Scientific Beta

Index Universe: "The body has been a great proponent of index transparency and has made several calls this year for users to insist on full transparency. Most recently, EDHEC made headlines when it announced that it would offer investors access to free data on a wide range of so-called smart beta indices."

Index Universe 01/07/2013

"(...) European think tank EDHEC Risk Institute has spoken out on the International Organisation of Securities Commission’s (IOSCO’s) recent guidelines for exchange traded funds, saying that it has side-stepped the issue of index transparency. (...) EDHEC-Risk further argues that informed use of indices requires not only clear summary information on index objectives and key construction principles, but also complete transparency on both index methodology and historical data on index values, constituents and weights. The body has been a great proponent of index transparency and has made several calls this year for users to insist on full transparency. Most recently, EDHEC made headlines when it announced that it would offer investors access to free data on a wide range of so-called smart beta indices. This made several commercial index providers argue that data provision is part of the commercial business model and necessarily paid for. (...)"