June 2025 Update
June 1, 2025 – Amid a fair amount of market tumult, we wrote two months ago that the best course of action was to stay invested in roughly the same portfolios that we’ve had throughout, and let the market stabilize. This stabilization started in May as many of 2025’s laggards rallied, including, at long last, […]
QuantStreet Performance June 2025
5/31/2025 — The following analysis shows the performance of QuantStreet’s separately managed account strategies against benchmarks. The analysis starts on the launch date of each separately managed account strategy. Strategy Summary QuantStreet Strategy Start Date Risk Level Fee (bps) Balanced 8/16/2023 60/40 40 Core 12/1/2021 85/15 40 Aggressive 11/17/2022 95/5 40 All performance is shown […]
What’s Happening with the Dollar?
May 16, 2025 — Since the beginning of 2025, the dollar is down a little over 8% relative to a basket of foreign currencies. This represents a small bounce off its lows from mid-April (at which point the dollar was down over 10% from its January high). While the dollar has been weak all year, […]
May 2025 Update
May 1, 2025 – While the S&P 500 index was almost unchanged in April, the dollar remained extremely weak, ending the month down over 4%. Since the beginning of February 2025, the S&P 500 index is down 6%, though this reflects a large bounce off the early-April lows. The dollar, on the other hand, is […]
QuantStreet Performance May 2025
5/1/2025 — The following analysis shows the performance of QuantStreet’s separately managed account strategies against benchmarks. The analysis starts on the launch date of each separately managed account strategy. Strategy Summary QuantStreet Strategy Start Date Risk Level Fee (bps) Balanced 8/16/2023 60/40 40 Core 12/1/2021 85/15 40 Aggressive 11/17/2022 95/5 40 All performance is shown […]
The Gold Investment Thesis Revisited
4/20/2025 — We wrote last year that gold typically does well when the Fed begins a monetary easing cycle. Since that time, the Fed has cut its interest rate target by 1%. And gold (IAU) has been one of the best performing asset classes with gains outstripping the S&P 500 index (SPX), Treasuries (VGIT), Nasdaq […]
Narrative Epidemics
4/4/2025 — To go along with my LinkedIn post on this topic, here are close-ups of the charts from Google Trends. And here is a figure from Shiller’s paper:
April 2025 Update
April 2, 2025 – To summarize the market action of March of 2025 in one chart: U.S. stocks (SPX) did poorly, international stocks (especially Europe, VGK) did well in dollar terms, and gold (IAU) did spectacularly well. The main culprit appears to market concerns about the Trump administration’s tariff policies. President Trump’s 4pm tariff announcement […]
QuantStreet Performance April 2025
4/1/2025 — The following analysis shows the performance of QuantStreet’s separately managed account strategies against benchmarks. The analysis starts on the launch date of each separately managed account strategy. Strategy Summary QuantStreet Strategy Start Date Risk Level Fee (bps) Balanced 8/16/2023 60/40 40 Core 12/1/2021 85/15 40 Aggressive 11/17/2022 95/5 40 All performance is shown […]
Downside Protected Strategies: Relative Value
March 18, 2025 — In a recent piece, we analyzed the construction of downside protected strategies. Here we propose a measure of the relative attractiveness of these strategies over time and examine their historical performance. To briefly recap, using one-year T-bills and call options (or using the underlying stock and one-year put and call options), […]