Parametric

How will potential trends in inflation, the US dollar and supply deficits across many raw material markets affect the environment for investing in commodities?

Investors may be at a crossroad in early 2025. US equities have recovered from the 2022 bear market with two exceptional years of +25% returns.

US equity markets rallied just enough to round out 2024 with all four quarters posting positive returns. The S&P 500® Index finished the fourth quarter up 2.41%, bringing the year’s total return to 25.02%.

Reflecting ongoing uncertainty around inflation and the trajectory of monetary policy, yield volatility posed challenges in 2024. Yet it also highlighted the importance of tax-efficient strategies like loss harvesting in fixed income portfolios.

Direct indexing has been around for more than 30 years, yet many people still don’t know what it is or how it continues to grow and evolve.

As investors continue to step out of cash and potentially rebalance out of equities following their strong performance, we expect bonds to play a larger role in diversified portfolios next year.

In an actively managed portfolio, there’s no way to escape capital gains taxes altogether. But understanding the importance of tax efficiency is crucial to long-term success for investors and advisors.

In an equity market that has mostly moved straight up this year, the logical question is, how have we been realizing losses? Our analysis of potential tax benefit1 may provide the answer.

When it comes to personalized investment strategies, multiple perspectives come into play: the client, the provider and the advisor.

A year-round focus on taxes can unlock value for investors in higher brackets—and it can help advisors prove their own value.

As the year winds down, many investors focus on year-end charitable giving and tax planning. Finding a charity and donating money is the easy part. Taking slightly different approaches to gifting can yield dramatically different results from a tax perspective.

Volatile interest rates have spurred investment capital into motion. Clients often ask where they should allocate on the yield curve.

Commodity returns are hard to predict, yet all commodities have something in common—prices that tend to return to their long-run average, a characteristic described as mean reversion. For investors, this behavior could offer an exciting opportunity to improve long-term performance potential.

Taxes can have a major impact on the long-term growth of a portfolio. Find out how continuous, thoughtful tax management can help investors maximize their wealth.

Here we dispel three common myths about elections and investments, demonstrating why we think sticking to a long-term investment plan might be a better path to success than trying to predict political cycles.

We often write about the opportunity for fixed income investors to lock in relatively attractive long-term rates. And we would argue that investment consultants and financial advisors have no more important charge than to convince their clients to take advantage of this while they still can.

Elevated budget deficits imply growing US Treasury issuance. Receding demand from central banks could leave more price-sensitive buyers to pick up the slack. Who are the buyers of US government debt, and how is the market responding? In part two of our series, let’s examine Treasury market supply and demand.

Active management can lead to high portfolio turnover and a higher tax bill. Wealth managers might feel that an active strategy could be too inefficient for clients who are sensitive to taxes. Find out how implementing a core-satellite portfolio with a direct indexing core may improve tax efficiency.

For taxable investors, an appreciating portfolio can be a mixed blessing. But regular loss harvesting isn’t the only way to reduce your portfolio’s tax bill, especially as its value rises. We share some important tax-management techniques for the future.

Many investors hold a concentrated stock position that represents a large percentage—typically 10% to 20%—of their overall portfolio value. Let’s review the risks of concentrated positions and then survey some of the possible solutions.

Ongoing budget deficits linger amid the post-COVID economic recovery. While markets appear unconcerned now, the accumulation of debt may exhaust investor patience. Anxiety about the sustainability of the nation’s debt could escalate with the upcoming elections in November. In part one of our series, let’s look at fiscal policy and Treasury debt.

Market expectations for Federal Reserve rate cuts in 2024 have shifted dramatically, from six cuts expected at the start of the year, to barely one or two at this writing. Here’s why we think the US economy’s resilience and the year-to-date increase in yields may prolong an attractive opportunity in fixed income.

As we move into the second half of 2024, let’s take a look at a familiar market dynamic that’s often misunderstood in commodity investing: Current inventory levels may be much tighter than futures curves are signaling.

Over the past 18 months, investment grade (IG) corporate credit spreads have narrowed considerably in response to solid fundamentals and a strong economy. Given the tight spread levels, should investors reconsider the attractiveness of owning corporate bonds and instead buy Treasury securities?

Recent challenges from higher rates and banking turmoil are well known to investors in preferred securities, but the performance of this asset class relative to other alternatives in fixed income may not be. Here’s why we think preferreds continue to offer attractive total return potential and a tax-advantaged income stream.

If you’re not sure what direct indexing means, you’re not alone. Even after the recent growth, direct indexing remains relatively unknown. As our compliance team never fails to remind us, you can’t invest directly in an index. So what exactly is direct indexing?

What do people really mean when they talk about impact investing? Typically they’re referring to investments made with the intention of generating measurable social or environmental benefits in addition to financial return.

For many investors and financial advisors, December is the big month for tax-loss harvesting. But there can be negative consequences because of the wash-sales rules. A more effective way to manage taxes is harvesting losses all year long.