The Big Structural Upside In Japanese Equities

by | Feb 1, 2015 | Market Insights Alerts

Since late 2012, coinciding with the election of reformist Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Japanese equity markets have surged nearly 70% (in local currency) in the past two years. Yet ‘Abenomics’, as the set of ambitious and bold fiscal and monetary policies pursued by the Abe Administration have been dubbed, have thus far failed to move the appetites of Japanese household savings. But there is reason to believe that Japan is on the precipice of reordering its domestic savings structure as soon as this year, with potentially significant implications for its equity markets.

Fis Group Employee Wins Prominent Philadelphia-Based Award

by | Nov 12, 2014 | FIS Press Releases, Xponance® Press Release Previous

PHILADELPHIA, PA, December 11, 2014 – We are proud to announce that FIS Group’s Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer, Shelley Simms, is among the Philadelphia Business Journal’s 2014 Corporate Counsel Award winners. Ms. Simms received her award today at a well-attended event held at the Union League of Philadelphia.

Will Emerging Markets Continue To Dance When The Fed Stops Playing?

by | Oct 1, 2014 | Market Insights Alerts

There is no shortage of prognostication on which assets/ strategies will be most/least impacted as the Fed and the BOE become less accommodative, and how they will be affected. How we answer both questions will be critical to performance over the next year or so. This paper evaluates the likely path and impact of Fed tightening with specific focus on the counterbalancing effects of asynchronous monetary policies globally and the likely impact of Fed tightening on EM risk assets.

View Q4, 2014 Webinar

by | Sep 26, 2014 | Webinars

Tina Byles Williams, CEO/CIO of FIS Group leads a wide-ranging discussion on FIS Group’s view of geopolitical, demographic and macroeconomic trends shaping risk and investable opportunities for institutional investors.
The panel moderator Sam Austin, III, SVP Director of Marketing and Client Service (FIS Group) and Ms. Byles Williams conducted this discussion as a part of FIS Group’s third annual Investment Symposium. The event was held on September 26, 2014 in Philadelphia.
FIS Group, Inc. is an 20-year old Philadelphia based institutional asset management firm that focuses on investing in long-only global and international equity strategies.

Arabian Nights: Mysteries On The Frontier

by | Sep 1, 2014 | Market Insights Alerts

In the first half of 2014, the MSCI Frontier Markets Index substantially outperformed its actively managed peer group. The degree of this outperformance is deeply ahistorical for major equities classes and poses several implications for manager selection and evaluation. This paper examines the unique structure of this market rally in an effort to better understand the frontier markets environment, assess the complicated interplay between index structure and performance measurement, and discusses how allocators should evaluate and respond to these special circumstances.

Liquid Holdings Joins Fis Group Ecosystem Of Service Providers Dedicated To Helping Emerging Investment Managers

by | Apr 17, 2014 | FIS Press Releases, Xponance® Press Release Previous

Liquid Holdings Group, Inc. LIQD a provider of a single platform that integrates order, execution, and risk management as well as reporting and shadow NAV in the cloud for the financial services community, today announced it will be among the first group of approved service providers included in the FIS Group Ecosystem. FIS Group, an innovative leader in sourcing and building emerging manager portfolios, created the Ecosystem to assist talented entrepreneurial portfolio managers in the formation and strengthening of new asset management firms.

Ecosystem Webinar Presentation

by | Mar 1, 2014 | Webinars

Facilitating opportunity
• Grow and diversify the pool of talented entrepreneurial managers to the benefit
of the asset management industry
• Support entrepreneurial efforts of talented investment managers
• Increase FIS Group’s first mover track record from 25% to 50%
of all funded firms
• Funded entirely by revenue generated from
FIS Group’s core business
• Services provided at no cost to the managers

Pain & Gain: What Happens Now That Emerging Markets Have Submerged?

by | Feb 4, 2014 | Market Insights Alerts

During a rather sobering January, several clients wondered whether we were maintaining our generally bullish sentiment on G3 equity markets discussed in our mid-month market outlook presentation. Thus far (January 30, 2014), that conviction has admittedly been severely tested with the Dow down 4.39%; the S&P 500 down 2.39%; the Russell 2000 down 2.09%; MSCI EAFE down 3.57% and Emerging Markets down by a whopping 6.61%. First, let’s recall the highlights of our 2014 strategy report:

From Versus to Versatilit​y: Exploring the Cyclicalit​y of Active & Passive Management

by | Sep 26, 2013 | Webinars

Panelist Information: N/A
Duration: 51 minutes
Description: This interactive webinar discussion will be led by FIS Group’s Founder and CIO, Tina Byles Williams. The discussion will highlight the actionable implications from our recently published white paper entitled, “Is Active Equity Management Alpha on Permanent or Temporary Disability?” Additionally, the paper’s models have been updated for this discussion, and Tina will reveal whether the updates had a significant effect on the original conclusions. Tina will close this webinar by providing participants with a peek at what FIS Group’s market and risk models are forecasting for 4th Quarter.

The topics to be discussed during the webinar include the following:

• Evidence pointing to the cyclical nature of periods when either active or passive management are in favor rather than a permanent “new normal” where active U.S. large-cap managers struggle to beat their benchmarks;

• Updates on several of the conclusions published in the original paper and their implication for active managers in a time of anticipated Fed tapering and slowing of corporate profit growth;

• The uncertainty of whether the ‘Risk On, Risk Off’ trading environment of the last five years will persist or give way to a renewed premium on stock picking;

• FIS Group’s forecast for the 4Q 2013 market environment and our view on investment opportunities for capital allocators and equity managers for the remainder of the year.

Is Active Equity Management Alpha On Permanent Or Temporary Disability?

by | Apr 1, 2013 | Market Insights Alerts

In 2011, FIS Group published a research paper which analyzed the drivers of entrepreneurial (or smaller) manager outperformance in US equity strategies from 2006-2010.1 While the study illustrated out-performance for five out of seven long-only equity investment styles offered through smaller managers/strategies (based on assets under management (AUM)) relative to their larger manager peers, it also detected the apparent beginnings of diminishing excess returns to fundamental active equity management strategies in the post-financial crash period. The most marked erosion of return has been observed among active Large Growth and Large Core products. By the end of 2012, the S&P 500 Index had risen over 100% since the market bottom in March 2009; but as a class, U.S. Large Cap active managers have been underperforming the market benchmark with a tenacity that is troubling. The paper analyzes several key questions including:

Survival Of The Nimble

by | Apr 1, 2011 | Market Insights Alerts

The three to five years ending December 31, 2010 have challenged many active long only (and long-short) equity managers’ ability to produce alpha, particularly if their investment decisions are based on the intrinsic fundamental characteristics of individual stocks. As a manager of Entrepreneurial managers1 , the majority of whom employ this type of investment approach, FIS Group conducted research on the major factors driving the impairment of excess return observed over the last five years. Additionally, we examined whether the performance advantage of Entrepreneurial managers over their Established manager peers (by investment style and market capitalization) observed in our and others’ prior research had altered as a result of the changing macroeconomic and market environments. Our conclusions are as follows:

Performance Drivers For Emerging Managers

by | Dec 1, 2006 | Market Insights Alerts

The purpose of this study is to determine whether there are significant relationships between asset levels that traditionally determine a manager’s status as emerging and various measurements of risk-adjusted return. Those measurements include the Information Ratio, Sharpe Ratio and Sortino Ratio. Additionally, the study attempts to evaluate the impact of certain salient characteristics of the firm universe, such as portfolio concentration (as measured by average number of portfolio securities), degree of trading activity (as measured by portfolio turnover) and number of research analysts and portfolio managers.