Evan Frazier, CFA, CAIA
Senior Research Analyst
The beginning of 2022 represented a change of pace for equity investors, as increased geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty drove the S&P 500 to its first negative quarter in two years. In light of recent performance trends and the potential for continued asset price fluctuation, market participants may be interested in assessing the viability of strategies with lower risk profiles that still offer the potential for long-term gains similar to those of the S&P 500. One such strategy is low volatility equity investing. Though it has fallen somewhat out of favor in recent years, low volatility is a generally accepted risk premia factor (akin to value, size, quality, etc.), meaning investors can theoretically expect to earn excess returns by allocating to lower volatility equities over the long run. This newsletter seeks to understand the rationale and evidence for this premium, explain recent performance of low volatility stocks, and examine the prospects of the style going forward.
Read > Low Volatility: Factor or Fad?
11.30.2023
The holiday spending frenzy is well underway as some of the biggest shopping days of the year, including Black Friday…
11.16.2023
October proved tumultuous for investors as all major U.S. equity indices were negative and the CBOE VIX Index, which serves…
11.08.2023
Earlier this year, the regional banking crisis and eventual collapses of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, First Republic Bank, and…
11.01.2023
U.S. equities declined for the third consecutive month in October amid an environment of higher yields and underwhelming earnings reports…
10.13.2023
This video is a recording of a live webinar held on October 26 by Marquette’s research team, featuring in-depth analysis…
10.26.2023
Coming into 2023, investors were cautiously optimistic about 2023 market returns; cautious considering the broad losses across asset classes during…
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