Scientific Beta

Defensive equity should be a serious consideration for multi-asset investors who fear that their current exposure to fixed income is offering very low returns, or are concerned about the performance of fixed income in an inflationary macro environment. This webinar demonstrates how investors can significantly reduce equity portfolio drawdown while also providing better overall risk-adjusted return through well diversified and robust exposure to the low volatility risk factor. 

Overview

Defensive equity should be a serious consideration for multi-asset investors who fear that their current exposure to fixed income is offering very low returns, or are concerned about the performance of fixed income in an inflationary macro environment. We will demonstrate how investors can significantly reduce equity portfolio drawdown while also providing better overall risk-adjusted return through well diversified and robust exposure to the low volatility risk factor. 

• Traditional defensive solutions based on minimum volatility or low volatility strategies are unfortunately not truly defensive in periods of high market volatility, at a time when lower risk is needed most. To address this volatility risk, Scientific Beta provides a highly defensive strategy through a cost efficient risk control mechanism that harnesses innovations in volatility forecasting that effectively smooth-out the impact of spikes in volatility. This feature provides very strong capital protection compared to more traditional defensive strategies and is a very powerful alternative to fixed income for multi-asset investors.
  
  
• Traditional defensive strategies also suffer from high carbon exposure compared to a cap-weighted index because these strategies overweight low risk sectors such as utilities which include companies with a high carbon exposure. This high carbon exposes these types of strategies to climate risk. Scientific Beta offers its defensive strategy with a sharp reduction in carbon exposure compared to traditional defensive strategies and cap-weighted indices without sacrificing the defensive properties of the strategy.

Hosts

The webinar was hosted by:

Simon Karaban, Senior Vice President, SGX Index Services
Simon Karaban is Senior Vice President of SGX Index Services at Singapore Exchange (SGX). He joined SGX in March 2013 and has led the development and build of the index business for SGX, known as SGX iEdge. More recently he has assumed the responsibility for leading the Scientific Beta business development responsibilities across the global asset management, investment bank and wealth management customer channels. Prior to SGX, Mr. Karaban was the Director of Research and Design for S&P Dow Jones Indices based in Hong Kong, where he led the R+D initiatives for indices across asset classes for the Asia Pacific region. Prior to S&P he worked for Morningstar as a Product Manager for the research data business, developing and commercialising research data solutions for institutional clients. Mr. Karaban graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Economics. He also holds a Masters in Finance from the University of Technology, Sydney.

Eric Shirbini, Global Research and Investment Solutions Director at Scientific Beta
Eric Shirbini, PhD, is Global Research and Investment Solutions Director with Scientific Beta. Prior to joining Scientific Beta in 2011, Eric worked for close to twenty years as a quantitative analyst for investment banks including UBS, BNP Paribas and Nomura International. During this time he worked on a diverse range of topics including multi-factor models, fundamental stock valuation, equity market indices, portfolio construction and portfolio trading. At Nomura International, he served as Director of Quantitative Research and at BNP Paribas, he managed a team of analysts who were responsible for the Global Equity Research Database. He has also served for over twenty years on index management committees. He holds a B.Sc. and a Ph.D. from University College London and an MBA from CASS Business School.

Date/Time

Thursday 27 May, 2021 at 4.00pm Singapore Time / 10.00am CEST.