Kong-Shenzhen connect program for qualified investors in 2014 and 2016.
Topic Industry News
EPFR - fund flow & allocations data
What had been a relatively measured response to the coronavirus outbreak that started in China around the New Year became an increasingly disorderly stampede for the exits in late February. As COVID-19 spread across the globe, US stock market took a series of hits culminating in a 7% drop on March 6 that triggered the so-called “circuit breaker” – suspension of trading – for only the third time since its adoption.
Topic Industry News
EPFR - fund flow & allocations data
When EPFR announced last November that the assets managed by the Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) it tracks had crossed the $6 trillion mark, it came as a limited surprise to most investors and financial professionals. Flows into these vehicles, which generally track an index or other benchmark and aim to replicate its performance, have surged since the 2008-09 financial crisis and the subsequent compression of yields as policymakers struggled to contain the damage. Both institutional and retail investors have warmed to the combination of transparency, liquidity and low fees offered by ETFs (see Chart 1).
Topic Industry News
EPFR - fund flow & allocations data
The EPFR Chartbook is our single report comprising of numerical and qualitative snapshots of the major fund groups tracked by EPFR. Flows are illustrated over several timescales with charts and statistical tables, and the pages are annotated with analysis of key factors driving current flow trends.
Topic Industry News
EPFR - fund flow & allocations data
Trade Wars: US vs China Trade talks between the world’s two dominant economies, China and the US, have proceeded inconclusively for the better part of three years. Going into December a firm agreement to resolve the numerous issues dividing the two countries remained elusive, leaving investors scratching their heads as they try to figure out how to extract meaningful signals from the oceans of data, tweets, diplomatic communiques, commentary and news that the Sino-US trade war generates on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.
Topic Industry News
EPFR - fund flow & allocations data
Sino-US trade tensions and slower growth in the world’s second largest economy have dominated the headlines for much of this year. But, behind the sound and fury, many mutual fund managers have – with varying degrees of enthusiasm – been increasing their fund’s exposure to China.
Topic Industry News
EPFR - fund flow & allocations data
EPFR Investment strategy 2019 : Established model telling investors not to climb on any EM bandwagons Of the 40 fastest growing economies in 2018 only one, Ireland, was a recognized developed market. Emerging Markets also have something of a monopoly on reform stories. So, the persistent underperformance of emerging markets compared to the developed markets counterparts over the past 12 months presents quantitative and ‘quantamental’ investors with a dilemma when it comes to selecting and deploying strategies.
Topic Industry News