On Balance
A series of individual stock concerns in both the US and Europe – think Glaxo Smith Kline, Moderna, Astra Zeneca, Eli Lilly, Smith and Nephew, Merck and even Novo Norsdisk added to the fact that the new Trump administration may not be friendly for the sector has seen the sector in a Trump Slump.
President Macron’s decision to call a snap election has had a dramatic effect on bond and equity markets to the extent that and even before Marine Le Pen offered a concilliatory olive branch, we were looking at some Indicators and signals coming from Apollo that might suggest some interesting investment opportunities are beginning to show […]
There are many reasons why our Smart Alpha process works so well and stands up to scrutiny.
We start with the investible universe and immediately ‘knock out’ the stocks we don’t want to own. Stocks are initially selected by Factor – a ‘bottom up’ selection process.
The Travel sector entered the re-rating phase on January 10 and since then the good news has just kept coming. When Factor risk changes you need to know especially when accompanied by our idiosyncratic signals of momentum and volatility (Accelerator and Risk Adjusted return signals). This combination forms the basis of our Smart Alpha strategy and why it works as well as it does. For as long as the sector is re-rating and there is an Acc long signal you know you are in a good place and when it changes, the dynamics of the stock / sector / market change.
The story of this sector has been one that demonstrates perfectly the Apollo Investment Cycle as we have seen the move from Value to Re-rating and Growth. We now have a group of low volatility Re-rating and Growth stocks – otherwise known as Quality and as we look at the group today we see the majority showing Accelerator Long signals to fully support the investment case that investors have been buying into.
As we start a new Smart Alpha “Sprint period” for out S&P500 based Strategy, it is worth reviewing how we have performed so far this year.
In the Spring of 2022 European Banks started to generate Accelerator long signals, slowly but surely, one by one until the sector itself lit up in a green tinge from April – June and here we are today coming out of a positive earnings season, seeing the sector re-rating.
So, when asked the question ‘Why did you own BP?’ you point at the image of the Apollo Investment Cycle. Answering the more difficult question, ‘Why did you not own BP during the last 2 years ?’ That’s more awkward.
At Libra we think differently and deliver the best user experience for Active equity investors applying the years of experience and understanding that we have in equity markets. We not only know what information is going to make a difference to client performance but provide the best experience.
It’s the big calls that make the big difference to both Equity and Cross Asset investors and we’ve been doing this successfully for years.