Investment decision systems vendor MSCI has launched a new solution, MSCI Barra Peer Analytics, aimed at providing factor-based analysis of hedge funds, officials say. The new offering delivers insight into the investment strategies and performance of 6,500 of the largest US mutual funds over five years.
“Factor investing is gaining increasing attention with a record number of factor-based ETFs [exchange traded funds] and indexes being introduced into the market,” says Mehmet Bayraktar, head of equity analytics research at MSCI, in a statement. “But until now, it has been difficult for institutional investors and asset managers to assess the performance, exposure and risk contribution of factors in their funds and investment strategies. Peer Analytics offers holdings-based analysis and insight into funds’ positions and the factors affecting them.”
Peer Analytics is able to generate deep factor analysis of any mutual fund by using MSCI Barra Portfolio Manager and MSCI Barra Equity Model, as well as the recently introduced US Equity, which includes Systematic Equity Strategies (SES), officials say.
SES, when represented as factors in risk models, “allow investment managers to better understand and monitor the sources of risk and return in equity portfolios while capturing volatility and correlation among stocks consistent with the portfolio’s investment horizon – be it short, medium or long-term,” according to a company statement.
“This is the latest example of our research driven innovation agenda,” says Peter Zangari, managing director and head of Analytics for MSCI, in a statement. “This new tool will enable investment managers to better understand their competitive landscape and identify the main drivers of risk and performance of any mutual fund and can be used by asset owners and fund-of-fund managers to help them significantly improve their manager evaluation and selection processes,” Zangari says.
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