EPFR Fund Flows

Flickers of hope for trade and Brexit deals boost risk appetite

By Cameron Brandt 18 Oct 2019

Flickers of hope for trade and Brexit deals boost risk appetite The second week of October saw flows to EPFR-tracked High Yield and Emerging Markets Bond rebound, US and UK Equity Funds snap three-week outflow streaks and UK Bond Funds post their biggest inflow since June as Sino-US trade and UK-EU exit deal talks took turns for the better. Investors are also pricing in another rate cut from the US Federal reserve when it meets on the final days of the month.

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EPFR Fund Flows

Quants Corner

By Vik Srimurthy 15 Oct 2019

Going A Viking The four Nordic countries in continental Europe, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland, are often viewed as a group of homogenous nations on Europe’s northern flank with a shared aversion to conflict, a taste for social democracy and robust welfare states. Investors tend to approach them as a group that offers some comparative insights and uncorrelated exposure relative to the ‘core’ European markets.

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EPFR Fund Flows

Data Simply Scores: Enhance your SRI and ESG lenses

By Cameron Brandt 15 Oct 2019

The pursuit of pure Alpha and recognition of less tangible but equally – or more -- worthy goals, is as old as recorded financial history. In its current incarnation, a financial industry tempered by the “greed is good” era is scrambling to accommodate new generations of investors who place a high premium on environmental and social goals. These investors are backing up their interest in environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues with growing amounts of money. The equity funds tracked by Informa Financial Intelligence, EPFR have posted collective net outflows of over $225 billion so far this year, with the ESG subset or socially responsible investment (SRI) mandates attracting over $35 billion in 2019.

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IGM Credit, IGM FX and Rates

China Insight: The US May Consider Limiting Investments in China

By Tim Cheung 15 Oct 2019

A couple of negative headlines came out on 8 October before the 13th round of US-China trade talks starts. The US blacklisted 28 Chinese entities and government agencies over human rights violations and repression in Xinjiang; White House has started looking to consider limits on the US pension investments in Chinese equities;

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EPFR Fund Flows

Trade issues, earnings and political risk reclaim center stage from central bankers in early October

By Cameron Brandt 11 Oct 2019

Trade issues, earnings and political risk reclaim center stage from central bankers in early October After a quarter when both the US Federal Reserve and European Central Bank reversed course on the normalization of their monetary policies, the focus during the first week October shifted from central bankers to the Sino-Chinese trade war, the latest corporate earnings season and impending elections in Spain, Canada and Argentina.

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EPFR Fund Flows

Money Market Funds close books on record setting quarter

By Cameron Brandt 04 Oct 2019

Money Market Funds close books on record setting quarter The third quarter ended as it began, with EPFR-tracked Equity Funds experiencing net redemptions and Bond Funds net inflows that took their year-to-date totals to -$230 billion and +$481 billion respectively, as investors continue to brace for a cyclical downturn that they have been anticipating for the better part of four years. In recent months their outlook has been shared by the world’s major central banks. Since the beginning of July the US Federal Reserve cut interest rates twice to sustain the current recovery and the European Central Bank, faced with a sharp slowdown in the German economy, restarted the quantitative easing program it wrapped up at the end of last year. Not surprisingly, mutual fund investors are revisiting their assumptions about yield, global economic growth and inflation. High Yield and Inflation Protected Bond Funds, which both posted collective outflows during 2Q19, saw flows rebound during the third quarter and dedicated Gold Funds recorded their biggest quarterly inflow since 2Q16. Liquidity has also assumed even greater importance: the provisional number for Money Markets Funds during 3Q19 eclipses the previous inflow record set in 4Q08 at the height of the sub-prime debt crisis.

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Rutger Responds: Insights from Finovate Fall 2019

By Rutger van Faassen 04 Oct 2019

Rutger Responds: Insights from Finovate Fall 2019 I spent three exciting days at Finovate Fall 2019 in New York last week witnessing the latest and greatest from over 70 fintechs. As a first-time attendee, I enjoyed the innovative format exhibitors used of more “showing” and less “telling” with seven-minute demos of specific use cases: which left the audience with a quick snapshot of what each Fintech helps solve and how. The event included a healthy mix of early and late stage fintechs, as well as Financial Institutions, vendors, and investors. There were several interesting key notes containing key themes that included data driven personal finance, ML and (conversational) AI, robotics, and Digital First. Let’s dive a little deeper into each of them!

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EPFR Fund Flows

Quants Corner

By Mike Simcock, CEO of ClearMacro 01 Oct 2019

Guest blog – ‘Quantifying the impact of Trade War Tariffs’ This week’s Quant’s Corner is written by Mike Simcock, CEO of ClearMacro, a London-based fintech company. ClearMacro helps clients bridge the gap between systematic and discretionary investment processes by transforming raw data into investible signals, and is partnering with EPFR to stage a panel discussion on monetary and other risks to the global economy on October 9 at The Shard in London.

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