Scientific Beta

Funds Europe: "Eric Shirbini, global product specialist at ERI Scientific Beta, the EDHEC-Risk Institute initiative that focuses on smart beta design and implementation, draws attention to the group’s recent work in which the quality factor is redefined. In the past six months, ERI Scientific Beta has introduced two indices focused on high profitability and low investment, which Shirbini says are “a much more effective way of investing in quality”."

Funds Europe September 2015

"(…) Eric Shirbini, global product specialist at ERI Scientific Beta, the EDHEC-Risk Institute initiative that focuses on smart beta design and implementation, draws attention to the group’s recent work in which the quality factor is redefined. In the past six months, ERI Scientific Beta has introduced two indices focused on high profitability and low investment, which Shirbini says are “a much more effective way of investing in quality”. He expects these factors to gain further popularity with investors in the coming months and notes that, year–to-date, the high profitability factor (companies with strong profit margins) has outperformed the market-cap weighted index by 2.09%. In comparison, the low investment factor – companies that tend not to reinvest a lot of their earnings – has been flat compared to market cap-weighted indices. Generally, Shirbini says, low investment companies are conservative with a very high cost of capital and they can provide a higher return over the long term. In line with the market’s growing sophistication, another focus at ERI Scientific Beta is the rise of multi-beta and, most recently, multi-strategy products. (...)"