Alternative Data

There is no sugarcoating it. January was a lousy month for the market. Many pundits are certain that this is the beginning of a yearlong downturn. Other experts are calling this a dip and a buying opportunity. In the type of choppy market that may lie ahead and given the steep price-return decline of close to -7% in S&P 500 ETFs in January, it might be time to move some money from market-cap weighted index funds into some actively managed value-and-quality strategies geared to hold up better in volatile markets. In the following article, Herb Blank, Senior Quantitative Analyst at ValuEngine compares 6 Actively managed value ETFs to help find the ones best suited for weathering potential market turmoil.

Axiomatic Data’s ThriveScores™ are used as an important measure of the Social ESG factor and have been shown to be valuable long-term indicators of financial and stock market performance. ThriveScores range between 0 and 1000 and a high ThriveScore usually points to strong stock market performance. It’s rare that a company will have a score of 1000, but several companies have achieved this. The factors that contribute most heavily are employee growth and growth in employer contributions to employee pension plans. At the end of 2021 only 10 companies in the Russell 3000 had ThriveScores of 1000.

The following is part 2 of an extract from a white paper, written for select hedge fund clients by StreetFeeds client Vision Research, a boutique SPAC Research firm. This paper, which has been embargoed until now for their client’s exclusive use, details the SPAC process from end to end and shares key points of what makes a SPAC a good short or long investment opportunity.

A recent ruling by The New York State Department of Financial Services, has major implications for asset capture in the ETF industry. The President of BlackRock, Robert S, Kapito, said during the company’s Jan. 14 earnings call that BlackRock is “very excited about the fact that insurers now will use more ETFs to represent their bond Portfolio.” BlackRock is the sponsor of iShares and likely to be among the largest beneficiaries of the new ruling. Full details from Herb Blank at ValuEngine, as always, analyzing what you need to know.